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• The Stoner Movie Hall of Fame, by Peter Travers
James Franco doesn't mind telling you what he is doing with the rest of his summer vacation. He just doesn't want Seth Rogen to know. This is a little awkward since his Pineapple Express co-star is sitting next to him. The duo have already had quite the season. They sparked up a comatose MTV Movie Awards by lighting up a fake joint on camera while promoting their new stoner opus. MTV panned wide, and a microscandal was born. Franco has since graduated from UCLA with a degree in English. His senior thesis was an episodic novel set in his hometown of Palo Alto, California. Rogen, by contrast, accidentally broke the nose of a stuntman on his next film, Observe and Report. His summer project was writing a script exploring the touching relationship between a superhero and his valet. You can see why Franco's worried about Rogen's reaction. In Pineapple Express, the two play against type, with Franco portraying homely pot dealer Saul Silver, while Rogen depicts Dale Denton, a slightly more responsible process server. Together, they go on the lam, eventually discovering fraternal love amid a crucifix-shaped joint, machine guns and an extremely resilient Daewoo Lanos.
But that's a movie. Today, in Beverly Hills, they revert to their respective types; Rogen is the say-anything stoner with a heart of gold. Franco is cautious by comparison. Franco has recently found his inner self-deprecator, and he good-naturedly talks about problems down at quality control with his films. The conversation turns to the late and unlamented Flyboys. Rogen offers some sage advice. "I think you should avoid any film with the word 'boys' in it," says Rogen. "I learned that with Fanboys. Just skip 'boys' movies."
The two crack up, but Franco still doesn't want to say where he's going in August. He swears he is not embarrassed.
"I just don't want to say it in front of him," says Franco, jerking a finger toward his friend. He flashes the killer grin that launched a thousand detention fantasies. But the smile quickly fades, and he doesn't cough up the goods.
"Do it, James," says Rogen, his '07 Jew-fro replaced by a security-guard buzz cut. "I need to know. I promise. I won't laugh."
Franco proceeds.
"I'm going to Paris to learn French. I eventually want to get a Ph.D. in literature, and a lot of the programs want you to be able to read in two languages."
Franco glances at his pal with worry. Rogen gives his best "I'm listening" nod. Franco continues.
"Then I'm going to be collaborating with an artist named Carter. It's on an installation he's doing at an art gallery."
Silence. Rogen furrows his brow, looks at Franco and solemnly nods his head.
"That's cool."
Franco exhales.
But then Rogen's straight face deserts him. Out comes his giant bear of a laugh.
"No, it is cool, but it's also a little gay."
Franco blushes and laughs himself.
"See? I knew that was a mistake."
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Predicting what will be the summer-defining comedy is not exactly regression analysis. There are no statistical models or postulates. Just last year, some Hollywood types actually thought Hot Rod would be the line-quoting summer hit, not Rogen's Superbad. Those Hollywood types are now working at the Beverly Center Chipotle.
Still, Pineapple Express seems to have all the components for multiple multiplex viewing. Franco and Rogen playing leapfrog while high and Franco driving a car with his foot through a Slushee-covered windshield will be re-enacted at a thousand freshman-orientation sessions. The supporting parts are expertly cast, particularly The Office's Craig Robinson as a sensitive killer who likes to soak his hands in food. And then there's a "Holy shit, who the hell is that guy?" performance by Danny McBride as Red, Franco and Rogen's oft-shot, oft-left-for-dead sidekick. Oh, yeah, and Rogen and Franco have a tender chemistry reminiscent of a short-bus Butch and Sundance.
That might be the movie's biggest surprise. While Rogen and Franco have known each other for a decade, their journey to Pineapple Express was not a direct flight. The two first met as members of the talented ensemble that Paul Feig and Judd Apatow assembled in 1999 for the television show Freaks and Geeks, an hour-long dramedy. Franco had become interested in acting his senior year in high school and had recently quit college to pursue acting full time. He was practicing his foreign accents on girls pulling up to his McDonald's drive-in window around the time he was cast as antihero Daniel Desario.
Apatow insists he didn't know what he had until after Franco was cast. "All the women on the show were whispering about how good-looking Franco was," Apatow recalls. "I didn't get it until [my wife] Leslie said, 'He's the hot guy you made out with at the gas station in high school.' "
Rogen was cast as Ken Miller, basically burnout comic relief. But his role got larger as the show's writers fell in love with his bemused line readings. Rogen and Franco were always friendly, but Franco was 21, four years older than Rogen. The two didn't exactly have the same worldview.
