No one, not even Franco, can make Colbert break character

On "The Colbert Report," wily James Franco tried to catch Colbert out of character.

Of course, he failed, but that didn't make his attempt any less admirable.

Franco, who was on "The Colbert Report" to promote his new movie, "Child of God," spent most of the interview being lightly teased by Colbert for his do-it-all reputation.

So at the very end, Franco couldn't resist sneaking in a question of his own: "You're not done," Franco said in between chuckles. "We'll see you on the new show. Now, are you going to go Democrat when you go to this new show?"

The new gig Franco refers to is Colbert's transition to "The Late Show," which he'll take over from David Letterman at some point in 2015. When Colbert's upcoming gig was announced, he confirmed that he won't be bringing his Comedy Central persona to CBS: "I won't be doing the new show in character, so we'll all get to find out how much of him was me," Colbert quipped in a statement.

But Colbert wasn't going to drop his mask on the "Report," and Franco's attempt to get the "Colbert Nation" leader to slip fell short.

"Here's the interesting thing," Colbert responded. "I don't know what the f*** you're talking about."

Spoken like a pro.