That “queer thing going on” extends beyond his work with Kelly on King Cobra and I Am Michael. “It’s a queer film and and he’s had this whole queer thing going on, so ‘daddy’ seemed like the right term.”
“I couldn’t tell if he liked that or not,” Kelly laughed the next day during an interview with The Daily Beast. In fact, at the Tribeca premiere of King Cobra, Kelly referred to Franco as his “daddy.” King Cobra reunites Franco with director Justin Kelly, who also helmed last year’s indie headline maker I Am Michael, in which Franco played a gay activist who eventually renounced his homosexuality. James “some of us are tired of your gay trolling” Franco. James “why are you so obsessed with gayness?” Franco. But it’s because it’s James Franco that makes it all the more noteworthy. It’s rare for gay sex to be depicted as realistically (if ever really at all) on the big screen, let alone in a scene featuring a former Oscar nominee. On face value, the raised eyebrows are easy to understand. No, undoubtedly the scene that will people won’t stop talking about-and after King Cobra’s premiere last week at the Tribeca Film Festival, already haven’t-is when Franco is bent over a couch, getting railed by his boyfriend from behind, turning his head back as he shouts, “Fuck that ass!” It’s not even when Kerekes teams up with Harlow to murder a rival porn producer. It’s not when James Franco, who plays gay porn producer Joseph Kerekes, gets a spontaneous blowjob from his boyfriend-and escort whom Kerekes pimps out-Harlow. There’s a scene midway through King Cobra that will have people talking about James Franco.