James Franco and Lana Del Rey have somehow, despite being on their own planets, managed to form a sort of bizarre friendship. I suppose it’s because they’re both so ~artistic~ and really understand one another. They actually spent a lot of time together over recent months in Los Angeles, and Franco gave like, an entire soliloquy on his feelings about Lana to V Magazine. Here is some of it:
She’s weird. But she never wanted to be a live performer anyway. If she could have, she would have made her music, and her videos, in her room forever.
This is a poem about Lana Del Rey.
This is an essay about Lana Del Rey.
Lana has become my friend. She is a musician who is a poet and a video artist.
She grew up on the East Coast but she is an artist of the West Coast.
When I watch her stuff, when I listen to her stuff, I am reminded of everything I love about Los Angeles. I am sucked into a long gallery of Los Angeles cult figurines, and cult people, up all night like vampires and bikers.
The only difference between Lana and me is her haunting voice. That carries everything. The voice is the central axle around which the spokes of everything else extend.
My axle, like her voice is for her, is my acting. Out of it, I do everything else.
I don’t like vampires and bikers in my life, but I like them in my art.
Lana lives in her art, and when she comes down to earth for interviews, it gets messy, because she isn’t made for this earth. She is made to live in the world she creates. She is one who has been so disappointed by life, she had to create her own world. Just let her live in it.
I am a performer and she is a performer.
The thing about singers, especially the ones who write their own lyrics, is that everyone reads the person into the songs. An actor is sometimes aligned with this roles, but a singer is about her lyrics as if they were direct statements of her true thoughts and feelings. Sometimes Lana doesn’t know what to say in interviews, so she plays into the idea that her songs are her, and not her creations.
Lana spends a lot of time alone because everyone wants in.
She has this idea for a film. I want to do it because it’s a little like Sunset Boulevard. A woman is alone in a big house in L.A. She doesn’t want to go out. She starts to go crazy, and becomes paranoid because she feels like people are watching her. Even in her own house. It’s like an awesome B-movie that lives in Lana’s head. It’s about her, and it’s not about her. Just like her music.
I wanted to interview Lana for a book and she said, “Just write around me, it’s better if it’s not my own words. It’s almost better if you don’t get me exactly, but try.”
I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m vaguely uncomfortable. Frankly, there’s nothing artsy fartsy about either of them – it’s all contrived and a bit over-the-top. Lana Del Rey isn’t some moody misanthrope, she’s an upper class white girl who changed her pop image to be this indie darling when she realised that was more lucrative. James Franco is just a hot mess.
Anyway, do you guys think they dated/are dating still? Do you think they’ll ever do an album/art show together?
