'I'm a little gay': Actor James Franco opens up about his sexuality

James Franco has said he is 'a little gay.'The actor addressed speculation over his  sexuality as he discussed his art career and public image in a cover story for New York Magazine. The 38-year-old admitted he was 'a gay cock tease' when asked about his previous statement that he was 'a little bit gay in my work.'

The writer-artist-director described himself as 'a little gay' but says he doesn't define that to mean he sleeps with men.

'There is a bit of over focusing on my sexuality, both by the straight press and the gay press, and so the first question is 'Why do they care?'' said the Spring Breakers star.

'Well, because I’m a celebrity, so I guess they care who I’m having sex with. But if your definition of gay and straight is who I sleep with, then I guess you could say I’m a gay cock tease. It’s where my allegiance lies, where my sensibilities lie, how I define myself. 

'Yeah, I’m a little gay, and there’s a gay James,' he said.

The 11.22.63 star has played a number of gay characters on-screen, including in the films Milk and I Am Michael.

His new movie King Cobra is about a murder in the world of gay porn, and he played gay poet Hart Crane in his NYU student film The Broken Tower. James also directed the film Interior. Leather Bar, inspired by the explicit 1980 film Cruising.

And last year the busy actor published a book of poetry titled Straight James/Gay James, which included an interview between 'Straight James' and 'Gay James' discussing his sexuality.

'Well, I like to think that I’m gay in my art and straight in my life,' he wrote in a recreation of that conversation in FourTwoNine magazine last March.

'Although, I’m also gay in my life up to the point of intercourse, and then you could say I’m straight. So I guess it depends on how you define gay. If it means whom you have sex with, I guess I’m straight. 

He pointed out: 'In the twenties and thirties, they used to define homosexuality by how you acted and not by whom you slept with.'

The 29-year-old also told New York Magazine that people often compare him to fellow actor-turned-artist Shia LaBeouf.