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James Franco attended the premiere of Sal at the Paramount Theater during the 2011 Austin Film Festival in Austin, Texas yesterday (October 23rd) to a cheering crowd as fans lined the red carpet.  ‘I’ve been following the movies that he does and his education choices, and I feel he’s a real inspirational actor,” fan Allison Lambert told WFAA television.

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Franco wrote, directed and acted in the film about the late actor Sal Mineo, who starred alongside James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause.  “I was aware of his work, and his new biography came out, and I just thought he was an actor I admire but I just thought he had a particularly tragic story,” Franco explained.  Mineo was stabbed to death by his West Hollywood apartment in 1976.

Check out Franco’s interview at the film festival after the jump.