97 Facts About James Franco

1.

James Edward Franco was born on April 19,1978 and is an American actor and filmmaker.

2.

James Franco has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, Milk, Eat Pray Love, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Spring Breakers, and Oz the Great and Powerful.

3.

James Franco 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, This Is the End, Sausage Party, and The Disaster Artist, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

4.

James Franco portrayed the title character in the television biographical film James Dean, for which he won a Golden Globe Award, and received nominations for Screen Actors Guild Award and Primetime Emmy Award.

5.

James Franco had a recurring role on the daytime soap opera General Hospital and starred in the limited series 11.22.63.

6.

James Franco starred in the David Simon-created HBO drama The Deuce.

7.

James Edward Franco was born in Palo Alto, California on April 19,1978.

8.

James Franco's mother, Betsy Lou, is a children's book author and occasional actress, and his father, Douglas Eugene Franco, ran a Silicon Valley business.

9.

James Franco's father was of Portuguese and Swedish ancestry, while his mother was from a family of Russian Jews.

10.

James Franco's paternal grandmother, Marjorie, is a published author of young adult books.

11.

James Franco's maternal grandfather, Daniel, changed his surname from "Verovitz" to "Verne" some time after 1940, and his maternal grandmother, Mitzie, owned the prominent Verne Art Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio and was an active member in the National Council of Jewish Women.

12.

James Franco grew up in California with his two younger brothers, actors Tom and Dave.

13.

James Franco was often encouraged by his father to get good grades and did well on the SAT.

14.

James Franco graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996, where he acted in plays.

15.

James Franco enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles as an English major, but dropped out after his first year to pursue a career as an actor, since he would have had to wait two years to audition for their acting program.

16.

James Franco instead chose to take acting lessons with Robert Carnegie at the Playhouse West.

17.

James Franco was a vegetarian for the year prior to working there.

18.

James Franco's first paid role was a television commercial for Pizza Hut, featuring a dancing Elvis Presley.

19.

James Franco 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, which ran for 18 episodes and was canceled due to low viewership.

20.

James Franco has since described the series as "one of the most fun" work experiences that he has had.

21.

James Franco was cast as the title role in director Mark Rydell's 2001 TV biographical film James Dean.

22.

James 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 and best friend of Spider-Man.

23.

James Franco next starred in Sonny, a 2002 release in which he was directed by fellow actor Nicolas Cage, whose involvement had attracted Franco to the film.

24.

James Franco lived on the streets for several days to better understand the subject matter as well as talking to former or still-using drug addicts.

25.

James Franco co-starred with Neve Campbell in Robert Altman's ballet movie The Company.

26.

James Franco then completed training for his Private Pilot Licence in preparation for his role in Flyboys, which was released in September 2006; the same month, Franco appeared briefly in The Wicker Man, the remake of the seminal horror film.

27.

James Franco again played Harry Osborn in Spider-Man 3.

28.

James Franco co-starred with Sienna Miller in the low-budget independent film Camille, a dark fantasy dramedy about a young newlywed couple and Interview, where he appears in a voice only role, both 2007 movies that were ignored by audiences and critics alike.

29.

James Franco next starred in Pineapple Express, a stoner comedy co-starring and co-written by Seth Rogen and produced by Judd Apatow.

30.

James Franco's performance earned him a second Golden Globe nomination, for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

31.

James Franco has stated in some interviews that he no longer uses cannabis.

32.

James Franco was awarded High Times magazine's Stoner of the Year Award for his work in Pineapple Express.

33.

James Franco starred with Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch, in Gus Van Sant's Milk.

34.

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, in review of the film, wrote: "James Franco is a nice match for him [Penn] as the lover who finally has enough of political life".

35.

James Franco plays Franco, a multimedia artist much like himself, who comes to Port Charles to do an art exhibition and becomes obsessed with Jason Morgan.

36.

James Franco began 2010 by making an appearance on the sitcom 30 Rock where he played himself and carried on a fake romance with Jenna Maroney in a scheme concocted by their respective agents.

37.

On February 23,2011, James Franco made a cameo appearance on NBC's Minute to Win It where the real-life Ralston was participating as a contestant playing for charity.

38.

James Franco starred alongside Winona Ryder in The Letter, originally entitled The Stare, directed by Jay Anania.

39.

James Franco was cast as a drug-addicted lawyer in About Cherry, starring Heather Graham, which started shooting the following month in California.

40.

James Franco dropped out of the indie film While We're Young to star in Oz the Great and Powerful, a Disney prequel to L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

41.

Co-screenwriter of the screenplay, Nicholas Constantine, was initially unconvinced that James Franco would be right for the movie, until he learned of James Franco's desire to be a director and later watched three of his short films, one of which featured a serial killer, ultimately confirming to the writer that the actor had a darker side.

42.

James Franco directed a film version of William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying; the film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

43.

In late 2013, James Franco starred in This Is the End as a fictionalized version of himself stuck in a house during an apocalypse with Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, and Danny McBride, fictionalized versions of themselves.

44.

In February 2012, James Franco began shooting a film version of Cormac McCarthy's 1973 novella Child of God, which stars Scott Haze as Lester Ballard.

45.

In 2013, James Franco starred as the gangster "Alien" in Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, with Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Gucci Mane and Rachel Korine.

46.

In March 2013, it was announced that James Franco was set to make his 2014 Broadway stage debut in the role of George in a revival of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

47.

In October 2013, James Franco appeared in the music video for "City of Angels" by Thirty Seconds to Mars.

48.

On March 8,2013, James Franco received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard.

49.

