Franco 'did 22-minute take for 127 Hours'

James Franco has revealed that Danny Boyle pushed him to physical extremes during the making of 127 Hours.

The drama, which closed the BFI London Film Festival last night, is based on the true story of climber Aron Ralston and his fight to free himself from underneath a boulder in the mountains of Utah.

Speaking at a press conference to promote the movie, Franco admitted that the role required him to take a "method-y" approach.

Franco said: "Danny does like to push his actors. That meant getting a little method-y, at least some of the physical aspects. An early scene in the movie is when the character has just been trapped by the boulder and he is a great athlete so he tries to just pull his arm out with his physical strength.

"Danny said to me, 'Try and pull your arm out, do anything you can. Bash yourself against the rock, knee it, kick it, yank, pull, anything you can. Don't stop until I say cut.' I said, 'I'll probably be bruised and exhausted.' He said, 'Yeah!' I said, 'Yeah, I'm up for it just make sure you get it on the first take'."

The actor added that he was left with severe bruising as Boyle let the take run for 22 minutes: "I was completely exhausted, the next day my arm was purple. We figured out how to do those scenes and as an actor it's incredibly liberating because I had the freedom to just experience that. If I was in that situation, that's how it would have been."

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