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James Franco jokes that his Oscar selfies didn't hit as big as Ellen's

Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres broke Twitter with retweets of her A-list selfie from the floor of the awards show earlier this month, but James Franco, who co-hosted the Oscars three years earlier and sent some of his own selfies that night, says he didn't get anywhere near that kind of reception."I took some videos and selfies at my Oscars and I got criticized for it," he pointed out during a visit t
James Franco speaks about the Broadway show "Of Mice and Men."
TODAY

Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres broke Twitter with retweets of her A-list selfie from the floor of the awards show earlier this month, but James Franco, who co-hosted the Oscars three years earlier and sent some of his own selfies that night, says he didn't get anywhere near that kind of reception.

"I took some videos and selfies at my Oscars and I got criticized for it," he pointed out during a visit to TODAY Monday to promote his new Broadway appearance in "Of Mice and Men." "Now she's getting a lot of attention for hers. I don't get it." 

"I guess maybe I didn't include Meryl Streep and Bradley Cooper in my Oscar selfies, so maybe that's why it went wrong," he joked, before snapping a star-studded selfie with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie and his two latest co-stars, Chris O'Dowd and Leighton Meester, both of whom joined him for the interview.

@SavannahGuthrie+catches+up+with+the+cast+of+"Of+Mice+And+Men"+#todayontoday+@TODAYshow+@JamesFrancoTV+pic.twitter.com/2Ss0P7I2HP

—+amanda+sidman+(@newyorksiddy)+March+17,+2014+

The three actors are appearing in the stage adaptation of the classic John Steinbeck novel "Of Mice and Men."

"I like the idea that these characters love each other, and I think that will be what people will take away from our production of it, I hope," said O'Dowd of their new project.

"That's the key: How do humans connect in the face of you know, this larger kind of system. So if you're going to dramatize that, you better have chemistry between the people," said Franco, who added that he "had a sense" the three of them would click.

O'Dowd's already developed chemistry with fans and critics. Guthrie read a comment about him in which he was described as an international sex symbol with "self-dismissed teddy bear looks."

"Confirmed," he joked when asked about the first part. The second, however, he found baffling. "'Self-dismissed teddy bear look?' That's not even a description of something ... is that a real thing?"

"Definitely a teddy bear," agreed Franco.

Previews for "Of Mice and Men" start on Broadway on March 19. The play opens officially on April 16.