In December, James Franco starred in the controversial Sony comedy thriller, The Interview, a film which played a central role in the real world diplomatic relations between the United States and North Korea as they related to the 2014 Sony hacking incident.

50.

In I Am Michael, James Franco plays a gay activist who rejects his homosexuality and becomes a conservative Christian pastor with a girlfriend.

51.

In True Story, based on a true story, James Franco played Christian Longo, a man who was on the FBI's most wanted list for murdering his wife and three children in Oregon, and who had been hiding under the identity of Michael Finkel, a journalist played by Jonah Hill.

52.

In 2015, James Franco was cast in the lead role for the Hulu limited series 11.22.63 which is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King.

53.

In 2016, James Franco co-produced and starred in King Cobra, a true story about the rise of gay pornographic actor Brent Corrigan and the murder of Bryan Kocis.

54.

James Franco played Joseph Kerekes who was convicted of the murder.

55.

James Franco briefly appeared in the Alien prequel, Alien: Covenant, alongside friend and frequent collaborator Danny McBride, and Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace.

56.

James Franco played Branson, the captain of the Covenant ship and husband to Daniels, played by Katherine Waterston.

57.

In 2016, James Franco directed, co-produced, and starred in The Disaster Artist, the film adaptation of actor Greg Sestero's non-fiction book of the same name, about the making of The Room, which is considered to be one of worst films ever made.

58.

James Franco remained in character as Wiseau throughout the entirety of the shoot.

59.

On December 23,2021, James Franco gave his first interview in nearly four years when he appeared on an episode of the Jess Cagle Podcast.

60.

James Franco produced and directed a documentary titled Saturday Night documenting a week in the production of an episode of SNL.

61.

In 2008, James Franco was named as the face of Gucci's men's fragrance line.

62.

In June 2010, James Franco presented his first solo exhibition, "The Dangerous Book Four Boys", presented at The Clocktower Gallery in New York City.

63.

The book is named after the California city where James Franco grew up and is dedicated to many of the writers he worked with at Brooklyn College.

64.

At least one editor of a literary journal testified he would not publish James Franco's stories, claiming he has been published due to his star power, not literary talent.

65.

In January 2011, James Franco screened his multimedia project, entitled Three's Company The Drama, in which he merges video and art to update the titular sitcom, at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

66.

James Franco reunited with Milk director Van Sant to make Unfinished, a project that features two movies: Endless Idaho and My Own Private River.

67.

The idea for the exhibition was conceived after Van Sant introduced unused footage from the 1991 film to James Franco, inspiring him to turn it into something more.

68.

James Franco had previously said that he accepted the job for the experience and because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

69.

James Franco continued his career as a filmmaker with The Broken Tower, a 90-minute docudrama shot in black and white about poet Hart Crane, who committed suicide by jumping off the steamship SS Orizaba.

70.

In 2011, James Franco taught a graduate-level film course at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

71.

James Franco has taught film classes at USC and UCLA, as well as a screenwriting class on the online learning community Skillshare.

72.

James Franco has said painting was the "outlet" he needed in high school, and he "has actually been painting longer than he has been acting".

73.

James Franco's paintings were displayed publicly for the first time at the Glu Gallery in Los Angeles, from January 7, through February 11,2006.

74.

James Franco launched his first European art exhibition in 2011 at Peres Projects in Berlin.

75.

In September 2012, James Franco announced the release of his band Daddy's first single Love in the Old Days and their first EP MotorCity.

76.

On July 9,2013, James Franco announced that he would be the featured roastee on the next Comedy Central Roast.

77.

In February 2014, James Franco wrote an article in The New York Times in support of the metamodernist performance art of Shia LaBeouf, describing LaBeouf's project as one "in which a young man in a very public profession tries to reclaim his public persona".

78.

James Franco has deliberately garnered a reputation for publishing "selfies" and wrote an explanatory article for The New York Times in December 2013.

79.

In 2013, James Franco was featured as the cover model and featured focus in the men's magazine Man of the World.

80.

The 2015 production of Dear James Franco used, parodied and deconstructed letters penned to or by celebrities.

81.

James Franco has described himself as Jewish; 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".

82.

James Franco was later in a relationship with actress Ahna O'Reilly until 2011.

83.

James Franco confirmed their separation in an interview for Playboy magazine's August 2011 issue, saying that his interest in education got between them.

84.

James Franco received permission to take as many as 62 course credits per quarter compared to the normal limit of 19, while still continuing to act, receiving many of his credits from independent study for his involvement on the set of Spider-Man 3.

85.

James Franco was selected as the commencement speaker at UCLA, and was to speak at the ceremony on June 12,2009.

86.

James 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, and Brooklyn College for fiction writing, while attending the low-residency MFA Program for Writers at North Carolina's Warren Wilson College for poetry.

87.

James Franco has attended the Rhode Island School of Design.

88.

James Franco had, in fact, received that grade in a "Directing the Actor" class.

89.

James 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 James Franco would receive a "D" in the course.

90.

In March 2013, James 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".

91.

James Franco sent multiple pictures of himself to prove his real identity.

92.

James Franco's pin drew criticism on social media from actress Ally Sheedy, who hinted she had quit acting after working with Franco on a play.

93.

On October 3,2019, two former students of James Franco's now-closed film and acting school, Studio 4, filed a lawsuit against him and his partners.

94.

James Franco has volunteered at the charity the Art of Elysium, which helps children with serious medical conditions.

95.

In January 2011, at the Art of Elysium Heaven Gala in Los Angeles, James Franco was honored for his work at the hospital, receiving the Spirit of Elysium accolade.

96.

James 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.

97.

James Franco received the Piaget Award of Inspiration for his humanitarian work and contributions to men's style.