‘Child of God’ star slept in caves preparing role

JAMES Franco. Photo by Ruben Nepales

VENICE, Italy — Director James Franco says his star in the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s “Child of God” lived in isolation and slept in caves to prepare for the role.

Scott Haze plays Lester Ballard, a man who is successively deprived of his parents and homes, living in caves and descending into crime and degradation.

Franco said Saturday that Haze lived for three months in isolation, sleeping in caves, without consulting the director. He showed up to shoot looking disheveled “and didn’t really talk to anyone, stayed to himself, and was like that for the whole shoot.”

The director says audiences may think he “found some maniac in the woods and shot him. But it is Scott giving the performance of a lifetime.”

The film is among 20 vying for the Golden Lion.