Conversations with James Franco

all right good afternoon everyone my name is Janel Riley I am so happy to have you here today with this tag after foundation conversation with a actor writer director producer scholar who is truly one-of-a-kind since his breakthrough turn and Freaks and Geeks this is an actor who has continued to defy expectations and typecasting with a wide range of performance in every genre he is of course an Academy Award nominee for his work in 127 hours a Golden Globe winner for James Dean and a three-time Emmy and SAG Award nominee starting this week you can see him in the performance of his career as the disaster artists yes thank you I'm honored thank you I was just telling you backstage I was a little worried because I know the disaster artist isn't out I didn't want to spoil I think but I think they gotta get the more people have seen it then I realized before probably came to a static screen how many have seen the room I'm gonna audition for the room that guy right there well as I've mentioned this is an audience of say actors so I actually always like to start by asking how did you get your sag card my set card at sea I I came out to LA to go to UCLA and I was in the English department I dropped out after a year and my parents said well we're not gonna support you anymore if you don't go to school as I go okay and I tried to get a restaurant job I couldn't get a restaurant job and I so then I went and worked at McDonald's and I was in my working in McDonald's at the drive-through from 9:00 p.m. to 2 a.m. over in Sherman Oaks on Ventura oh yeah yeah yeah Kevin Connolly's to come through Geena Davis yeah what did she do Davis order how did she order she came late she I want to say Big Mac but we're talking like I was 20 years ago and and then I I booked a commercial while I was while I was there I booked a commercial for a Pizza Hut commercial it was for the Super Bowl and it was sort of like they had the new deep-dish pizza and they're so big the gist the commercial is there a bunch of guys in a parking lots are like you heard the word you news that Elvis is down at Pizza I'd serving a deep-dish pizza and we're all like skeptical or like yeah right they don't serve deep-dish it and cut they're like a CG elements like singing and dance to it it says that pizza yeah so wait a minute was there any that's how I got it any Tommy wise L also got a SAP card from a commercial but he had to pay he paid for it you can get it online I think he's actually altered it because it was even kind of crazier before but it was for his uh his denim his Levi's outlet called Street fashions and he I'll give you a little deep deep lore about Greg and Tommy Greg had actually done one movie before the room Greg Sestero called retro puppet masters yeah now you know if you're gonna quickly realize that I just give like the longest answers and I just my girlfriend was complaints but last night I just gonna be all over so there's a connection between me and Greg and retro puppet master in the book he says and this was long before I got the rights to it the disaster honest he said I got this movie retro puppet master the director told me that a young James Franco had auditioned for this and didn't get it and so I guess Greg Sestero beat me out for one role yeah so when you asked who a decent for the room I didn't do that I auditioned for the one movie that's like worse than the room retro puppet master and didn't get and didn't get it anyway when Greg did that Tommy it didn't do very well maybe it did well on like weird video circuit but Tommy would watch he watched it incessantly and Greg we actually had a sequence in our movie that we cut out with with all of this and it's like there's one scene of Greg walking down these you know circular stairs with a candelabra and it's just you know really cheesy and silly and he's scared of the little puppets they're gonna murder him and Tommy lut he's like this is my favorite scene and Gregg's like that scene I'm walking down the stairs it's we're gonna candelabra it's nothing he's like no this gray scene the really great atmosphere I like this and so then boom next thing Greg knows Tommy's like hey I got into the sag and he's like what he's like look commercial I do and it's Tommy with like a Renaissance hat on his head and he it's and he's coming down the stairs of the kind of love to be or not to be that's the question come to Street fashions that was like the first that was the first thing we shot on the disaster all right it was like day zero we had like a extra little bonus day in the beginning in pre-production there was really to test out the prosthetics and so I was doing that and like doing it exact like watching Tommy and then doing it you know and it was the first time that Seth Rogen's saw me and the whole getup yeah he could not I mean that whole day he was just destroyed he could not stop laughing like he it was so weird for him it took him three more days then those were days he had to act in but like that first day he just every time you know no has a very quiet laugh yeah they had to take him off set yeah I'm curious doing a Pizza Hut commercial was there like a conflict of interest that you were working at McDonald's I was it I was done done that was from that point on I unfortunately could support myself as a nanny yeah I actually had McDonald's today and your honor and it was because I haven't had I've had it I've had it maybe twice since that really I mean I don't know road trips but it made me think of you because didn't you you would practice voices on the intercom is that true yeah I did I did accents and none of them were successful except I did like a kind of a Brooklyn eat or mind you have a Brooklyn