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"I think I was taking things a little too seriously," says Franco. The recollection makes Rogen laugh. "I remember we would start smoking weed, and you'd go stand on the other side of the room," says Rogen. "Then you would just leave."
Franco was playing a misunderstood antihero, and he may have confused TV and reality. Apatow had to take Franco aside midway through the show's only season and show him the difference between his audition Desario and mid-season Desario.
"Judd was really nice about it," remembers Franco. "He said, 'Look, you're not Robert De Niro. Stop trying to be De Niro.' I looked at that audition tape, and I thought I was acting so stupid and goofy, but that's what he wanted."
Rogen and Franco would eventually bond over an awkward moment that would not seem out of place in an Apatow film. The Freaks and Geeks set was awash in hormones and teenage intrigue. Co-stars Jason Segel and Linda Cardellini were secretly dating. Other cast members were split into pro- and anti-Franco cliques. Busy Philipps played Franco's girlfriend on the show. One day on set, she pushed Franco during a scene. Franco asked her to stop it. Philipps persisted, so Franco pushed back. Philipps fell over and a minimelodrama began.
Rogen and Franco remember the incident a decade later with chuckles — Franco and Philipps are now close friends — but at the moment, it seemed, like most high school moments, life-threatening. "I was the loner on the set after that," says Franco with a smile. "But Seth stood by me."
The two bonded onscreen. Rogen's Miller fell in love with a tuba player with ambiguous genitalia and then cautiously approached Franco for advice.
But the show was abruptly canceled, and Franco and Rogen headed in opposite directions. Franco was cast as James Dean in a cable movie, winning a Golden Globe for his portrayal. He co-starred with the actual De Niro in City by the Sea and was touted as the next big thing. He was quoted in Interview extolling the virtues of Proust.
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Rogen? Not so much. He co-starred in Undeclared, Apatow's next heroic, televised failure. Rogen was only 19, but he wrote some of the show's funniest episodes.
Undeclared never made it to a second season, and Rogen was getting zero work as an actor. He started concentrating on writing, out of necessity. He convinced his longtime best friend, Evan Goldberg, to move to Los Angeles from their native Vancouver, and they worked on revising a script they had started in high school that eventually became last year's Superbad, after Apatow put the two through a writing boot camp of sorts. "He asked us to come up with a hundred ideas," remembers Goldberg. We gave him 50. Some of them were awful. Seth and I were living together in this depressing apartment, and we'd write all night and sleep all day."
Apatow then tossed the two a bone. "I had this idea — what would happen if a stoner and his dealer's lives were in danger," says Apatow. "I knew it would be a guy running from an evil marijuana cartel."
Goldberg and Rogen labored on multiple drafts over the next four years. "I always thought Superbad would get made," says Rogen. "There's historical precedent for that type of movie. But Pineapple Express is a stoner film but sort of an action film. And there's a scene where we give kids handfuls of weed. I thought this would never happen."
Meanwhile, Franco was cast as Harry Osborn, Peter Parker's nemesis in the Spider-Man franchise that would eventually gross more than $1 billion. "I kept saying to myself, 'Franco got Spider-Man; I should call him,' " recalls Rogen. "But then I was like, 'Everyone is probably calling him. I'll just be one of a thousand assholes.'"
By the time Sony green-lighted Pineapple Express in 2006, Rogen and Franco were in different places. Apatow had had success with The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Rogen was set to star in Knocked Up, and Superbad was already on the docket for a summer 2007 release. Franco's career wasn't exactly tanking, but the whole next-big-thing concept was not working out. He was in the midst of a cavalcade of big-budget bombs. Frustrated by his choices, Franco had made two decisions: He was going to go back to school at UCLA, and he was going to have a little fun with his overly serious image. "I just couldn't have bad movies be all I had in my life," says Franco. "I was going nuts."
Franco was working on his novel under the tutelage of novelist Mona Simpson. He'd also gone DIY with his movie career. He directed and starred in The Ape, a funny film about a lonely man living with a talking ape. The film played at the 2005 Austin Film Festival, where Apatow happened to be in attendance. "I told him I missed the funny Franco," recalls Apatow. "I knew I wanted to find him for something. I thought Pineapple would work."
