Last night on The Colbert Report, effortless performance artist Stephen Colbert sat down with painstaking performance artist James Franco. The latter thought this would be the perfect opportunity to talk about their shared craft, but Stephen — who refuses to recognize that he’s playing a character while on air — was not having it.
“Well, James, you’re an academy award nominated actor, director, poet, author, photographer, painter, conceptual artist, teacher —” Colbert began before Franco good-naturedly interrupted to point out how much they have in common.
“We’re so much alike,” he joked, alluding to the fact that both have put forward public personas that don’t mirror what they’re like in real life.
“Yeah,” Colbert dodged. “Yeah, renaissance men.”
Later, after some fun, goofy banter about Franco’s new movie Child of God, Franco returned to the topic of Colbert’s character, asking, “Are you going to go Democrat when you go to [The Late Show]?”
“Now here’s the interesting thing,” Colbert replied smoothly. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Stephen’s skills are many: Not only can he stay perfectly in character while under pressure — he can also make James Franco charming again.