The Broken Tower Gay Sex Scene With James Franco and Michael Shannon: ‘Uncomfortable’

Uncomfortable. The is how James Franco described his “The Broken Tower” gay sex scene with fellow actor Michael Shannon. In a recent interview with Vulture, Franco opened up what he and Shannon did before they took the shoot.

It was very different. Michael Shannon is an awesome actor, one of the best actors of our generation, and a good friend of mine who prides himself on being the guy who will do anything, but he was uncomfortable in that scene. I had to take him to dinner before we shot it because he was so uncomfortable … he was like, ‘We’ve gotta talk about this.’ So I went in to New York, and as soon as we sat down, he was like, ‘Aw, now I feel stupid that I’m such a wimp. All right, I’ll do it, I’ll do it.’ Once we got to set, we set up the lights and everybody else cleared the room. It was my DP and focus-puller, and that was it. We did one take, and if you look closely at the scene, you’ll see that I am pulling his face close to me because he [refused to get close], and we’re supposed to be passionately making out. And he’s a strong dude! But in the end, it worked … half-assed love scenes are the worst. Straight or gay! So I was just doing my job on [‘I Am Michael’].

James Franco has another gay sex scene with actors Charlie Carver and Zachary Quinto in the upcoming film “I Am Michael,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week.

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