James Franco has opened up about his much scrutinised sexuality in a new interview, saying he is “gay up to the point of intercourse”.

The actor’s sexuality has been an enigma, and he has become somewhat of a gay icon for his portrayals of gay men or taking part in homoerotic scenes and projects. From his role as Harvey Milk’s lover in Milk (2008), directing Interior. Leather Bar with Travis Mathews and his latest role as LGBT activist turned ex-gay Michael Glatze in I Am Michael – Franco tells FourTwoNine magazine that he is only “gay in his art”.

“Are you fucking gay or what?” Franco asked himself – in a unique interview where Franco actually interviewed himself. “Well, I like to think that I’m gay in my art and straight in my life.”

The actor then back tracked and implied that he had homosexual tendencies. “Although, I’m also gay in my life up to the point of intercourse, and then you could say I’m straight. So I guess it depends on how you define gay. If it means whom you have sex with, I guess I’m straight,” he explained.

“In the twenties and thirties, they used to define homosexuality by how you acted and not by whom you slept with. Sailors would fuck guys all the time, but as long as they behaved in masculine ways, they weren’t considered gay.”

He then went on to say that he wrote a poem about sexuality, which concluded with “Weird how one little blowjob/
Will make you a fag nowadays.”

When he asked himself would having sex with a guy confirm his sexuality, he answered, “Maybe sex with a guy would change things, but I doubt it. Like I said, I’m gay in my art. Or, I should say, queer in my art. And I’m not this way for political reasons, although sometimes it becomes political, like when I voted for same-sex marriage, etc. But what it’s really about is making queer art that destabilizes engrained ways of being, art that challenges hegemonic thinking.”

You can read the full article on FourTwoNine.