NYFF: James Franco Talks Necrophilia For ‘Child Of God’
As a filmmaker James Franco is fearless, as he’s chosen to model most of his body of work after unadaptable works of literature. For Franco it’s a testament to his spirit as a fearless creator, which usually sees the MFA-meta actor having the arduous task of adapting the most daunting American classics to the screen. In the case of Cormac McCarthy’s Child Of God, Franco proves that he’s slowly embracing a middle ground, which makes a film watchable, while still staying true to the source material at hand.
Based on the 1973 novel by Cormac McCarthy, in terms of subject matter, Child of God is Franco’s darkest haunt yet as a filmmaker, and that’s saying a lot seeing as Franco has already directed As I Lay Dying, The Broken Tower, and Interior. Leather Bar. In Child of God Franco explores the madness of Lester Ballard (Scott Haze), a true hillbilly Tennessee man, who is flushed out of society. Ballard resembles that of a rabid animal on the outside, while he conflicts with raw human emotions on the inside.
Exploring how those who live out on the fringes of civilization survive, Franco brings a magnetic tour-de-force performance by Scott Haze as he descends further into madness with each frame. Throughout the 104 minutes, the audience is subjected to Lester Ballard’s violent behavior, as each act, both in the film’s structure, and at Ballard’s hand, reaches disturbing highs. From confronting town’s people with a rifle to committing necrophilia, Franco once again stands by his passions to capture the dark underbelly of society.
The Inquisitr’sNiki Cruz was on hand at the New York Film Festival to take part in a discussion with James Franco via Skype about his film Child of God.
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Discovering Child of God
FRANCO: I first read the book about seven years ago in a class at UCLA. I’ve heard people like Spielberg say that when you come across something that interests you, even if you don’t know all the reasons why you want to make it, you don’t really need to know. You can explore it through the creative process. I had the hairs tingling on the back of my neck moment, where I knew it was very dark, but there was something in there. After thinking about it, what it really is, besides being an unusual character portrait, is that it’s a way to talk about things that I think are universal. It’s a need to connect to someone outside of ourselves. It’s a need to love and be loved. It’s in an extreme an unusual way, which is through necrophilia. As a filmmaker I wanted to make something new, but something that people could relate to.
Going by the book for Child of God
FRANCO: There’s always a question of how loyal you’re willing to be to the source. We wanted to honor the source as much as we can. Almost every scene in the movie, you can find in the book, except for the scene where Lester shoots the stuffed animals. There’s more at the end of the book, that talked about Lester’s fate but essentially it seemed to me that the epilogue was relating one of Cormac McCarthy’s main themes, which is the reoccurrence of violence. I thought it was a cleaner and more poetic ending to have Lester disappearance into the wilderness. The idea is that he’s gone through all of this and his spirit is still out there.
Casting Scott Haze as the animalistic Lester Ballard
FRANCO: I’ve known Scott for over ten years. Over the ten years I saw Scott go through very dark personal things in his life. He was kind of the friend that I didn’t really want to spend much time with for a long time, because he was kind of crazy. Then he kind of came through all of that and became a better man on the other side. I thought I can have the best of both worlds, because he can draw on his personal experiences as an actor, and as a director I could depend on him to be a professional. You see this in a lot of actors where there’s one role, and they just go for it. I knew Scott was ready to do that. As soon as I cast him he went to Tennessee, where McCarthy lived, and isolated himself for three months before we shot. He met the locals, the moonshiners, and really worked on the accent, and he stayed overnight in actual caves on his own. When I got to West Virginia, where we ultimately shot, Scott was fully in character. I walked into the hotel room and it was like Lester was born. As a director I didn’t want to tamper with the performance. If it’s working just step back and let it be.
Franco’s fascination with necrophilia
FRANCO: It’s true. There’s a weird pattern. Early in my writing life, at NYU, I wrote a strange script about a man that works in a morgue and has relationships with all the bodies that come in. It’s not necrophilia but it’s convening with the dead. [LAUGHS] In my personal life I’m absolutely not attracted to dead people or anything like that. I deal with characters that are either isolated, or have a very rich imaginative life. I’m not condoning necrophilia. Lester is a stand in for someone who is unable to fit into civilized society, but he wants is a connection with another so badly. When he stumbles upon this opportunity he figures out that he can have a relationship, if he animates it with his imagination. For me necrophilia is an extreme way to talk about things that we all want; a connection with another. It’s about making the familiar unfamiliar.
Making mainstream films versus importance of fringe films
FRANCO: I found that I’m in an unusual position. I’m in this very commercial film world. I’m in the pop cultural world as a performer, but I also have these interests that are kind of tangents to that world, but don’t lie in that world. Where I can generate a lot of energy, is to bring those two worlds together. Some of the things something that’s been done before, but maybe they’ve been relegated to a more fringe outlet. Maybe it’s my place to bring some of these ideas to a mainstream outlet. Making things homogenized is dangerous. I’m not about anarchy, but we always need to question who we are, and why we are, and how we view ourselves and interact with each other. I think that’s one of the things that I try to do.
