Alexi Wasser: I have a bunch of questions. If any are inappropriate and you don’t want to answer, just say ‘pass’.
Dave Franco: [Laughs] Pass. Great.

You also have to tell me if there’s any lipstick on my teeth at any point.
Promise. You’re good, you’re good.

Now, I wasn’t gonna ask you anything about your brother, because I thought that must be completely annoying and you must get so sick of it…
Cool.

But after watching that Five More Ways video [an interview Dave did with James for Esquire] and seeing you two in those Funny or Die ‘acting lessons’… As two actors who share the same last name, how exactly are you two different?
It’s one of those things where I almost want you to ask someone who knows the both of us to tell you that, otherwise I might come off sounding like an asshole. I’ll figure it out and get back to you. But yeah, we are very different.

What’s the worst thing about being interviewed?
The worst thing is that, when there isn’t a video component to it — because I’m kind of sarcastic and have a very dry sense of humour — a lot of the stuff I say can be misconstrued when it’s in print, and I feel like I’ve gotten into some trouble for that. You know? You make a casual remark under your breath, and it makes you sound like a prick.

Well, you’re lovely. I promise I’m not out to make you look like an asshole.
Thanks.

I’m a big fan of the short film you made with Christopher Mintz-Plasse [You’re So Hot]. Did you become friends with Christopher and Jonah Hill on Superbad?
No, I only worked on Superbad for a day. I met Chris briefly, but that’s not where we became friends. We became friends on Fright Night. On set we would play a game called ‘You’re So Hot’ where you stand ten feet apart from each other and you try to make the other person crack by saying the most homoerotic thing possible, and the goal is to make the other person laugh. So, after the movie was done, we decided that that game might make a funny short.

You also did a video called Go F*ck Yourself…
Yes. That one’s interesting, because anytime someone brings it up to me, the fact that they’re bringing it up implies that they’ve literally seen me have sex with myself. So, it’s kinda hard to know how to respond [laughs]. But I guess I knew what I was getting into and… I don’t know. I guess I’m drawn to these videos that leave people…

Questioning your sexuality?
Not knowing what to feel. You know? It’s very uncomfortable. But that video is kind of sweet at points… My buddies I’ve grown up with called me out recently; they’re like, “I can’t even imagine what people who don’t know you think of you based on these videos.” I don’t know, I guess I try not to think about it. I’m just trying to make these videos that, I guess, are original, and make people at least feel something.

Has your sexuality been questioned as a result of the videos?
[Laughs] Of course! Have you seen the videos?

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Well, I didn’t wanna come right out and say ‘are you gay’, but… are you gay?
[Laughs] No! I can say for the record that I am straight. But of course people are gonna wonder based on these videos, and I don’t blame them.

Was that your intention when you made them? ‘Yeah, I’m gonna make these crazy videos and fuck with everybody!’
No, that wasn’t the intention. That wasn’t the intention at all! The intention, like I said, was just to make something original, to bring something original to the table… and a little bit of a shock factor, I guess.

Who do you play on 21 Jump Street?
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play two undercover cops who infiltrate this high school to stop the spread of…

AIDS?
Yes, exactly. Um, no.

Go on. Sorry.
They’re trying to stop the spread of this new drug called HFS, and I play the drug dealer — who happens to be very eco-friendly, despite selling the most inorganic drug ever made…

Is this supposed to be based on some real drug that actually exists? Like, Adderall, or MDMA, or…
No, it’s completely made-up.

Tell me things girls are gonna wanna masturbate to…
Jesus Christ!

Is Johnny Depp really in the movie? Or is that all just a sham?
[Laughs] It’s all a hoax! No, he was there — for just one day.

I knew it! Just like you in Superbad!
He was a great sport! When people see the movie and see what the directors put him through… He had a great time. He stayed much longer than he needed to and he seemed like he was having a great time. He was having fun.

Tell me about your other brother — you know, the one that nobody cares about.
Tom Franco is the coolest one!