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The original casting idea was more traditional: Franco playing the lead, Rogen as stoner Saul. But then Apatow did Franco a favor. "He had us come in the office," recalls Goldberg, a co-writer on the film, "and said, 'I have a crazy idea. What if we flip the roles?' We were like, 'Yeah, that works.' "
Apatow mailed Franco the script without explicitly saying who would play whom. Even Franco assumed he was going to play Denton. "I thought Saul the dealer had a lot of interesting things going on. I was bummed a bit because that's the kind of role I love but never get."
With Apatow and Rogen serving as producers for Pineapple, the next step was finding a director. Apatow had worked with indie director Greg Mottola on Superbad to great success and wanted a similar experience with Pineapple Express. Apatow and Rogen had met the actor Danny McBride on the set of Knocked Up. Eventually, they cast McBride as Red in Pineapple Express. Just as important, they listened when McBride sang the praises of director David Gordon Green, his former college classmate. Green has spent his entire career directing critically acclaimed micro-indie films, including All the Real Girls and George Washington. Green signed on and immediately saw Franco's role as key to the film. "I remember seeing True Romance with Brad Pitt as the stoner, and everyone in the audience cheering whenever he came on the screen," says Green. "I always wanted to know — what's his life like? That's what I wanted from James."
Franco is known for his method acting. Green and Franco got in a small battle during preshoot prep over wardrobe, with Franco pushing for Saul to wear Puma sweatpants while Green argued for Guatemalan pants.
Green won that argument, but it showed how serious Franco took stonerology. Before shooting, Apatow's assistant, Andrew Epstein, and Franco spent days with pot smokers in the Los Angeles area, trying to capture the laid-back vibe. "James doesn't smoke, but he could just sit there for hours and observe and talk with the guys," says Epstein. One of the pot guys was eventually hired as a crew member so he could provide on-set guidance.
Contrary to popular opinion, making a $25 million film while actually high is frowned upon. No brain cells were damaged during actual filming. Franco adamantly insists he is a nonbaker. "It was really nasty. We used this fake weed stuff where it's weed but without the THC in it. It gave me headaches."
"The reason a lot of pot movies don't work is because they're based around 'Oh, look, everyone is really high,' " says Rogen. "That's not how I act when I'm, uh, that way, so I didn't want to act like that in the movie. Besides, he was playing the dumb pot guy, so I had to be the paranoid guy."
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Pineapple's climactic scene is equal parts Tango & Cash and John Woo's Hard-Boiled. Franco got so into a fight scene with co-star Rosie Perez that he bit her on the ass. "We asked the stunt people to show us how to shoot the guns just enough so we didn't hurt anyone," says Rogen. "But not enough to make it look like we knew what we were doing because that would be wrong."
Between takes, Franco could be found curled up with his books as he prepared for his UCLA exams. (Goldberg intends to get Franco a first edition of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow for his belated 30th birthday.) On one of the last days of shooting, Franco had a class that he could not miss, but he was scheduled to shoot some crucial DVD footage. The only solution was for Franco to be whisked to class with his stoner wig still in place.
It's taken a decade, but Franco finally has Hollywood figured out. In addition to his career pivot in Pineapple Express, he has made a series of hilarious shorts for director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell's comedic Website, Funny or Die. "I started hating my acting, so all that was left was to make fun of myself," says Franco, half joking. His turns have included a note-perfect portrayal of The Hills' Justin Bobby and a lesson he gives his brother Dave on being a thespian on green screen.
So what is he doing after his French lessons? He's sort of quitting the business.
"I'm moving to New York and going to be working on writing at Columbia and doing film at NYU," says Franco. "This is something that I really wanted to do. I know it's weird that I've finally done something I really like, and now I'm going back to school. But I've got two months off in the winter and four in the summer; I can do things then."
Rogen is definitely not going back to school. He will co-star with Adam Sandler in Apatow's next directorial project, Funny People. In the meantime, he's writing a Green Hornet script with Goldberg. "What's interesting is it's the one superhero-sidekick relationship where the sidekick becomes more famous," says Rogen. "Everyone remembers Bruce Lee as Kato. No one remembers Van Williams."
And with that, Franco and Rogen say goodbye: One to conjugate the verb être, one to pontificate on a gadget-obsessed crime-fighter. They head into a hotel lobby where publicists and fixers wait patiently for the duo. Who is the hero and who is the sidekick isn't exactly clear.
[From Issue 1058 — August 7, 2008]