Franco attends 'Spring Breakers' premiere at SXSW

The Associated Press, Monday, March 11, 2013, 10:16am (PDT)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Actor James Franco says he based his thuggish "Spring Breakers" character partly on an obscure white rapper known as Dangerous.

Franco spoke early Monday in a Q-and-A session after the film's domestic premier at the South by Southwest film festival in Texas. In the movie, Franco plays a Florida gangster who interrupts the plans of a group of bikini-clad college girls.

He says the rapper Dangerous "really just shared his life with me" for the role.

Franco may be best known as the main villain in the Spider-man trilogy but he's also shown an exceedingly wide range.

His new film focuses on sex and violence in pop culture. Asked whether it should be viewed as satire, Franco told the Associated Press, "it does have its cake and eat it too."