For some reason, Fame Pictures is trying to start something with these photos of James Franco doing press for his new film Saturday Night. According to the photo agency, Franco was looking “sweaty and unfocused” and he had what appeared to be “questionable marks” on his arms. They don’t come right out and say “heroin” but that is the subtext, and they even blew up close-ups of his arm. Like this:
“Pineapple Express” actor James Franco’s appearance at the “Saturday Night” premiere in New York City, New York on May 2, 2010 stirred up quite a few questions concerning the star’s well being. The usually strapping young performer showed up to the event looking sweaty, unfocused and could hardly keep his eyes open. Franco has always been an advocate of recreational marijuana use, but his thin frame and frighteningly questionable marks on his middle arm makes one wonder if he hasn’t started dabbling in something harder.
[From Fame Pictures]
Now, I’m not extremely knowledgeable about heroin or shooting up or anything like that. But I’m almost positive track marks don’t look like faint burn marks. I have a similar scar on one arm, and it’s from the oven. I think Franco was probably high, and he decided to bake something and he accidentally burned himself. Of course, my other possibility is that he’s self-harming, and these are old cutting scars. But I doubt James is a cutter. I like my “baking victim” theory.
That being said, Franco does not really look like the picture of health in these photos. Perhaps it’s a combination of drugs and being stretched too thin – he is finishing his Master’s and about to go in to a PhD program at Yale, all while being an in-demand actor. He needs a vacation.
UPDATE: Commenter Carrie just wrote in with a much more plausible explanation for Franco’s bruising/burns/whatever. According to Carrie, “There is actually a pretty simple explanation for those bruises – Franco has been out in Utah the last 2 months shooting Danny Boyle’s 127 hours – the story of Aron Ralston, the hiker who got trapped under a rock and saw his own arm off after 5 days! It’s the same arm & exact place where you can see those marks on his arm. (Ralston tied a tourniquet around his arm before sawing it off right at the elbow).” That does make sense!
James on May 2, 2010. Credit: Fame/RAM.
I hope it’s just jetlag.
I’m going with the stretched out too thin theory. He just seems too accomplished to waste his brain and talent on drugs.
He does look like he’s overdue for a month long nap for starters. The pictures with him in that leather coat look scary.
they do look like oven burn marks. the one also looks like maybe he gave blood!
generally, heroine addicts aren’t successful at anything– their addiction is their life.i doubt the guy could be a functioning actor and a PhD candidate if he was shooting up.
I have to admit. Never saw a track mark outside a movie.. so don’t know and glad to say I don’t
He just does not look good in the pics. not fresh.. he looks tired and his face is a bit shallow. I also don’t get the career choices he has made especially coming off a great performance in MILK
.but hey he could be just tired..
The one is definitely a vein bruise. The others? Ligature marks? I don’t know how you could burn yourself on the oven 3 times on the inner forearm.
http://uk.eonline.com/uberblog/the_awful_truth/b179030_bonus_blind_vice_which_young_stars.html
do you think this could be him?
eh track marks usually look a lot grosser than that….
I’m with crash
That is one vein bruise and three ligature marks.
Though why they would be BELOW the bruise?…
This would not shock me about Mr Franco one bit. A shame, cause I really like him (poor writing and all).
And sorry lem, but MAN do I ever have to disagree with this statement:
“generally, heroine addicts aren’t successful at anything– their addiction is their life.i doubt the guy could be a functioning actor and a PhD candidate if he was shooting up. ”
If the worlds of literature, film, theatre, fine arts, and music have taught us anything, it is that successful artists can fuction professionally at an extremely high level, even as addicts.
I have somehow managed to burn myself five times on an oven during the same cooking adventure. Believe me, if you’re clumsy enough, it’s possible! He’s incredibly bright, I had no idea he was a phd candidate. I agree that it would be very difficult to accomplish everything he’s done while on heroin.
I think I read once that track marks are the veins rotting from the inside out, so they’d go down his arm, not across. Maybe he was carrying a heavy bag in the crook of his arm & it left a mark? I do that with my grocery bags all the time.
His facial coloring doesnt look right..
Looks like a track mark on his vein to me. He looks absolutely HORRIBLE.
