James Franco Says He's Lost 3 Ad Campaigns Because His Films Are Too Gay

Franco pushed "Spring Breakers," "Interior. Leather Bar," and "Kink" at Sundance this year. The first is the Harmony Korine project in which Franco plays a thug who ends up having oral sex with a pistol. The second is a film about a gay leather bar. And "Kink" is about Kink.com, the porn website based in San Francisco's old armory building.

Franco — who has also appeared in dozens of mainstream films such as the "Spider-Man" franchise and "Oz the Great and Powerful" — did not say whether the campaigns were ones proposed for the future wth new companies, or existing clients who have dropped him.

Franco has previously done ad work for Gucci, Samsung and 7ForAllMankindJeans. To be clear, Franco did NOT refer to any of those companies by name.

He told the press at Sundance:

I did three sex-related projects at Sundance this year. One was directly gay-themed or queer-themed and one had some queer themes in it, and I've lost three advertising campaigns now because the companies say they don't like my image, but I know it's directly related to the films I put out at Sundance, so I can say there is still this homophobia or prejudice against this kind of material in mainstream cinema.