James Franco
James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), Milk (2008), Eat Pray Love (2010), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Spring Breakers (2012), and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). He is known for his collaborations with fellow actor Seth Rogen, having appeared in eight films and one television series with him, examples being Pineapple Express (2008), This Is the End (2013), Sausage Party (2016), and The Disaster Artist (2017), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. For his role in 127 Hours (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
James Franco
Franco is also known for his work on television where his first prominent acting role was the character Daniel Desario on the short-lived ensemble comedy-drama Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000), which developed a cult following. He portrayed the title character in the television biographical film James Dean (2001), for which he won a Golden Globe Award, and received nominations for Screen Actors Guild Award and Primetime Emmy Award. Franco had a recurring role on the daytime soap opera General Hospital (2009–2012) and starred in the limited series 11.22.63 (2016). He starred in the David Simon-created HBO drama The Deuce (2017–2019).
Franco volunteers for The Art of Elysium charity and has taught film classes at numerous schools. He admitted to having sex with several of his students during his time as a teacher, which led to lawsuits and a $2 million sexual misconduct settlement in 2021.[1][2]
Early life
James Edward Franco was born in Palo Alto, California[3] on April 19, 1978.[4] His mother, Betsy Lou (née Verne), is a children's book author and occasional actress, and his father, Douglas Eugene Franco, ran a Silicon Valley business.[5][6] His father was of Portuguese and Swedish ancestry, while his mother was from a family of Russian Jews.[7][8][9] His paternal grandmother, Marjorie (née Peterson), is a published author of young adult books.[6][10] His maternal grandfather, Daniel, changed his surname from "Verovitz" to "Verne" some time after 1940,[9][11][12] and his maternal grandmother, Mitzie (née Levine), owned the prominent Verne Art Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio and was an active member in the National Council of Jewish Women.[13][14][15]
Franco's family upbringing was "academic, liberal, and largely secular".[16] He grew up in California with his two younger brothers, actors Tom and Dave.[17] A "math whiz", Franco interned at Lockheed Martin.[18] He was often encouraged by his father to get good grades and did well on the SAT.[16] He graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996, where he acted in plays. This led to him attending CSSSA in 1998 for theater studies.[18][19] In his high school years, Franco was arrested for underage drinking, graffiti, and being a part of a group that stole designer fragrances from department stores and sold them to classmates.[20] These arrests led to Franco briefly becoming a ward of the state. Facing the possibility of juvenile hall, he was given a second chance by the judge.[9] He recalled of his troubles with the law, "It was teen angst. I was uncomfortable in my own skin. I was shy. I changed my ways just in time to get good grades."[16]
Although the idea of becoming a marine zoologist interested him, Franco had always secretly wanted to become an actor but feared being rejected.[9] He enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as an English major,[21] but dropped out after his first year (against his parents' wishes)[18] to pursue a career as an actor, since he would have had to wait two years to audition for their acting program.[9] He instead chose to take acting lessons with Robert Carnegie at the Playhouse West.[19] Around this time, he took up a late-night job at McDonald's to support himself because his parents refused to do so. He was a vegetarian for the year prior to working there.[22] While working at the establishment, he would practice accents on customers, an experience he remembered nostalgically in a 2015 Washington Post editorial titled "McDonald's was there for me when no one else was".[9][22]
Acting career
1997–2001
After 15 months of training, Franco began auditioning in Los Angeles. His first paid role was a television commercial for Pizza Hut, featuring a dancing Elvis Presley.[23] He found guest roles on television shows but his first break came in 1999, after he was cast in a leading role on the short-lived but well-reviewed NBC television series Freaks and Geeks,[24] which ran for 18 episodes and was canceled due to low viewership. Later, the show became a cult hit among audiences.[25] He has since described the series as "one of the most fun" work experiences that he has had.[26] In another interview, Franco said: "When we were doing Freaks and Geeks, I didn't quite understand how movies and TV worked, and I would improvise even if the camera wasn't on me ... So I was improvising a little bit back then, but not in a productive way."[17] After his film debut Never Been Kissed, he played a popular jock Chris in Whatever It Takes (2000), a modern-day remake of the 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac.[27][28]
He was subsequently cast as the title role in director Mark Rydell's 2001 TV biographical film James Dean.[29][30] To immerse himself in the role, Franco went from being a non-smoker to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, bleached his dark brown hair blond, and learned to ride a motorcycle as well as play guitar and the bongos.[29] To have a greater understanding of Dean, Franco spent hours with two of Dean's associates. Other research included reading books on Dean and studying his movies.[29] While filming James Dean, Franco, to get into character, cut off communication with his family and friends, as well as his then-girlfriend. "It was a very lonely existence," he notes. "If I wasn't on a set, I was watching James Dean. That was my whole thinking. James Dean. James Dean."[29] Despite already being a fan of Dean, Franco feared he might be typecast if he'd captured the actor too convincingly. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Franco could have walked through the role and done a passable Dean, but instead gets under the skin of this insecure, rootless young man."[31] He received a Golden Globe Award and nominations for an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award (SAG).[32][33][34]
2002–2007