And, yes, Heroin addicts can accomplish things.. He is probably, at this point, not to deep into the addiction. If he continues, I’m sure we’ll find out in the coming months.
Those look like track marks from a beginning user. Also, if he is just now starting using then he would not be smart enough to cover his arms or shoot up between his toes like most well-known people. He also does not look healthy at all and its not from just smoking pot. A real shame. He was quite the handsome, talented young man.
xxx to my eyes the pic looks a little like Chace Craword and that JF looks like he was baking while baked and he forgot to pull out the oven rack to get the cake out and reached in instead.
I have had phlebotomists make my arm look WAY worse than his does just from giving blood. I have tiny veins and if they don’t know what they’re doing, they bruise me all to hell. It’s kind of embarrassing, but it’s for a good cause, so whatever.
Anyhow, I would say maybe he just gave blood, except for the fact that he looks VERY unhealthy. I have enjoyed a lot of his work and think he is a promising young actor. Not to mention he’s usually pretty easy on the eyes. Not so much here. I hope he is OK.
i highly doubt he’d be seen with rolled up sleeves showing off his track marks. i see ONE mark on his vein which could be from a blood test, a shot of medication (not of the heroin variety). man do you people jump to conclusions. true he doesn’t look very healthy but there could a myriad of reasons for that.
He probably looks tired from all of the movies he is working on, and I can imagine his education is rather demanding. If he had track marks on his arm, why would he be walking around with his sleeves up? The marks could be anything. Slow news day.
Does anybody *really* believe that James Franco was baking a damn cake? That is the silliest thing I’ve heard all day.. LOL 😀
I’d say it’s being strung out studying and researching. As for the marks on his arm, they can be burn marks. I had marks like that a few years after I burned myself with an iron.
Actually, Franco has been out in Utah the last 2 months shooting Danny Boyle’s 127 hours – the story of Aron Ralston, the hiker who got trapped under a rock and SAWED HIS ARM OFF! It’s the SAME ARM & EXACT PLACE where you can see those marks on his arm. (Ralston tied a tourniquet around his arm before sawing it off right at the elbow).
It’s really annoying that someone would put out a story like this when there is actually a pretty simple answer to why he’d be bruised & lost weight – he’s an actor filming a movie! He missed the premier of his other film, William Vincent, last weekend b/c he was out in UT filming. This could have been found out by a quick google search, but guess that’s too hard & it’s clearly more fun to just accuse someone of intravenous drug use.
Also, I was there at the talk yesterday & he was probably sweaty since it was 85 degrees in NYC and he was wearing jeans & a long shirt! His behavior during the talk was normal & he acted exactly the same way at the New Yorker talk I went to last Oct. Nothing to see here, folks…
That is a “track mark” on his vein (blood donation to heroin, who knows) … the other three look to be scratch marks from grabbing/pulling.
He has a yellow/sallow tinge to his skin (hepatitis?), his eyes are “shiny” and if he was sweating then those (together) make a pretty good case for being on heroin/a heroin user.
yea i’m not really sure how many members of hollywood that are hooked on heroin you could actually consider to be “functioning”… it isn’t a drug addiction that most people are able to control.
successful heroin addicts: brad renfro, sid vicious, jim morrison, janis joplin, to name a few.
they’re all successfully dead.
@ Sydney – thanks for the info. I can’t believe they’re doing a movie about that hiker who sawed his arm off, though. I have ZERO interest in seeing that!
He still looks sallow and under the weather to me, but that could be due to overworking. Although if he’s filming that particular movie, wouldn’t he theoretically be spending a lot of time outdoors in the SUN if he was playing a hiker? He doesn’t look like he’s seen sun in awhile. Oh well, at least now we know he’s not shooting up!
maybe he think’s being a tortured addict will improve his writing…it won’t.
i don’t know what track marks really look like so i couldn’t say but the look like old burns to me too. if you knew you had track marks would you really roll up your sleeves in a place where you’re going to be photographed?
Nooo James! He just looks a lil’ sweaty to me, which never hurt anybody. Hope that’s all it is!
@Lem
Also heroin users:
David Bowie
James Taylor
William S Burroughs
Miles Davis
Jerry Garcia
Billie Holiday
Keith Richards
Kurt Cobain
Eric Clapton
Bob Dylan
Hunter S Thompson
Not to mention the many successful non-heroin opiate users including Bela Lugosi, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, Ben Franklin, Chief Justice William Rehnquist…
The lists of just the ones we KNOW about could be so much longer.
