How An Email From Gus Van Sant Led To James Franco’s New Film

In recent years, James Franco has played his fair share of gay characters. There was Allen Ginsberg in “Howl,” poet Hart Crane in “The Broken Tower,” and most notably, Scott Smith, the boyfriend of Harvey Milk in the acclaimed film “Milk.”

But Franco’s study of gay characters in film has just deepened with his starring role in “I Am Michael,” where he plays real-life figure Michael Glatze — a former gay rights activist who suddenly announced that he was straight, publicly denounced homosexuality, left his boyfriend of 10 years and went to seminary school to become a pastor.

While the sudden shift of a gay rights leader shocked and saddened so many in the gay community at the time, it wasn’t until a former friend of Glatze’s traveled to Wyoming to interview him for New York Times Magazine that the story caught the eye of filmmaker Gus Van Sant.

Michael Glatze with James Franco at the Sundance Film Festival.

Perhaps the only thing more shocking than Michael Glatze’s story is the fact that Michael Glatze loved the movie. He’s not exactly vilified in the film, but it’s not a positive story, either. And yet, Glatze fully cooperated with all of the filmmaker’s questions, and he and his wife even showed up at Sundance for the film and actually thanked both Franco and Kelly for making the movie.

The Huffington Post