James Franco's adventures in research: Prostitutes and strip clubs

Remember when research used to involve 3x5 index cards and trying to figure out the Dewey Decimal system? James Franco, arguably one of the most adventurous actors of his generation, is redefining learning when it comes to his own career.
When Franco sat down with James Lipton for "Inside the Actor's Studio," he told the sordid tale of a recent endeavor into hanging out with some male prostitutes to study for a role.

"I don't know if you want to talk about this here," Franco said, hesitating to tell his story.

Lipton, however, was enthuiastic. "We certainly do! I took a vote. It was unanimous," he joked.

The prostitute Franco observed was a male who services both male and female clients. "I was spending a lot of time with him in one of these strip clubs, the only one that had a male-female combo stripshow," he explains.

"I was sitting with him in the back of the place just talking and one night one of his friends came in and he said 'hey, I have a guy who wants to come with me right now.' And he said 'I'm advising James, he's going to play a prostitute.'"

The prostitute happily invited Franco to join him while he... uh, worked. "I said okay, I'm not going to do anything," Franco says. "And they said, 'The guy's so coked out of his mind, he won't even know you're here. Just sit in the chair, in the corner and take your shirt off and it'll be fine.'"