Some—Hell most– may have had horrible demons, suicidal tendencies, and god-awful home lives. Sometimes, like with the very talented Ms Joplin, their addictions even killed them.
But they all functioned PROFESSIONALLY. Thrived, some of them. So the argument that a junkie can’t work…well it just depends what he’s working on.
That said, every time I’ve done opiates, I’ve been a pile of slow-thinking useless. So their ability to function in any way that doesn’t involve trying to follow a movie amazes the hell outta me…
@ Sydney-
Thanks for the info–the ligature mark-location did seem weird.
Was hoping the boy was into some kink maybe 😉
@Tia It’s strange he looks so pale in the pictures b/c in person it almost looked like he had a sunburn. He certainly didn’t look that pastey at the event!
Maybe he has been fluish or otherwise ill and got blood drawn. I mean…I turn a bit jaundice-y looking when I have the flu. My arms bruise like nobody’s business when I have blood drawn, too.
Meh. I think jumping to heroin is a leap at this juncture. It’s possible, sure, but this picture is hardly evidence of such a thing. I would go to “poor guy was sick and went to the doctor recently” before I would leap to heroin addiction.
Thanks for the update with the movie info. Now people can stop spreading this rumour, right now. He does look really tired though, and is obviously burning the candle at both ends with his demanding academic and acting career. Agreed on the month long nap requirement.
I doubt he’s dumb enough that if he wear shooting up he’d display his arms prominently. Probably just a bruise from something else, like that Ralston movie.
He’s awesome. LOVE James Franco.
if he’s studying medicine like it was published a short while ago, then it is easily explained. med students practice on drawing blood and setting IV’s on each other.
hope that’s the reason
@ Carrie: It must be the flashes then, washing him out. I’m glad this has all been a great big old nothing! I really enjoy his work and would like to see more.
@ Tia Agreed! Amazing how quickly these rumors get started! He looked fine at the event & the hair color, bruises, weight loss was clearly for the 127hr filming. Not even sure the film has wrapped yet, so he may be heading right back to Utah. The boy really does need some sleep – he’s been looking tired for a while now, but doesn’t seem like drugs to me. He’d hardly be as productive as he is if he had a serious problem!
I’ll admit he’s not looking his best. Maybe he’s dealing with a cold, and being a busy actor is only surviving few hours sleep. As for the marks…they seem really faint to me. I think if he was shooting up, they would look more prominent than that.
I always thought that a lot of celebrities were coming up with different places to shoot up so that they wouldn’t get caught??
Glad there is an explanation. I will probably watch that movie.
Franco is a known weedsmoker, maybe he looks a little goofy because he just had a toke or two? He isn’t doing too much heroin or he wouldn’t be keeping the school/work schedule up sucessfully. I’ve been around heroin users, they generally tend to go downhill fast. I think the other less sinister answers are probably most likely.
No one is going to convince ME that lots of people reach their creative peak while on heroin. Maybe a tiny, tiny number of people, but some of them ended up dying from it – hardly worth it. Most heroin addicts are only being creative at thinking of new ways to steal money to support their habit. It’s the worst, most disgusting, parasitic lifestyle.
Now back to James Franco – TOTALLY HOT.
They don’t look like track marks to me at all but I’ve never seen anyone with them so couldn’t say what they should look like. Just a thought but if they were, wouldn’t the marks be on the actual veins, esp the big ones?
*sigh* it’s not the smudge type marks they are talking about – it’s the obvious puncture mark above that which appears to be directly on a vein.
He’s not looking good at all, if he’s on drugs I hope he quits before its too late.
I have marks on similar spots on my arm at the moment from chemo. They don’t go horizontal, they are vertical blobs. If his marks were needle bruises they wouldn’t be shaped like that.
His look like burns from accidentally pressing against a hot, ribbed surface like if he was working on a bike or something.
I also read that he doesnt sleep properly because he has so many things to do, like you said, movies, studies, books, etc..
