Having established his name in the Spider-Man movies, these days James Franco is clearly making some more personal career choices. He was in three films in 2008, notable for their vastly different styles. His extended cameo as Richard Gere's son in the weepy Nights in Rodanthe, based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, was followed by two far less forgettable roles; opposite Seth Rogen in Pineapple Express (for which he received a Golden Globe nomination) and as Sean Penn's boyfriend in Milk (for which he has been nominated with the cast for the SAG ensemble award).

He says he signed on for Pineapple because it was a chance to work with Judd Apatow and company, whom he knew from his days on the TV series Freaks and Geeks. "We did a lot of goofing around in a kind of constructed way," he says of the film. "It's a lot of improvisation, just letting the camera roll and doing the scene over and over again and seeing what happens. And I loved that!"

When asked to contrast the experiences on the two sets, he stops and thinks. "Milk had its own kind of looseness," he says. "Gus Van Sant has his own approach, and there was the freedom to try different kinds of things. And Sean really encouraged that too. So it was somewhat improvisational, but what it did was to make the performances more natural. And it may be funny to say, but it was the same with Pineapple. I think that's one of the things that Judd Apatow brings to comedies: there are wacky situations but it feels more emotionally grounded."

Clearly this on-screen naturalism is important to him. He's been studying film at New York University, and chooses five favourites that are all firmly rooted in authenticity...