James Franco is not a scientist. But he’s no stranger to the occasional experiment. The actor who came to prominence on the cult-favorite TV show Freaks and Geeks has sought out roles as disparate as an amiable stoner (Pineapple Express), an intense supervillain (Spider-Man), an imperiled hiker (127 Hours), and even a celebrity having that weird dream where you’re kind of out of it while hosting the Oscars. And then there’s the life outside acting—enrolling at a bunch of universities, making art films, racing to catch a red-eye flight the day shooting ended for his upcoming Rise of the Planet of the Apes so he could attend the orientation for his doctoral program in English at Yale. It all has the feel of a talented guy just, you know, trying stuff out. wired talked to Franco about science fiction, technology in movies, and who the real monster is in Frankenstein.

Wired: Your interests seem to be moving toward smaller films and performance art. How’d you end up in another computer-graphics-laden summer sci-fi flick?

James Franco: It sounds weird, but in my head that was one of the things that justified this project. Once I heard that Weta Digital was involved and that the man who shot the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Andrew Lesnie, was the cinematographer, I got very interested. That basically pushed me to say yes.

Wired: Were you a fan of the movies or a fan of Tolkien?

“Suddenly these computer-generated creatures have souls. All this technology is scary for actors—what will happen to us?”

Franco: I was a huge fan of the movies and of Tolkien, and I thought those movies were a perfect meeting of technology and a story that needed it. I especially loved the work Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis did to create Gollum, and then again in King Kong. Suddenly these computer-generated creatures had souls—because Andy was behind them. You know, all this technology is scary for actors—what will happen to us? But right now, in this moment, acting opposite Andy Serkis while he’s playing a chimpanzee is a new and interesting kind of experience.

Wired: What was it like?

Franco: On set, Andy would be dressed in an outfit that looked like gray pajamas, with a ton of wires around him and a small camera at the end of a wire armature pointed at his face to capture his expressions. He looked nothing like a chimpanzee, but he was so good at capturing the behavior of a chimpanzee that I guess my actor’s imagination took over. It was like acting with a chimpanzee who has amazing acting instincts.

Wired: Do you think it’ll be as interesting an experience for an audience? Or for a director?

Franco: The thing is, I would be interested in directing a movie that uses CG if it was necessary. The problem right now is that it costs a lot of money, so you need to make a certain type of story that a studio thinks will bring in money. I have a ton of movies that I want to make and plan to make, but none of those stories are the kind that will convince a studio that they’ll make a ton of money. I have no illusions about that.

Wired: But you can imagine a time when CG might be cheap enough.

Franco: Yeah. For now, though, there are none I want to direct that would be full of spectacle.

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