James Franco once took it too far. While method acting can be an effective approach to developing a role or character, it often comes at a cost to the actors who choose to embrace it, leading to them butchering their personal relationships. From Jared Leto harassing his crew mates while portraying Joker to the case about to be unfolded here, all are the perfect examples of method acting gone too far. Such is the case of James Franco and Tyrese Gibson.
It is no secret that the two actors, James Franco and Tyrese Gibson don’t see eye to eye, but everybody might not be aware of the reason. It all began in the 2006 film, Annapolis, and since then both the actors swore they wouldn’t work with each other.
James Franco Took Things Too Far With Tyrese Gibson
The last time the two actors saw eye to eye was on the sets of the 2006 movie Annapolis, after that not so much. The seeds of discord were sown during the production of the aforementioned film, where James Franco‘s character undergoes a challenging journey in Naval training. The climax of the movie features a thrilling boxing tournament, where Franco’s character finds himself pitted against his commanding officer, portrayed by Tyrese Gibson.
That epic-reel ‘planned’ fight between the two turned real when things got a bit unplanned. The Spider-Man star is notoriously known for immersing himself deep into the role to such an extent that isn’t even fun for him in the end. Call it a curse or a blessing, the method has both bad and good sides, and his beef with Gibson was a result of the former.
Consequently, during the filming of the fight scene, Franco accidentally landed a punch directly on Gibson’s face. While Gibson understood it was an unintentional mistake, he expressed his disappointment that Franco never seemed to “lighten up” even after the movie concluded. He revealed to Elle magazine,
“James Franco is a Method actor. I respect Method actors, but he never snapped out of character. Whenever we’d have to get in the ring for boxing scenes, and even during practice, the dude was full-on hitting me. I was always like, ‘James, lighten up, man. We’re just practicing.’ He never lightened up.”
Since that incident, Franco and Gibson have remained estranged, thus the feud is still considered one of the greatest feuds in Hollywood.
James Franco’s Attempted Apology Did Not Work
Following the rift, Franco took responsibility for the fallout and openly admitted that he “may” have been at fault. He also stated that he made many attempts to reconcile by reaching out to Gibson personally, expressing his willingness to apologize for any past actions in a Complex interview. He said,
“We’ve made up, or I tried to make up with him.–Maybe I was too into that role. I don’t try to be mean to anybody on a movie. In the past I’ve tended to isolate (myself), and maybe people take that as me being rude or me not liking them, but it’s really a way for me to stay in my character–I really had nothing personal against Tyrese, but I guess there were a lot of misunderstandings.”
Unfortunately, despite Franco’s ‘sincere and heartfelt apology’, Gibson remained reluctant to accept it and made it clear that he had no intention of working with the actor again in the future, in a 2007 Playboy magazine interview, he said,
“I never want to work with him again, and I’m sure he feels the same way. It felt very personal. It was f**ked-up.”
Regrettably, the possibility of Franco and Gibson reconciling anytime in the near future seems pretty bleak. A lot of time has passed, and although Gibson may have moved on from the incident he may never forget about it.
Fans can rent Annapolis on Amazon Video.
Source: Elle
