14 DAY TRIAL // It’s been established already that this year’s edition of the Oscars was the worst in the history of the awards show. Part of the blame lies with host James Franco, the consensus seems to be. A possible explanation for his poor performance at the Oscars has emerged.
As we also noted the other day, one of the most popular theories after the Oscars was that Franco was too stoned to be able to get involved in the show, no matter how hard Anne Hathaway tried to get him to interact with her.
Another theory was that Franco simply believed that he was too “cool” for the awards show and that, because of it, he believed he could do what he pleased with it – but this one was less popular with viewers.
As it turns out, Franco was simply exhausted and this is why there were many moments when he seemed to space out smack in the middle of his hosting duties, E! Online writes.
“James does not drink or do drugs ever,” the actor’s rep says for the e-zine. Several other sources at the Oscars confirm that Franco is not the party-type and that he rarely, if ever at all, drinks or smokes weed.
“He was ‘exhausted’ because he had spent several weeks flying back and forth from the East Coast to LA to rehearse on weekends. By the time Sunday rolled around, one source said, ‘he was going on 20-hour days four days in a row’,” E! writes.
Then again, Franco’s critics say, he had known for a very long time that he was up to host the Oscars and this is actually the biggest event in the movie industry, so he should have taken some measures to ensure this didn’t happen.
Director Danny Boyle says that he too believed Franco was a stoner when he first saw him – but was then proven wrong.
“I wasn’t sure at first. We met him and he was so relaxed – he looked stoned to me. People say that about him. But he’s not. In fact, he’s abstemious,” the famous director explains.
In the end, the two worked together on the critically acclaimed “127 Hours,” which also landed Franco an Oscar nomination for Best Actor this year. He lost to Colin Firth of “The King’s Speech.”