James Franco’s been extra quiet since The Interview mess. He’s still very active on Instagram but hasn’t pulled out any stuntqueening stops. It’s been two whole weeks since he posted a shirtless selfie, and his heart clearly wasn’t in that shot. Maybe we’re seeing a new, less attention-seeking James Franco? I wouldn’t bet on it. He’s still the same guy who picked up a 17-year-old girl on Instagram and faux-apologized by calling it “bad judgment.”

Franco interviewed himself for Dot 429. Straight James and Gay James go back and forth on the subject of his sexuality. James previously said he wishes he was gay. This discussion is a little obnoxious because the two Jameses recite poetry to each other and kiss at the end, but he talks out his gender identity with himself. Some excerpts:

Gay James on his movie-star facade: “I just hide behind my movies, and try to look cool, and don’t talk about anything of substance, and just give bland answers to everything like an athlete. ‘Yeah, we played with heart out there tonight. Really brought it.'”

Gay James on his sexuality: Well, I like to think that I’m gay in my art and straight in my life. Although, I’m also gay in my life up to the point of intercourse, and then you could say I’m straight. So I guess it depends on how you define gay. If it means whom you have sex with, I guess I’m straight. In the twenties and thirties, they used to define homosexuality by how you acted and not by whom you slept with. Sailors would f*** guys all the time, but as long as they behaved in masculine ways, they weren’t considered gay.”

Straight James elaborates: “I guess I mean that I like my queer public persona. I like that it’s so hard to define me and that people always have to guess about me. They don’t know what the hell is up with me, and that’s great. Not that I do what I do to confuse people, but as long as they are confused, I get time to play.”

Straight James on his antics: “If I’m so annoying, why do they write about me? If they were truly sick of my sh*t, they would just ignore me, but they don’t. I don’t do what I do for attention; I do it because I believe in what I do. Of course, some of it is tongue-in-cheek, but that’s just a tonal thing. It’s not like I call the paparazzi on myself or anything like that; I’m just having a conversation with the public. If you don’t want to be part of the convo, check out. If you do, cool.”

Straight James to those who say he appropriates gay culture: “I say f*** off, but I say it gently. This is such a fraught issue, and I am sensitive to all its aspects. But first of all, I was not the one who pulled my public persona into the gay world; that was the straight gossip press and the gay press speculating about me. I really don’t care what people think about my sexuality, and it’s also none of their business. So I really don’t choose to identify with my public persona. I am not interested in most straight male-bonding rituals, but I am also kept from being fully embraced by the gay community because I don’t think anyone truly believes I have gay sex.”

[From Dot 429]

James is correct about his sexuality being no one else’s business. Yet he’s making it everyone’s business by discussing it (with himself) in a magazine. I believe James when he says he doesn’t call the paps. He’s rarely spotted outside of film promotion duties. Dude doesn’t feel the need to get papped because he has Instagram to satisfy his narcissistic fix. Does Franco appropriate gay culture? That’s a tough question.

Photos courtesy of WENN