James Franco WTF?

[Lord of Denial]

So James Franco goes from starring in Spider-man, Milk, Pinapple Express and other hugh films and he decides to take a gig on General Hospital.

And he has like 7 other movies booked thru 2011.

This move just seems really odd to me.

[Dave Bennett]

I read that he was always incredulous of how much work Soap Opera actors do and how many lines they have to learn in a short time and wanted to challenge himself to see if he could do it.

The article I read made it sound like he came to the General Hospital producers and pretty much asked them to put him on screen . . without pay!

[Lord of Denial]

I read that he was always incredulous of how much work Soap Opera actors do and how many lines they have to learn in a short time and wanted to challenge himself to see if he could do it.

The article I read made it sound like he came to the General Hospital producers and pretty much asked them to put him on screen . . without pay!

Seems like a pretty cool thing to do if that is really the case. It is nice to see an actor doing something simply for his profession and not for fame and money.

[Legato]

I read that he was always incredulous of how much work Soap Opera actors do and how many lines they have to learn in a short time and wanted to challenge himself to see if he could do it.

The article I read made it sound like he came to the General Hospital producers and pretty much asked them to put him on screen . . without pay!

My respect for him increased if that turned out to be true

[Joe Rice]

Every interview or comment I've heard from him points to a guy that takes the craft very seriously. The other Freaks and Geeks kids would tease him about it, but it's true. Every scene in that show, he's got "business" (what actors call something outside the scene they're doing . . .playing with a ball, eating something, etc).

[kalorama]

So James Franco goes from starring in Spider-man, Milk, Pinapple Express and other hugh films and he decides to take a gig on General Hospital.

And he has like 7 other movies booked thru 2011.

This move just seems really odd to me.

Because it's so rare that you read about movie stars behaving strangely? In it's own way, it's no different that when some huge star appears in a no-budget indy. It's "all about the work" or "a change of pace" or a "challenge."

[worstblogever]

Is Jimmy fishing for a daytime Emmy?

[Spidey-kid1]

James Franco is awesome.

[Jared]

For cryin' out loud, Usher did a stint on a soap. It can't be that hard. Kelly Ripa freely admits that when she started, she knew nothing about acting and was absolutely terrible. So it seems strange to me that someone would want to do soap stint for the challenge of it. If it was because his mom is a big fan, or he's a big fan, or he just liked the hours, that would make more sense to me.
But hey, it's cool to see someone like him do something different, so more power to him.

[Hoss]

So it seems strange to me that someone would want to do soap stint for the challenge of it.

Good, consistent soap opera acting is incredibly hard.

12 hours a day, 5 days a week, week in and week out. An acting grind worse than doing dinner theater. I think this will be really good for Franco, especially if he is a big disciple of Straberg and Stanislavski. Sense memory and affective memory are very effective when you have plenty of rehearsal time and can break the script down into beats and really explore.

But when you are doing new lines and scenes every single day and reacting dead pan to incredibly absurd and improbable scenarios, you have to do alot more external work. Build the character's manerisms, walk, talk, laugh, way of standing, etc, then use that to react on the fly. Much closer to good, controlled improve like Curb Your Enthusiasm than doing a film or a run on a play.

[Treqqor]

James Franco just did a surprise guest appearance on Saturday Night Live a few minutes ago.

He had no lines and just sat there for the skit.

Something tells me he's not choosing this stuff for the challenge. Maybe it's just a "hey, I want to do this just because" sort of thing. Which he's more than entitled to if he's welcomed to it.

[Simbob4000]

James Franco just did a surprise guest appearance on Saturday Night Live a few minutes ago.

He had no lines and just sat there for the skit.

Something tells me he's not choosing this stuff for the challenge. Maybe it's just a "hey, I want to do this just because" sort of thing. Which he's more than entitled to if he's welcomed to it.

I'm thinking the SNL spot was more of a: I was just backstage and they needed a warm body kind of thing.

[Paradox]

Jared leaves me an opening for a shot:

For cryin' out loud, Usher did a stint on a soap. It can't be that hard. Kelly Ripa freely admits that when she started, she knew nothing about acting and was absolutely terrible.

That would be different from now, how exactly? :evilsmile:

[Surtur]

Good, consistent soap opera acting is incredibly hard.

12 hours a day, 5 days a week, week in and week out. An acting grind worse than doing dinner theater. I think this will be really good for Franco, especially if he is a big disciple of Straberg and Stanislavski. Sense memory and affective memory are very effective when you have plenty of rehearsal time and can break the script down into beats and really explore.

But when you are doing new lines and scenes every single day and reacting dead pan to incredibly absurd and improbable scenarios, you have to do alot more external work. Build the character's manerisms, walk, talk, laugh, way of standing, etc, then use that to react on the fly. Much closer to good, controlled improve like Curb Your Enthusiasm than doing a film or a run on a play.

While true, I feel in having to do so much work, they can get a lot done..but at the sake of the performance. It's a challenge in terms of the hours and number of lines, but I'm not sure how much it will help to improve his overall ability to act.

[Tobias March]

What a pro!

Acting with James Franco (http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d338852866/acting-with-james-franco-episode-2-green-screen-from-james-franco-dave-franco-judd-apatow-and-cohenobrien)

:biggrin:

[bfrank]

So James Franco goes from starring in Spider-man, Milk, Pinapple Express and other hugh films and he decides to take a gig on General Hospital.

And he has like 7 other movies booked thru 2011.

This move just seems really odd to me.
He's dong research for a roll....good idea...let's do our homework before we shit on him.......

[G. Wayne]

I would like to visit the alternate dimension where Franco got to be Peter Parker instead of Tobey Maguire.

[Legato]

I would like to visit the alternate dimension where Franco got to be Peter Parker instead of Tobey Maguire.

Felt that he was the true star of the movie series anyway

[jesse_custer]

I'm not going to lose sleep over an average actor in a shitty soap opera. More power to him if he enjoys it.

[Lord of Denial]

He's dong research for a roll....good idea...let's do our homework before we shit on him.......

I'm not shitting on him, If this is your idea of being shit on, man HS must have been a living hell on you.