accent and that one kind of lasted I remember Titanic came out while I was working at McDonald's and this young woman came through and she was like hey you know while you work at McDonald's you know you ever want to go out or whatever I was like yeah let's you know I'll meet you here and in the porch so I will go to will go see Titanic or whatever and I kept it up it was like while that lioe you know and I kept the guy is so bad I mean it must have been horrible but I kept it going and then she dropped me back off at the McDonald's parking lot we maybe had like a little kiss or something and then not long after that she kept she would call me and I'd answer the phone and be hello and she'd be like James well oh hey what's up you know and I was just like this is ridiculous I keep going and I you know I was like hey I gotta break something to you you know I was like this I'm not from New York I'm from Palo Alto and there was like silence on the phone it was like she had been out with a stranger you know I'm like look everything I told you is real except the New York part like that's not and she it was yeah it was Dom was like I was like Jeffrey Dahmer yeah but that was the one accent that I'm using now I plan to do the other accents like when I did German or Italian they probably actually now that I think about it they'll probably just preparation for Tommy it's like yeah now I can't do any accent and without the Tommy accent just like infecting it it's a yes it's my German oxide this my French accent New Orleans accent yeah so I'm curious going back to your childhood did you always know you wanted to be an actor or if you went to college for something else would it take you a while I I always loved movies I the first play I ever did if you want anyway go away here's a potentially rambling story that I'll try to cut short I we did like Winnie the Pooh I think in second grade I played Igor and I remember yeah and then we did actually we did Romeo and Juliet and when I was in fifth grade I did not get Romeo I was very upset about that and then in seventh grade I wrote a play with a friend it was like a mime play and we were the golfers and it was like everything bad that could happen like we'd go like Oh like it came back at us and you know that was basically it I just did my own show right there and and then when I was in high school is when I sort of you know what I loved you know I love movies you know I think the first movie I ever went to was in the theater was the Dark Crystal and then my parents would take me to all the Spielberg films and all this that kind of stuff and then in high school I really got in that's when I got into James Dean in a Marlon Brando and my mom my mom loved films so she got me into you know I don't know Annie Hall and then and then I found like the Gus Van Sant movie zhilie My Own Private Idaho and Drugstore Cowboy and and I and so I knew I liked I wanted to be a part of that or even younger like stand by me and stuff like that I was like oh that's amazing I want to be a part of that I don't know how that works or you know like because there was nothing around and like in Palo Alto they had the Children's Theatre I also remember being like really jealous of the kids like doing all of her and stuff at the Children's Theatre I don't know why I didn't join I guess I was just shy or something and then I finally started in my senior year and I told this story before but I had a girlfriend Jasmine who had been asked to do a one-act by this guy yo ah Fisher he wrote the one-act I've ever I never read it all I had heard was that he was directing it and it was romantic and of all the people he'd ask Jasmine to being in and I was and so is a you know insecure you know seventeen year old I was like don't don't do it please thinking like I was jealous that they were gonna possibly kiss or something in the play but in hindsight I realized I was just jealous cuz this guy had like written it he's directing it and he's acting he's like doing everything that I want to do and and so sort of as revenge whatever I was like all right I'll show you I'm gonna join the drama group and and that's when I that's when I joined today and I and I realized up until then there there had been a lot of fear there's a great um I just read I don't have my phone on me but I just read this um the intro from Greg's book the disaster artist at the Gotham awards and one of the things he says in there is like the you know the room has not been part of my life for so long I look at it so differently now I thought it was just a bad movie now to me it's sort of a testament of you know self-will of continuing in the face of rejection and and that there might you know sometimes in life we are just too self-aware too scared to really give something a shot and that described me to a tee but you know before and so I kind of needed that I just needed a little burr under the saddle to get me in there and so that's what it wasn't and then my senior year I did a my drama teacher was very avant-garde he we did a a German play called void sack by Georg büchner and I played void sec and what is this school that you went to Holly Palo Alto High yeah you look at it oh my god like because it's I was in class with Lisa Brenda Jobs Steve Jobs his daughter the one that's like featured in the in the movie and then the Hewlett's one of the grandson of the Hewlett's of Hewlett Packard was there and and then my journalism teacher they just did a profile of her and her family and the New York Times her daughter was married to Sergey Brin from Google mm-hmm so like Palo Alto High I don't know if it's all Google money or what but it like they have a journalism building that it's like better than the