3. James Franco Went Method On Tyrese Gibson - Annapolis
James Franco is a pretty weird guy nowadays, but there's a sense that - despite all his artistic aspirations - he doesn't take himself all to seriously. After all, he's happy to appear in comical movies like The Interview and This Is The End. There was a time, however, when James Franco took both himself and his career super, super seriously - back in 2006. You see, Franco used to aspire to be the ultimate method actor; he would inhabit his roles so fully that he would essentially put Daniel Day-Lewis to shame. Which meant that the shoot for a little seen film called Annapolis was made hell for Franco's co-star, Tyrese Gibson, who found himself on the tail end of Franco's abuse. During the shoot for movie, then, which takes place at a naval academy and focuses on boxing, James Franco acted like a total douchebag; during rehearsals for the boxing fights, he would attack Gibson for real, despite the other actor's request that he pull his punches, whilst his insistence on staying in character for the entire shoot created huge tensions. Franco regrets his behaviour, of course:
"I take full blame for any problems on that film. If he had a bad experience working with me, I was probably a jerk. I was not purposely cruel to him, but I was probably so wrapped up in my performance that I was not as friendly as I could have been."
Apparently the two have made up now, but Gibson still apparently holds a grudge. Fair.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
