Why James Franco Compares Himself to Britney Spears

May 9, 2014 — -- James Franco explained his love for posting interesting pictures via Instagram.

David Letterman couldn't help but ask the "Palo Alto" star what's up with posting almost nude selfies.

"To me, it's just a fun thing," Franco told Letterman. "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."

He continued: "The thing that gets the most likes are selfies. It's not that I enjoy posting pictures of myself, I just know that's what gets attention."

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Letterman then showed Franco that almost naked selfie, to which the actor replied, "aweful ... that's a special one, I got in trouble for that one and I took it down."

Franco next said he didn't understand how taking that picture was any different from Neil Patrick Harris posing almost nude on the cover of Rolling Stone or David Beckham up on billboards, "showing his bulge."

"It's context and it's attitude. Part of mine I think was like that Britney Spears shaved head moment, where it's sort of like, 'All right, you want me? Here you can have me, but I am going to be really ugly.' You know what I mean? ... it's a little bit of self hatred, but it's not hatred of myself, it's hatred of the public self," he said.