j-school at Columbia yeah yeah anyway yeah I wasn't crazy school anyway I told you I ramble so anyway what was the question actually I was gonna ask was your mother an actress I heard that she is she my parents been to Stanford my mom grew up in Shaker Heights and my god I grew up in Glencoe Illinois they met at Stanford in painting class and my father then gave it up for various reasons went to business school at Harvard and then they moved back because they loved Palo Alto so much so I grew up there and my mother became a children's book author after I started act so they said we're not gonna pay for you anyway and what is one of the reasons - I like worked so hard like Here I am working at McDonald's the drive-thru and just feeling like wow you made this choice James like UCLA drive-thru McDonald's like you better work hard make sure you're acting I did I just all I did besides you know serve hamburgers and and then I and then I got on Freaks and Geeks eventually and then you know I had a career she then started taking acting classes like 10 years after I started acting and in Palo Alto at this honey I'm like come on Wow and she's like it was really sweet on the other hand and she had an improv group in Palo Alto called suburban squirrel and they put on shows and then eventually I as an experiment I went on to General Hospital and after doing General Hospital for a while it got very meta my character was named Franco and all this stuff and it was there are references to me and the guy was like hey or I maybe he was my idea I don't know where we're like Oh what if your mom you're he had heard that she was doing suburban squirrel yeah what if your mom came and played your real mom and I was like yes that's great here's the thing though I was a little I wasn't hard on it was just that she was so weird when we were on the show together she's playing my mom yeah she's playing a woman who like was you know grew up in the sixties as my mom did you know so she's sort of a hippie the character I guess and so you'd think like yeah the writings that you know is what it is but like you know do you think she'd know how to play that character uh and she did it she was so weird I'm like mom what do you think she'd be like had this kind of thing like mom what are you doing like making weird noises like like mom what are you why are you doing that that's not she and obviously I think she had like really worked on it and and since then and I saw I pointed out to her I was like yeah I'm you don't you'll have to add all that weird stuff and I think she learned I put her in other things so and she got a little area and now actually we we did do a high school class together so now we we taught together for a couple years we did a film class at Poly when they made a whole film that was an adaptation of one of her young adult books called the metamorphosis yeah just played up the Mill Valley Film Festival so yeah I love the Mill Valley Film Fest yeah like yeah metamorphosis and like Lady Bird did you go see I actually I couldn't I couldn't make I love I love Lady Bird and I love metamorphosis but yeah baby birds one of the best movies of the year and I know that you studied with Robert Carnegie and how did you find him because I know that became like a very valuable relationship was it just pure luck or did you find you're connected yeah it's really weird I I hardly looked at any schools in LA I was at UCLA I was not in the drama department I was in the English department that was sort of the compromise my dad wanted me to go into mathematics I wanted to go to up you know Rhode Island school designed for art and so the compromise was literature at UCLA and as soon as I got here I to LA I realized oh the half of the town you know is in the movie business and sort of started putting the pieces together at like oh there are practical steps you can take to become an actor there was an actor in my dorm Dykstra who was on Sybil the Cybill Shepherd show and so it's sort of like oh you know because it's like when I would used to watch like stand by me I'd think wow they're just born into it like yeah I was like 14 or it'd be like wow it's too late for me yeah and then I saw like oh and but then I apply for the drama program at UCLA until I was a junior and so there were a couple classes I could apply for and I remember the teacher there I think he's still there Michael Hackett there was like a good class I was eligible for was I got it wasn't even for actors it was for the directors but they needed actors too like as their clay and so I auditioned for that and everybody was like doing sonnets this is so crazy now that I think about it it's almost it's like my whole future is Tommy and James Dean you know was right there so everyone was doing sonnets and he's like alright now you but do it as James Dean why so like I did some sonnet as as James Dean I did not get in the class really cut to 20 years later I played James Dean and then played this crazy man who quotes sonnets people they don't want to hear that yeah and so I didn't get in there and I took a there was like a extracurricular acting class that meant above the pool house at UCLA and I went there and it was like trust exercises it was it was not great but it was you know whatever and I met a woman there named were not a boy it was in the theatre program and she was like I'm in the theatre program we don't even get enough acting classes I want to do in another acting classes and we had heard about this place called Playhouse West so it's like the first place I I really went to and went out and in the valley and I didn't even have a car at that point Renata would just drive mainly and we and I'd go to class I ended up staying there probably