I think it was him who once said he didnt like to sleep.
thats not a vein bruise, and those are not track marks. if you bruise or bust open a vein, its alot more noticeable! and those are clearly not track marks, they look nothing like track marks. his face does look pretty shitty though. from the neck up id definitly say he’s a junky, but if he is, he isnt shooting it. or atleast not on his arm.
ps. if he was shooting dope, why would he roll his sleeves up at an event. usually when youre heroin addict, you dont want anyone to know.
Leave him alone. I love me some James Franco and I think he looks yummy!!! If he’s a little greasy and sweaty I’ll just give him a sponge bath. lol.
Is he right or left handed??? The marks are on the right arm, which means if injecting himself he would have had to use his left hand. That’s not easy.
I’m a recovering addict, and this is not track marks.
Veins run up and down your arms, not side to side, and definitely not in perfectly straight lines. It’s sad to see people making up things about a celebrity and then providing moronic “proof” like this. Try harder next time.
Those are not tract marks. Tract marks are round and red and you can usually see a tiny pin point hole or if it’s bad it’ll look even worse. I am not a user but I am in a relationship with a (now clean) banger.
Quietly chuckling at all the people writing ‘they don’t look like track marks to me’ – and then admitting they have never seen them!
I have. And they look just like the pics above – sorry peeps. I agree they look like someone who has just started using.
The other giveaway is the yellow green colouring on his face – especially around the mouth. As an ex-user that’s how I used to identify other users / dealers.
Also, I have known heaps of successful people (lawyers, doctors) addicted to smack. Sure they have not reached their creative peak while using – far from it, they mainly stay ‘functioning’. But trust me, even the best of minds get mixed up in this soul destroying highly addictive drug.
If i’m right, I really hope it’s an experimental phase. THis guy is a talent and has a lot more to give.
Peace.
Probably not track marks. I have seen track marks. On old junkies and new users. The bruising says maybe, but every bruise isn’t from a needle. There looks like maybe something actually on his vein, but I can’t tell. There have been many more plausible explanations than the fact that he got really high and didn’t bother to roll down his sleeves. Really though it’s hard to spot marks on new users. They normally don’t show up until well used and then it just looks like an inflamed hole. So probably not.
Also tons of people function work and even (occasionally) reach creative potential on heroin but that isn’t the common stereotype.
LOL. I did used to shoot up (heroin, Oxycontin, Dilaudid, cocaine, you name it). I’m 3 1/2 years clean though and overcoming that addiction was one of the hardest – yet most rewarding – experiences of my life. That being said, I KNOW what track marks look like. Considering that’s all I did all day every day for four years. That mark on his vein? THAT IS A NEEDLE MARK. Come on, it’s RIGHT ON THE VEIN! And I’d say he doesn’t shoot up often if he still has one spot that keeps working for him (your veins heal faster than anything on your body, but once one has been injected too many times you have to look for other sites because it’s not gonna hit) and no kidding the bruises are from a tourniquet… that’s what you use to tie off with WHILE shooting up!
When Franco were filming 127 hours and he got to the amputation-part, james actually cut himself with the knife, just to make it more real for the audience. you can actually see when he do it in the movie, it’s not much but as you can see it resulted with a little “scar”.
About the part that he looks a little tired is because james never go to sleep whenever he feels a little bit tired, as most people do. he has said that he usually wait with the sleeping part, until he “collapses” on the coach. he says it in “James Franco on James Franco” on youtube.. can’t remember which part it was but i recommend you to see them all, it’s interesting!
He’s got a busy life as a student and hollywoodactor so who can blame him for looking a little tired? 😉
And to “thetruth”:
watch 127 hours and you’ll understand why he’s got these marks. he had to wrap a freakin string around his arm and take a knife and cut a little in his arm just for the movie! don’t come here and say that you know everything just because you’ve been taking drugs for several years, it’s not always the cause.
me, myself, broke my arm two years ago and hade to put a nail in to fix it, it resulted in a scar on my wrist. and it dosen’t look good. i can understand that people think that i’ve hurt myself, but what you’re thinking is not always the truth.
LOL those are the 127 hours marks, from aputation scene. Thats why he was showing his arm in the first place.
49 out of the 52 ppl …whoever u are, take a look at your ugly arms veins bruises and then GET A LIFE + stop hating on the gentically blessed.