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"The Adderall Diaries," which is based on the 2009 true-crime
memoir by author Stephen Elliott and premiered at the Tribeca
Film Festival, was the first book Franco optioned to make into a
film.
But rather than getting behind the camera, he took it to
writer/director Pamela Romanowsky. The two previously
collaborated on "The Color of Time" about the life of poet C.K.
Williams.
"The movie is about a guy struggling with who he is, with his
art and how he represents himself in his art with his past,"
Franco said in an interview.
The 36-year-old actor was appearing on Broadway last year in a
revival of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" when he shot the
film in New York. He said the harried schedule added to his
portrayal of the edgy, Adderall-abusing author he plays in the
movie.
"The variety is what attracts me," Franco said about his work on
stage, in films and in print. "I plan to keep doing all of those
things. If I did any one of them exclusively then I would get a
little tired of it or feel the constraints of that medium."
In the film Franco plays Elliott, a successful novelist
struggling with writer's block, troubled relationships and a
fondness for drugs. His career is on the skids after he is
caught lying about his father and troubled past.
"The way we tell our story makes us who we are," Romanowsky said
about the film. "Memory is very unreliable, malleable and
changes a lot."
Elliott becomes fascinated with the 2007 trial of a computer
programmer who is accused of murdering his wife, seeing it a way
of reviving his career. But it also rekindles his own violent
memories.
When Elliott's estranged father, played by actor Ed Harris,
reappears in his life after a long absence he is forced to
confront his past.
"It sounds like, in some ways, a wild, crazy life but when he
captures it for his book it becomes really interesting and a
revealing study of a person dealing with his past, and his
emotions and relationships," said Franco.
"For me, what is most interesting is the examination of self, in
life and in art."
(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Grant McCool)
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