After spending several years offline, James Franco is back on social media, but his recent posts have raised eyebrows over what he claims is footage of an alien in his backyard.
The 48-year-old actor — who was largely exiled from Hollywood after a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him in 2018 — launched his TikTok account, JamesFranco2319, in June and began sharing cryptic videos.
Franco’s posts show him seemingly paranoid and rambling about “some serious s*** going on,” writing in the caption of the first post: “I can’t say too much right now. But stick around and I promise it will all make sense.”
The posts, which largely feature the actor in a blue t-shirt with the name “Bruce Robins” written alongside a taped-on pause symbol, teased the date July 13 for weeks until the actual day, which is when Franco finally shared the bizarre security footage.
The highly anticipated video showed the “alien,” which looked to be a human in an alien mask, hiding in trees and creeping around a house. The footage ended with a message promising, “A lot more footage dropping soon! It gets very crazy!!!”
While some social media users are concerned about Franco’s mental health, other viewers are convinced that the unusual behavior is a stunt to promote his new movie — but according to his IMDb page, Franco is not tied to any films centered around aliens at the moment.
“We’re all confused and tbh I don’t care enough to figure out what’s going on lol,” one person wrote on a Reddit thread discussing Franco’s antics. Another commented on the video on TikTok: “I’ve never been more confidently confused.”
One person theorized on X, “Maybe he’s promoting a movie? Or it’s like disclosure day and the ufo videos coming out at the same time, some sort of blend of reality and fiction orchestrated between our govt and Hollywood?”
“This has got to be the ultimate troll video,” another person said on Reddit. “That is stupidest few frames of an ‘alien.’ What’s his end game with this footage? Maybe doing a stoner movie with this alien? Whatever it is, I’m kinda laughing cuz of how serious he was about this.”
Other viewers pointed out that the time stamp on the security camera footage he shared is missing a number, and that Franco’s finger disappears behind the footage at one point in the clip, which suggests the video was edited onto his laptop screen.
@jamesfranco2319 The day is here. 7/13 7:13 more footage dropping soon.
Franco’s representatives did not immediately return The Independent’s request for comment.
Some online speculation is centered around Franco’s upcoming road-trip comedy, Love Meets in the Sunshine, which is directed by Christian Guiton. Franco only follows three accounts on TikTok: the movie’s official account, Guiton, and actor Shayne Davis, who is not involved in the movie.
Guiton posted a video June 21 where he insisted that he did not know what Franco was talking about and said that he would go to the actor’s house July 13 to get answers. On the day, Guiton shared a video saying that he had gone to Franco’s house and was shocked by what he saw.
“If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, the extra footage that he has, I wouldn’t believe it,” Guiton said. “He had me film some other stuff for you guys, so just stay tuned, we’re going to be releasing more stuff this week.” Love Meets in the Sunshine has not yet set a release date for the film or released a trailer.
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