NEWS

For a few years Dave Franco was only ever thought of as James’ little brother, but thanks to the likes of Fright Night and 21 Jump Street he’s really started coming into his own (and many have suggested he’s beginning to beat his older bro in the hotness stakes). Other people know him best for his Funny Or Die vids, which tend to have a very homoerotic air, such as ‘You’re So Hot’, which he did with Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and ‘Go F*ck Yourself’, which he takes very literally (you can watch both below).

Now the actor has given what’s being billed as his first gay interview, conducted by Chris Azzopardi for Pridesource, ahead of the release of his new movie, Warm Bodies. And like brother James, he really does embrace the gays, even if Dave is more about comedy while James is a bit more political.

When asked when he was first aware of his gay following, he says, “My friend I grew up with started calling me out and saying, “Dude, I can’t even imagine what people who don’t know you think of you.” It’s not like I’m doing these videos because I’m trying to shock or confuse people. I’m generally drawn toward material that’s just different and unique and is gonna maybe surprise people a bit. So I was first aware that there was maybe some awareness of me from the gay community when all my friends were telling me there’s all this stuff online and if you Google my name, the first thing that comes up is ‘Dave Franco Gay.’ (Laughs)”

So are his videos a way of showing support for the gay community? “Yeah, sure – definitely! I have gay friends and of course I’m comfortable enough with my sexuality that I’m open to doing videos like that,” he says. “I know a huge audience is going to think that I am gay. I’m just trying to blur the lines, I guess. I’m not consciously trying to do that, but it’s not something I think about. Like with my friends who are gay, it’s not like that’s the first thing I associate with them. They’re just another friend, and they just happen to like guys.”

But why are so many of his videos so gay? “There are a lot of very overtly gay things in these videos, but for some reason while I was making them, or while I was even initially thinking of the ideas, I swear to god I didn’t think, ‘OK, we’re gonna make another gay video that’s gonna shock people’,” he says. “The way ‘You’re So Hot’ came about: I worked with Chris on a movie called ‘Fright Night’ and in between takes we would play this game. It was a game that he and his buddies played growing up and it just made me laugh my ass off, so when the movie was done and we were back in L.A. I thought to myself, ‘This would make a really funny short.”’

He’s also asked about the fact both he and his brother embrace the gay world, and whether there’s any overlap in the way they do it. “That’s a good question,” he says. “The main overlap is just how hard we dive into it. There’s nothing subtle, I guess, about how we embrace gay culture – and there basically are no boundaries. We both push the envelope.

“I don’t know why a lot of what we create deals with that subject matter. I get asked that all the time, and I’m not consciously thinking to myself, ‘I’m gonna make these sexually explicit gay videos.’ It just comes through us for some reason.”