James Franco

About

James Franco is an American actor best known for his leading role as the underachieving high school student “Daniel Desario” in the short-lived 1999 TV series Freaks and Geeks and other appearances in a number of award-winning films, most notably the 2001 TV biopic film James Deen, the Spider-Man film trilogy and his Academy Award nominated performance in the 2010 drama film 127 Hours, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Acting Career

In 1999, Franco was cast as Daniel Desario in the television series Freaks and Geeks, which gathered a cult following despite being canceled after only eight episodes (shown below, left). In 2001, Franco was cast for the title role in the biographical film James Dean (shown below, right).

In 2002, Franco portrayed the character Harry Osborn in the 2002 superhero film Spider-Man (shown below left) and went on play the same role in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). In 2008, Franco co-wrote and co-starred in the stoner comedy film Pineapple Express (shown below, right).

In 2010, Franco starred in the survival drama film 127 Hours for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor (shown below, left). In 2012, Franco portrayed the rapper Alien in the comedy drama film Spring Breakers (shown below, right).

Online History

In February 2011, Franco created verified accounts on both Facebook^[2] and Twitter,^[3] gaining over 6.4 million likes 1.95 million followers in the next four years respectively. On February 18th, 2011, Franco posted a video to his social media profiles as evidence of his identity (shown below).

On January 24th, 2012, Franco launched a personal Tumblr^[4] blog. On May 16th, 2012, Franco published an article on The Huffington Post^[6] defending himself against an article by New York Observer^[7] writer Drew Grant, which mocked the actor’s blog posts.

“Bound 3” Music Video Parody

On November 25th, 2013, Franco and actor Seth Rogen released a shot-for-shot remake of the music video “Bound 2” by rapper Kanye West (shown below). Within five months, the video gathered upwards of 7.9 million views and 11,000 comments. As of April 2014, Franco has received more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram.^[5]

On March 21st, James Franco posted a photoshopped parody of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s Vogue magazine cover featuring himself and fellow actor Seth Rogen to his Instagram^[2] feed (shown below). In the first four days, the post received over 233,000 likes.

Minor Soliciting Scandal on Instagram

On April 1st, 2014, Instagram^[1] user Lucy Clode posted a video of James Franco outside the stage door of the Broadway show Of Mice and Men. That evening, Clode uploaded several screenshots of direct messages and text messages purportedly sent by Franco in a Imgur photo gallery (shown below). During this exchange, Franco asked Clode if she wants to meet in a hotel room, even after learning that she is 17-years-old, and sent selfie photos of himself as proof of his identity (shown below), .

On April 2nd, Franco posted a tweet telling parents to “keep their teens” away from him. In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the scandal, including D Listed,^[9] The Daily Dot,^[10] The Huffington Post,^[11] BuzzFeed,^[12] E Online^[13] and Gawker.^[14] Additionally, the women’s interest blog Jezebel^[8] speculated that the controversy may be a viral marketing stunt for his upcoming film Palo Alto, in which Franco portrays a soccer coach who becomes romantically involved with his 14-year-old babysitter.

I'M NOT! I HOPEPARENTSKEEPTHEIRTEENSAWAYFROM ME. Thank you http://t.co/I1d4n3yVe0

— James Franco (@JamesFrancoTV) April 2, 2014

Personal Life

Franco was born on April 19th, 1978 in Palo Alto, California and was raised in a secular and politically liberal household. He has been romantically connected to actresses Marla Sokoloff and Ahna O’Reilly.

Search Interest

External References