James Franco confuses fans over his sexuality

The 36-year-old actor, who played gay rights activist Scott Smith in Oscar-winning film Milk and portrays poet Hart Crane in The Broken Tower, refused to confirm whether he was gay or straight in an interview with Four Two Nine magazine.

Addressing the subject of his sexuality, the star replied: “Well, I like to think that I’m gay in my art and straight in my life.

“Although, I’m also gay in my life up to the point of intercourse, and then you could say I’m straight. So I guess it depends on how you define gay.

“If it means whom you have sex with, I guess I’m straight.”

James, who previously dated actresses Marla Sokoloff and Ahna O’Reilly, continued: “In the twenties and thirties, they used to define homosexuality by how you acted and not by whom you slept with.

“Sailors would f*** guys all the time, but as long as they behaved in masculine ways, they weren’t considered gay,” he added.

James, who interviewed himself for the magazine, said he likes his sexuality to be a talking point.

“I actually like it when people think I’m gay; it’s a great shield. Like the guy in Shampoo or the play that Shampoo is based on, The Country Wife by Wycherley,” he explained.

“I like that it’s so hard to define me and that people always have to guess about me. They don’t know what the hell is up with me, and that’s great. Not that I do what I do to confuse people, but as long as they are confused, I get time to play.”

The actor, who has also portrayed gay characters in Howl and Interior. Leather Bar, said those roles do not define his sexuality.

“These are all works of art, and art is free; art is its own realm,” he explained.

“Of course, they can be read through a biographical lens and, of course, through something like Interior. Leather Bar use my persona to talk about some of these very issues, but they are still works of art and not exactly non-fictional statements about who I am.”