What are you listening to on your iPod right now?
I like the new Foster the People album a lot. Always Nick Drake. I’ve been listening to some old hip hop recently — I’ve been listening to a lot of N.W.A and Nas…

Born on June 12 — you’re a Gemini. Are you single?
I am.

What’s a first date with you like?
To be honest, I don’t think I really do anything special. I don’t really try to put on a face. I figure I should just try to be myself as much as possible, and if they don’t like me on the first date, then we won’t go down this road and find out things later on that maybe someone was hiding. Um, I guess I like to keep it relatively low-key. I love sushi. I’d probably go to sushi if she’s into that.

How do you break up with a girl? We can role-play to illustrate this, if you like. I’ll be the girl. Action!
If you’re gonna break up with a girl… hmmm. Alright, so I actually joked about this earlier with someone that you may know [grins].

I’m confused. So, how do you break up with a girl?
Well, you don’t do it over the phone!

Scans> 2012> Complex – Feb/March 2012 x 001

MY COMPLEX
DAVE FRNACO

The 21 Jump Street star opens up about his fears of fame and lying in his famous brother’s shadow.

Growing up, I had no intention of acting. I was pretty shy, I said maybe one word in junior high school…But I’m pretty comfortable with who I am. That has to do with having an incredible family and amazing friends who I’ve known for a long time. They keep me grounded. They’re supportive of what I do, but when it comes down to it, they don’t give a fuck what movie I’m doing or who I’m hanging out with.

I love my brother to death and I respect him so much. He’s incredibly talented and I would love to collaborate with him…But I’ve been trying to distance myself and show people that I’m my own person despite us looking similar and having similar mannorisms. I don’t want to be referred to as “James Franco’s little brother” for the rest of my life. It’s unfortunate because we work so well together and we’d have a lot of fun.

The most awkward part of the Funny Or Die video “Go Fuck Yourself” is that there was a double there the whole time. He’s a friend of mine, so we were able to be as comfortable as possible in very awkward situations. I’m comfortable with my sexuality, and for the sake of humor I’m willing to take it there…But there was a moment during filming when I said, “This is the first time that I’ve offended myself. This is bad, guys.”

One part of the movie business that scares me is losing my ananymity. Granted, this is if everything works out, but I have a small freak-out moment every few months…But I’ve seen that you can be smart about fame. You don’t have to go to the biggest clubs where you’re gonna be seen. And when people approach you on the streets, for the most part they’re not coming up to say anything mean.

Scan via DaveFranco85

Question: Talk about being one of the cool kids in this movie, and then the fact that these are atypical cool kids as least for what we would think of in a movie.
DAVE FRANCO: Yeah, so. Should I describe my character first? Okay, so I play Eric. Obviously, Jonah and Channing, they’re undercover cops infiltrating this high school to stop the spread of a new drug called HFS, Holy Fucking Shit, and I play the main drug dealer at school. It’s been fun because, like you said, it’s a very atypical cool kid because rather than being the jock or the big man on campus, he’s kind of like this eco-friendly hipster. Everything he does is very environmental-conscious, but at the same time he’s selling the least organic drug of all time. So it’s this weird dynamic going on and you slowly find out that he’s totally full of shit. But it’s been fun not playing the straight asshole which I keep getting cast as. I’m not sure how to take it anymore, so.

What about the element of sort of open relationship in high school? What is your take on that?
FRANCO: I was actually trying to think back to when I was in high school and how much that actually went down, and I think it’s a little more true to life where everyone’s kind of hooking up with everyone. I think between friends even sometimes, they encourage each other to hook up with the same girls. They think it’s cool and it bonds them. I know everyone’s throwing around a term of “Eskimo Bros” these days.

Read full interview at Collider.com

During our recent chat about his upcoming SXSW debut, we asked Dave Franco for his take on the film, in which he plays teenager Perry Kelvin, a very curiously key character in the relationship between the story’s central characters R and Julie.

