--- description: James Franco stopped by the Late Show With David Letterman Thursday and discussed the racy selfies he recently posted of himself. title: James Franco Explains His Naked Instagram Photos image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8d7c29e7296f71a/69868ea5361760926b90bebf/james-franco.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [celebrity](/tag/celebrity/) ## celebrity Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # James Franco Explains His Naked Instagram Photos by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 9, 2014 1:11 PM CUT  James Franco attends the premiere of Tribeca Film's "Palo Alto" at Directors Guild Of America on May 5, 2014 ., California. James Franco attends the premiere of Tribeca Film's "Palo Alto" at Directors Guild Of America on May 5, 2014 ., California.Jason Kempin—Getty Images by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 9, 2014 1:11 PM CUT James Franco stopped by the _Late Show With David Letterman_ Thursday and discussed the [racy selfies](http://www.eonline.com/news/537884/james-franco-pulls-down-his-underwear-in-racy-instagram-picture-then-deletes-it "undefined") he recently posted of himself on Instagram. “James, why? Honest to god, why?” the host asked about the actor’s [now infamous photographs](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/02/james-franco-nude-instagram%5Fn%5F5251137.html "undefined"), in which he nearly exposed himself. The actor, who is currently [appearing on Broadway ](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/04/james-franco-uncensored-the-actor-on-broadway-nyt-hate-and-that-half-naked-instagram.html "undefined")in the stage adaptation of John Steinbeck’s _Of Mice and Men,_ said he wanted to set the record straight about his motivations. “There’s a lot to get straight here and I don’t even know if we have time,” said the actor, who is no stranger to [social media scandals](http://time.com/50058/james-franco-instagram-stunt/ "undefined"). “But to me, it’s just a fun thing. It’s something I don’t put a ton of thought into, but it gets a lot of attention. I have a lot of followers on Instagram.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/93838/james-franco-naked/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/93838/james-franco-naked/"},"headline":"James Franco Explains His Naked Instagram Photos","datePublished":"2014-05-09T13:11:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:45:04.800Z","description":"James Franco stopped by the Late Show With David Letterman Thursday and discussed the racy selfies he recently posted of himself.","url":"https://time.com/93838/james-franco-naked/","keywords":["celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8d7c29e7296f71a/69868ea5361760926b90bebf/james-franco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta8d7c29e7296f71a/69868ea5361760926b90bebf/james-franco.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"James Franco attends the premiere of Tribeca Film's \"Palo Alto\" at Directors Guild Of America on May 5, 2014 ., California.","caption":"James Franco attends the premiere of Tribeca Film's \"Palo Alto\" at Directors Guild Of America on May 5, 2014 ., California.","creditText":"Jason Kempin—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrity/","name":"celebrity"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/93838/james-franco-naked/","name":"James Franco Explains His Naked Instagram Photos"}}]}] ```