Franco 'trapped' by poor sketches at Oscars

James Franco felt "trapped" by the poor quality of the sketches at this year's Oscars.

The 127 Hours actor was criticised for his performance when he co-hosted the prestigious ceremony with Anne Hathaway and has admitted it was largely due to the fact he was unhappy with the sketches he was given to perform.

He said: "It's hard to talk about because it's like assigning blame - not a fun thing to do. For three or four weeks we shot the promos and the little film that played in the opening.

"In the last week, when we really started focusing on the script for the live show and did a run-through, I said to the producer, 'I don't know why you hired me, because you haven't given me anything. I just don't think this stuff's going to be good.'

"I felt kind of trapped in that material. I felt, 'This is not my boat. I'm just a passenger, but I'm going down and there's no way out.'"

Among the sketches James was unhappy with was one where he dressed as Marilyn Monroe, but he decided not to "fight" the material he had been given because there were already too many people involved in the writing process.

He told Playboy magazine: "I just didn't want to fight anymore, even when they said, 'You'll come out as Marilyn Monroe. It'll be funny.' ... I just didn't want to argue anymore. I was going with their programme.

"I wanted to do the material they gave me, not be one of the many cooks doing the writing.

"There were a lot of cooks who shouldn't have been cooking but were allowed to. There were some cooks my manager tried to bring in, like Judd Apatow, who wrote some very funny stuff that wasn't used."

- BANG! Showbiz