James Franco
American actor and filmmaker (born 1978)
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- I'm going to try to not let anyone put me in a box, and that certainly applies to the things I do outside of acting.
- But I don't want to die! I have so much to do!
- If I'm working on a film, I'll do sit-ups for before I shoot. Like, 100 in the morning or something.
- You work really hard to make it, and maybe you get some acclaim, but then you realize there are certain limitations as an actor.
- Reviews about film acting are very... tricky, because movies are such a collaborative thing.
- I don't like sleeping in a bed.
- I don't go on vacation. I don't really need vacation.
- I don't cast somebody that I think is like my younger self.
- I still don't like going to bed alone.
- I view filmmaking as a director's medium.
- My name is James Edward Franco. Ted is a nickname for Edward. That's what my parents called me. I also got 'Teddy Ruxpin' a lot. It just got to a point where I got sick of it, so when a teacher called out 'James Franco' my junior year of high school, I didn't correct her.
- I become kind of obsessive about research.
- Directing, editing, and everything about filmmaking has definitely changed me as an actor.
- It feels really sad, to me, to go to a dark bedroom. It's like surrendering to the night or something.
- There's a tacit belief that actors shouldn't write books, they're sort of allowed to direct movies but there will be a lot of skepticism, and they shouldn't do artwork or music. There are these invisible roadblocks to gain entree to these areas for actors, and you kind of have to crash through those invisible barriers.
- The first piece of art that I ever bought-when I could afford it-was a Warhol sketch from the period when he was just getting out of doing commercial work and more into art. It's a sketch of a young guy's face. I guess the gallery that I bought it from thought I would like it because the young guy kind of looked like James Dean.
- I'm a big cardigan sweater guy.
- My style is casual-chic? Casual-messy?
- I might have to stumble a little bit more in public than others, but that's fine, I don't mind, I've developed a thick skin.
- I love to bring humour into my work. Because comedy is not a huge part of the art world. And big-business film takes itself very seriously.
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If the work is good, what does it matter? I'm doing it because I love it. Why not do as many things I love as I can? As long as the work is good.
-James Franco - (2011, on being a workaholic) I don't know, but the first short film I ever directed, years before I even went to film school at NYU, is about a boy who is introduced to the concept of his own mortality when his goldfish dies. He says to his parents, "I don't want to die," and though they say he shouldn't worry because there's plenty of time, they don't really comfort him. So he thinks, I have to do everything now. He gets a neighbor girl to marry him, gets a job, starts a family. Although I've changed and relaxed a bit, my behavior shows I've thought along those lines for quite a while.
- (2011, on hosting the Oscars) It's hard to talk about because it's like assigning blame - not a fun thing to do. For three or four weeks, we shot the promos and the little film that played in the opening. In the last week, when we really started focusing on the script for the live show and did a run-through, I said to the producer, "I don't know why you hired me, because you haven't given me anything. I just don't think this stuff's going to be good". After the show, everybody was so happy, and Bruce Cohen, the show's producer, hugged me and said, "Steven Spielberg just told me it was the best Oscars ever!" As far as having low energy or seeming as though I wasn't into it or was too cool for it, I thought, Okay, Anne Hathaway is going the enthusiastic route. I've been trained as an actor to respond to circumstances, to the people I'm working with, and not to force anything. So I thought I would be the straight man and she could be the other, and that's how I was trying to do those lines. I felt kind of trapped in that material. I felt, 'This is not my boat. I'm just a passenger, but I'm going down and there's no way out'.
- (2011, on the failure of Sua Alteza? (2011)) I didn't write that movie. I was just doing my job. I think I'm fine in it. They knew there were problems with that movie a year ago. Just because it comes out after the Oscars, it's like "Oh, here's backlash". Well, you have the year's best actress Oscar winner in it, so wouldn't that boost ticket sales? And people want to blame me for that? It's just ridiculous. There's this feeling about me like, "He's doing too many things. Let's get him".