Franco achieved worldwide fame and attention in the 2002 superhero film Spider-Man, when he played Harry Osborn, the son of the villainous Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) and best friend of Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire). Originally, Franco was considered for the lead role of Spider-Man/Peter Parker in the film.[35] Todd McCarthy of Variety noted that there are "good moments" between Maguire and Franco in the film.[36] Spider-Man was a commercial and critical success.[37] The movie grossed $114 million during its opening weekend in North America and went on to earn $822 million worldwide.[38]
Personal life
Religion
Franco has described himself as Jewish;[11] regarding his secular upbringing, he told The Guardian that he feels as if he has "missed out on the Jewish experience", but has been told not to worry about that by his Jewish friends and said in the same interview that he likes "the idea of religion as a source of community". When asked if he was a "believer", he responded, "In God? I don't know. Yes. To a certain extent. It's a complicated question."[16] In 2015, he had an official bar mitzvah ceremony, presided over by a rabbi.[140]
Relationships and sexuality
Due to his support for the LGBT community and his portrayal of gay characters in his projects, Franco's sexuality has been a subject of discussion in media sources.[141] In a March 2015 interview with Four Two Nine magazine, Franco again opened up about his sexuality, stating, "In the twenties and thirties, they used to define homosexuality by how you acted and not by whom you slept with. Sailors would fuck guys all the time, but as long as they behaved in masculine ways, they weren't considered gay. Well, I like to think that I'm gay in my art and straight in my life."[142]
After meeting on the set of Whatever It Takes in 1999, Franco dated co-star Marla Sokoloff for five years.[143] He was later in a relationship with actress Ahna O'Reilly until 2011.[143][144] He confirmed their separation in an interview for Playboy magazine's August 2011 issue, saying that his interest in education got between them.[133]
Education
Franco, dissatisfied with his career's direction,[18] reenrolled at UCLA in autumn 2006 as an English major with a creative writing concentration. He received permission to take as many as 62 course credits per quarter compared to the normal limit of 19,[145] while still continuing to act, receiving many of his credits from independent study for his involvement on the set of Spider-Man 3. He received his undergraduate degree in June 2008 with a GPA of 3.5/4.0.[18][145][146] For his degree, Franco prepared his departmental honors thesis as a novel under the supervision of Mona Simpson.[18]
Franco was selected as the commencement speaker at UCLA, and was to speak at the ceremony on June 12, 2009. Several months before commencement, an editorial in the student newspaper questioned his "caliber" and a student created a Facebook page protesting the choice.[147] On June 3, Franco withdrew, citing a date conflict with location pre-production on a film.[148][149] On January 26, 2011, Franco and the Harvard Lampoon released a satirical video on prominent comedy website Funny or Die mocking his last-minute cancellation.[150]
Franco moved to New York to simultaneously attend graduate school at Columbia University School of the Arts for writing, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for filmmaking,[95][151] and Brooklyn College for fiction writing,[145] while also attending the low-residency MFA Program for Writers at North Carolina's Warren Wilson College for poetry.[18] He received his M.F.A. from Columbia in 2010.[152] As of 2010, Franco was studying in the Ph.D. program in English at Yale University.[153][154] He has also attended the Rhode Island School of Design.[18]
In an interview with Showbiz411, on September 23, 2010, Franco made the erroneous public announcement that he received a "D" grade in "Acting" class at the NYU Graduate Film School.[155] He had, in fact, received that grade in a "Directing the Actor" class.[156] Franco's professor, José Angel Santana, alleged that Franco did not earn his grades while attending that school and stated that Franco only received high marks and a degree because of his celebrity status as an actor.[157][156] Franco made unfavorable comments about Santana's teaching. In September 2012, after having been terminated from his position Santana filed a lawsuit against Franco for defamation; Santana claimed that Franco's comments were false and had led to his termination.[158][159] In September 2013, Franco and Santana settled the defamation lawsuit. "The matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties," said Santana's attorney Matthew Blit. Franco defended himself on the Howard Stern Show, stating that he had told the professor before the semester began that he would have to miss most classes to film 127 Hours and that they had agreed that Franco would receive a "D" in the course.[160]
In March 2013, Franco was featured in half-page print advertisements for his alma mater UCLA which celebrated the university's famous alumnus as a "prolific academic" and carried the tagline: "Some A-Listers Actually Get A's".[161]
Philanthropy
Franco has volunteered at the charity the Art of Elysium, which helps children with serious medical conditions. He said the experience helped save his life. In January 2011, at the Art of Elysium Heaven Gala in Los Angeles, Franco was honored for his work at the hospital, receiving the Spirit of Elysium accolade.[185]
On March 31, 2011, the actor took part in "An Evening with James Franco", a Washington D.C. dinner benefit for 826DC, a non-profit after-school literature program. Franco became involved with Dave Eggers' 826 National after Eggers asked him to do a conceptual idea for the program, and he directed a documentary for them and has since been a supporter of them. At the event, he spoke about how he thought schools needed to be more original with their literature programs. "Writing can do things that video cannot", he added.[186] In April 2011, Franco autographed a T-shirt that would be auctioned off through the Yoshiki Foundation, with the proceeds being donated for Japanese tsunami relief.[187] On June 14, he was honored by amfAR, the foundation for AIDS research, at the Museum of Modern Art. Franco received the Piaget Award of Inspiration for his humanitarian work and contributions to men's style.[188]
In April 2013, Franco received the Ally Award at the 15th annual Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The award was presented to him in recognition of his unwavering support of the LGBT community.[189]
In April 2014, Franco presented at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition with Leighton Meester and Chris O'Dowd, after raising donations at his Broadway show Of Mice and Men.[190] In June 2014, Franco performed in the BC/EFA benefit Broadway Bares.[191]