Selena Gomez No Longer Merely a Disney Darling? "Hungry for Indie Material," Says James Franco

Exclusive! Actor talks about the young starlet's work in Spring Breakers

We cannot wait to see Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens in their upcoming indie flick, Spring Breakers.

Both have already told us just how wild they get in the Harmony Korine-directed film, which centers around three college students (Gomez, Hudgens and Pretty Little Liars' Ashley Benson) who rob a restaurant in order to pay for their spring break vacation.

James Franco, who plays a drug dealer who bails them out, says the movie will go far to help Gomez, 19, break free from the rigid confines of being a Disney darling...

"I thought Harmony was so smart to cast her, Vanessa and Ashley because it seemed like they were so hungry for some deeper kind of material, hungry for indie material," Franco, 34, told me at last night's opening of Rebel, a group art show inspired by James Dean's classic movie, Rebel Without a Cause, for L.A.'s The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). "They really gave their all when they were acting," he continued. "You've got great performances."

Franco laughed, "They other thing that [Korine] got was this crazy fusion of high pop and like dirty indie sensibilities. I think that is going to be very powerful."

The MOCA show is pure Franco. Housed at the JF Chen furniture store in Hollywood, it features a twisted recreation of the famed Chateau Marmont hotel, where Rebel Without a Cause director Nicholas Ray lived while making the 1955 movie.

One of Franco's installations, Bungalow 2, features a video along with a pile of blowup dolls.

"Nicholas Ray was sort of this permissive father for all of these young actors," Franco explained. "I guess, according to Dennis Hopper and others, he was also having an affair with Natalie Wood. There are also these myths and legends that maybe he had an affair with Sal Mineo or maybe he had an affair with James Dean…We decided to examine those alongside the facts and use that as material for the work."

Other pieces include a white motorcycle submerged in the hotel's circular pool, Terry Richardson photos of Franco in various states of cross-dressing and a makeshift tombstone spray painted with the words, "Brad Renfro Forever."