James Franco’s Othello

James Franco once wrote in an essay to the new source VICE, that he has ideas for a reconstruction of Othello. The image of Drake playing the lead of Othello is a joke from a website that created a filmography for the rapper Drake if he never became a rapper. James Franco’s adaptations to Othello would “lose the sexism” that is in Othello. Franco would make the roles of Desdemona and Emilia more serious roles. Desdemona would actually become a cheater and Emilia would take Iago’s role of evil genius plotting to take away other peoples happiness. The new idea of Desdemona and Emilia’s roles peaked my interest when I read about them. After reading the play, seeing the Titan production at Queens Theater, and watching the film version with Laurence Fishburne, the idea of slightly new story line sounded like a good idea. In Franco’s version I can only assume that lines would be changed such as the line in Act 4 Scene 1 line 238 “I will not stay to offend you”. I think it would be changed because in this new non sexist role Desdemona would probably not do every possible action to make her husband happy when he is accusing her of cheating. I also think that it is slightly egomaniacal of James Franco to decide that his idea of Othello is a better and less sexist than William Shakespeare’s version. If this image below is legitimate and Drake is actually one of James Franco’s ideas for Othello, then I change my mind completely and I think that Franco is just trying to get himself some attention. 

The images below are not real and are intended only for amusement.

The photo of James Franco playing both Desdemona and Emilia is from the VICE website where I found the article about James Franco’s adaptation of Othello. The photoshopping done isn’t the greatest around but it’s good enough to make me laugh.

The image of Drake playing the lead of Othello is a joke from a website that created a filmography for the rapper Drake if he never became a rapper.