James Franco explains his ‘Spring Breakers’ cornrows

James Franco seems way too preoccupied in his experimental art projects (and day job as an actor) to care about something as superficial as appearance, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to look at him.

When images of the Oscar nominee surfaced from “Spring Breakers,” his latest project from director Harmony Korine, the looking-at-him task got a bit difficult thanks to his rapper character’s loud tattoos and Kevin Federline-esque cornrows.

“That’s a character that Harmony and I have been talking about for over a year,” Franco told MTV News at CinemaCon 2012. “Harmony is one of the best, kind of, researchers that I know, and we just went through a series of looks.”

This is the final result. “You know, people have said, like, K-Fed or Riff-Raff, but that character really is kind of an amalgamation of a lot of different people and inspirations.”

Franco spends his time on-screen seducing thrill-seeking young things played by Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens, but off-screen it wasn’t as cushy.

“I think it took about five hours total, only because we had to try different cornrow configurations,” he told GQ of getting his hair done. “It doesn’t hurt that much, but it does get very itchy because you can’t get them wet.”

That’s all behind us now, thankfully; a wavy-haired Franco turned up at Monday night’s Met Gala in New York City on the arm of performance artist Marina Abramovic.

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