You come home late from a night out on the town – in the bathroom, you try to squeeze the toothpaste on to the toothbrush without too much mess. Success – you move your weight from one leg to the other, leaning against the sink. Hick. You turn on the tap and then you look in the mirror for the first time and lo and behold it’s yourself. It’s you, but not quiet you either. You half start a conversation – and end up talking to your reflection. This is like an “out of body” experience because you treat the reflection as a totally separate human being. [Nothing like a Franco conversation with yourself at 2.30am.] You can ask that person in the mirror anything… and some of the answers you get are even strange to you. These lucid moments with yourself are rare and insightful – but is it really love?
The New York Times Magazine has produced a series of very short movies with Tilda Swinton, Natalie Portman, Matt Damon, Jesse Eisenberg and 10 more actors called 14 Actors Acting. In this video James Franco takes ‘talking to himself in the mirror’ to another level – directed by Solve Sundsbo with music by Owen Pallett. The viewings for each of the 14 videos range from about 40,000 to 90,000 and they’re all worth watching but Natalie Portman’s striptease and James Franco’s kiss seem to be the most popular with over 330,000 and 360,000 views respectively. But remember what Granny Bridie used to say: ‘Handsome is, what Handsome does’.