“To be completely honest I was a little hesitant about it at first because it was another zombie movie and there have been a lot of those recently,” Dave admitted. “The main reason I was excited about it was because of [director] Jonathan Levine. I am a huge fan of his. I loved “The Wackness” and of course “50/50,” but I knew that even though it was this genre we’ve seen over and over, I knew he’d bring his own take to it and make it interesting.”

In fact, Dave couldn’t help but gush about Jonathan’s love of filmmaking and his re-assuring directing style. “If you do a take that he really likes he’ll jump out of his chair, running at you pumping his fist telling you how amazing you are,” Dave said. “He just makes you feel so safe it’s unbelievable. He’s so smart and has great sensibilities. Anytime in the script where there could be a moment of melodrama, he allowed the actors to do their own thing and make it as grounded as possible. I know there are going to be comparisons to the “Twilight” movies and I’m not trying to sh– on them in any way, but this one will stand apart. Even though it is a zombie monster movie in a way, it is very grounded in reality.”

With regard to how his character is adapted from the book to the confines of the film, Dave revealed that the character is slightly more fleshed out. (No pun intended, though I wish I had thought to.)

“There definitely is an arc there. He starts out as this naive, sweet, wide-eyed kid who’s in love with Julie and witnesses his father turning into a zombie and dying in front of his eyes,” Dave said. “It hardens him. He becomes this kid who loses all humanity and has this one-track mind of killing off, ending the zombie apocalypse. There was a lot to play with. It was fun to do a more dramatic role.”

And like his co-star and leading lady Teresa Palmer, Dave had plenty of praise for star Nicholas Hoult’s performance as conflicted, sentient zombie R.

“Nick Hoult, it was one of these roles that could have been a huge disaster,” Dave said. “He barely talks in the movie. The only time he talks for the most part is in voice over and when he’s talking in voice over he’s very eloquent, almost poetic and when he’s actually interacting with other humans and zombies he can only kind of grunt and moan. It could have been a huge disaster, but Nick Hoult is so talented and so subtle and real that it all hinges on him and he killed it.”

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Summit Entertainment has moved back its late-summer release Warm Bodies to Feb. 1, 2013. It was originally scheduled for an Aug. 10 opening.

Jonathan Levine is directing the project, which stars Nicholas Hoult and Theresa Palmer in the story of a zombie who rescues a girl from an attack and inadvertantly sparks a cross-dead romance. Levine also adapted the screenplay from the novel written by Isaac Marion.

Bruna Papanadrea is producing with David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman.

Warm Bodies will now hit theaters two weeks after Summit’s heist thriller Now You See Me. and three weeks before Lionsgate’s graphic novel adaptation I, Frankenstein. The film’s original August date has Warner Bros.’ Will Ferrell-Zach Galifianakis comedy Dog Fight, Columbia’s Meryl Streep-Steve Carell comedy Great Hope Springs and TriStar’s musical drama Sparkle competing for audiences.

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MTV recently spoke with Dave via a phone call, and below is the excerpt of that interview.

“I happen to have been in a phase in my life where I was playing ‘Would You Rather,’ everyone goes through those phases so I incorporated that into the short,” Franco, who wrote the film, said of where the idea came from. “The short is about these two childhood friends, a girl and an guy who play a game of ‘Would You Rather’ and their choices magically come true. There is a bit of a fantasy element to it and very quickly in typical Dave Franco fashion, things get strangely sexual and uncomfortable but there is still an overall feeling of sweetness that comes through I hope, which kind of cuts the raunchiness a little bit.”

The “Dave Franco Fashion” to which he referred to can be seen in his series of FunnyOrDie videos like “Go F—Yourself” and “You’re So Hot” which are worth a viewing if you haven’t yet seen them. Franco said that “Would You” follows in that same vein, but with the addition of his mom, respected actress Betsy Franco, to the cast he took things to a whole new level for them both.

“Once people see the short they’re going to be slightly disturbed at what I put my mom through for it, but I promise you she agreed to do this under her own will,” Franco assured us, without going into any specific detail about said scene. “Keep that in mind because it gets very very weird. We couldn’t look each other in the eyes for a few hours after the scene. But I think everyone had a good time.”

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