Everyone was trying to figure out what happened to James Franco during the Oscars. Due to his offbeat, way mellow behavior, many people couldn’t tell if he was acting out a persona or if he was actually high on something.

Bruce Vilanch, the Oscars show writer, has told New York Magazine that the actor wasn’t high in the least. “I was with him, and he wasn’t high. And I asked him, ‘Are you high, and can I have some?’ And he said no to both,” said Vilanch.

However, Vilanch does agree with mostly everyone about Franco’s performance that night, but blames it on Franco’s hectic schedule leading up to the awards show. “He had so many balls in the air, he didn’t get to town until Thursday before the show on Sunday…And so we emailed a lot. But we had a lot of meetings. He had a bunch of people writing for him, and if it had been him alone, it would have been different. But it was him and Anne Hathaway, and they both had to be serviced. So there was a lot of communication beforehand. But he didn’t get there.”

Vilanch also spoke about Franco’s possible nerves. “I don’t think he realized how big a deal it was until he was actually confronted with it,” Vilanch said. “…I don’t know what he thought. I thought maybe it was a performance-art prank, and then I realized he sincerely wanted to do it. But it’s outside of those guys’ comfort zones.”

Also, while everyone cringed over seeing Franco in drag, there was another cringe-inducing moment that was thankfully cut. Vilanch told the magazine that Franco was supposed to do a (hopefully intentional) horrific cover of Cher’s “Burlesque”.