He keeps getting higher on education
In “Pineapple Express,” he plays a hippie pot dealer on the run from mobsters.
But don’t get the wrong idea about James Franco just because of his spot-on performance in the most anticipated stoner comedy of the year. He’s no dope, though he smokes plenty onscreen.
In 2006, while filming “Spider-Man 3,” Franco was deep into the classical canon of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton – required reading for the creative writing degree he was pursuing.
“It took so long to set up the effects shots and get everything coordinated, it was perfect for doing homework,” says Franco, 30.
While filming the Judd Apatow-produced “Pineapple Express,” it was all 16th century Jacobean drama all the time.
“I can remember reading ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’ and ‘Maid’s Tragedy,’ stuff by Ben Jonson,” Franco says.
Adds co-star Danny McBride: “He was going to college full-time while he was shooting the movie; he was in the makeup chair reading his homework. He would shoot nights and then go back to school the next morning.”
Who knew? Here’s a seemingly Serious Actor Type who devours serious books even while brooding and emoting in Hollywood blockbusters.
But Franco insists he’s not really the Serious Actor guy he’s reputed to be. Exhibit A: his career-altering choice to go to the comedy route.
That was precipitated by a chance meeting two years ago with Apatow – his boss on the critically hailed but short-lived ’90s sitcom “Freaks & Geeks” – who said he “missed the funny Franco.”
Apatow even had a movie for him: a stoner action-adventure written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg of “Superbad” fame.
Initially, “Pineapple Express” distributor Sony was skeptical about Franco playing it for laughs. But Apatow convinced the studio he’d be right for the film after Franco dialed in a funny screen test/cameo for the Apatow-produced maternity comedy “Knocked Up” and starred in a hilarious, self-skewering Web movie series, “Acting With James Franco,” for Funnyordie.com.
Still, director David Gordon Green had misgivings about whether Franco would be able to strike the right comic tone; Green was looking for a “heartfelt, not cartoon stoner” performance in the vein of Brad Pitt’s zooted rastaman in “True Romance.”
Then there was Green’s initial confusion over Franco’s habit of having his nose buried in a book every minute.
“You see the guy pull out a Thomas Pynchon book and you say, ‘Is he pulling this out so we have this perception of him?’ Then you realize he’s actually reading it,” the director says.
“He’s a very serious actor,” Green adds. “He goes for it 100 percent. And there were no false starts. Coming from a serious, trained background gave him tools to launch his talent. I think he’s kind of a comedic genius.“
The birthday bunch
Singer/sausage king Jimmy Dean is 80. Singer Eddie Fisher is 80. Singer-flutist Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) is 61. Actress Rosanna Arquette is 49. Actor Antonio Banderas is 48. Singer Neneh Cherry is 44. Actress Angie Harmon (“Law and Order”) is 36.