Exclusive: James Franco Playing Character Based on Rapper Riff Raff In New Movie
Earlier today, Selena Gomez tweeted a picture of James Franco from the set of her new movie Spring Breakers, also starring James Franco. In the picture, James Franco looks exactly like rapper Riff Raff, the Houston MC who got his start on MTV's From G's to Gents and is now signed to Soulja Boy's imprint SODMG.
I retweeted the Selena Gomez tweet to @RiffRaff_SODMG and added, "Is this you?!" because it looks exactly liked him, and Riff Raff DMed me: "If I explained the story to u then u wouldn't even believe me. Harmony Korine [the writer of Kids and director of Gummo] called my phone to be in this new movie Spring Breakers. I was out of the country." He also DMed me his phone number.
I wasn't sure if I believed him, so I called him, and he told me the story of why James Franco is dressed like him in Selena Gomez's photo from the set of Spring Breakers.
According to Riff Raff, Korine called him and said, "'Yeah, man, I want you to be in this movie, but we only got a certain timeframe' or whatever. 'I wanted you in this movie with James Franco and Selena Gomez and Gucci Mane... But we're already behind!'" So Riff Raff couldn't be in the movie.
"The role I would have played would be like a drug dealer, or the friend of a drug dealer, Gucci Mane," said Riff Raff. I asked him if James Franco was originally supposed to be in the movie as a different character. "James Franco was in the movie, but I was supposed to be in there also. Now James Franco is playing me."
Luckily for Riff Raff, he can still be on the soundtrack: "Me and Gucci Mane doing a song and video for the soundtrack."
I asked Riff Raff if he sent James Franco his clothes.
"I sent him a few things. But all you gotta do [to see how I dress] is search through my videos. I got a pretty distinct style, with the braids, the jewelry." Damn. Somewhere in Florida, where they're shooting Spring Breakers, at this very moment, James Franco looks exactly like this.
On the movie as a whole, Riff Raff said, "I feel really kind of privileged because I got this big actor playing the role of me but at the same time, like, damn, I wish I was there...
"Even though I couldn't be a part of this project, I'm still glad that James Franco could play the role of me. That's like if Denzel Washington was playing the role of O.J. Simpson. Even though it's not O.J. Simpson, O.J. Simpson still gotta be like, 'Denzel Washington is playing me.'"
Watch Riff Raff's amazing "Larry Bird" video below:
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