Justin Kelly, the director of the sordid new drama King Cobra, insists James Franco is “wildly progressive,” and isn’t actually gay-baiting his audience, as many critics have suggested.
Franco himself intimated that he was something of a “c*ck tease” and “a little gay” in a recent Vulture interview.
Even before he’d met Franco, Kelly said he’d “heard the conversation from within the gay community, which was typically very negative and skeptical. That he’s taking roles from gay actors, or what have you.”
Talking to The Daily Beast, Kelly’s take on Franco is intriguing:
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For an actor of his caliber to say that he picks roles based on character and story, and sexuality is secondary, is a good thing. It’s wildly progressive.”
“The whole point of what I feel like the gay community’s goal [is], to be quote-unquote ‘normal’, is having actors do what he does.”