way too there like eight years that's not too bad no it's long do you ever go back or take lessons or do brush ups or anything like that no I mean no I I I think one of the reasons I stayed for I I wanted to be the best actor I could be I think part of what was going on was when my parents said you know we're not gonna support you it was kind of harsh to hear you know in from one perspective it you know they were just giving me a lesson like you know this is what you really want to do okay then take responsibility for yourself you know and so that was actually a good lesson to learn and once I did do that and got a job at McDonald's things seemed to work out on the other hand it felt like they don't don't get it they don't get me and into their credit to like by the time my little brother gave rolled around seven years later they were like my mom was taking acting classes in there like yeah do you want to yeah a little bit it's but so when I got the Playhouse and I didn't have a lot of money cuz was even before McDonald's uh-huh [Music] Carnegie said you know pay what you can and just write down you know what what you owe me and if you make it someday he can pay me back Wow it was like wow so that meant a lot and and so it was sort of like he became like an artistic father that I was so hungry for you know somebody an authority figure that would be like you know I'm gonna support your dream I'm gonna you know and so that I needed that yeah obviously and then so like even after like being on Freaks and Geeks and then winning a Golden Glove James Dean all that I still went back because it was like a safe place and after a while you know after like eight years it was sort of like alright dude you need to get out yeah I I tried the thing you know where I had a and this works for for a lot of people a lot of people I respect having coaches for for movies I tried that and I just found for me it it wasn't the best situation or maybe it was just the neighbors personalities involved I don't know but it felt like the coach got in the way of my relationship with the director and so what I just tried to do now is I just try to work with directors that I click with and that's you know and directors probably the most important ingredient for anything that I do and and as opposed to how I was when I was a young actor I didn't really work that way as a young actor but now it's sort of like I just do the director as a you know as as the coach and as the main collaborator and I just create characters in conjunction with the with the director like I don't because I've had the experiences to of like working for eight when I was a young actor like working like eight months on a character and doing all this research and stuff and then going to set and having the director be like what what I wanted or even like something like learning to ride a horse like on my own dime like going to Griffith Park with like these amazing horses like the horses that were actually used like Zorro's horse or you know what I mean like yeah and these Friesians and stuff like that and learning how to do it and eight months every day you know like I got pretty good yeah like I could people like that's not true but I could I could do like I could stand on its back while it well at Gallup I have video of it I don't have it on me I do have video of it Oh someday and then showing up on that shoot and then in the script you know had all these like descriptions of leg battles on horseback and you know he rides down the hill that you know head to the charge and and then getting there on set and realizing of those have all been cut instead of like big battle on horseback it's like six guys sneaked through the woods on foot you know what I mean it was like oh I didn't even ever learned my lesson on that one but after a while it's you know I learned some lessons really slowly but after a while it was like hey dude why don't you just communicate with the director and then you'll know exactly what is needed for the movie and you can put your time and it focus on that what if you are the director of though then well then yeah then you've got then you have a better idea what's going in there yeah the thing I'll say about that though is like I've directed myself a lot I direct myself on the juice of two characters and it's um uncomfortable with it I ain't know how to do it the key to that is really strong producers you know that um share your sensibility and share you know your your taste and so you can depend on them and in a way it becomes within the best case scenario like the deuce with David Simon and Nina Noble and George Pelecanos and on this with with Seth and everybody from Point Grey becomes very fluid and Seth and I were really used to that because on judge sets where we kind of learn it is that way and there is sort of a apprenticeship in it we're writers common everybody sort of can pitch ideas especially when you're improvising and so there are people that you're sitting behind Judd writing jokes all the time and Seth and Evan Goldberg were those guys at one point like I knocked up so that they can SWAT hand and really learn how to do that so that when you know we got to this at the end like and they were the directors it didn't feel that much different it was just like you know they had been watching so closely and so it's sort of the same thing here where if I'm in front of the camera Seth kind of knows what I want or the other producers kind of know what we're going for and so I don't have to like run back and just you know have my eyes on everything or re-watch every take like I know from them that okay you got what you wanted or whatever the only downside from me about directing myself is that I really love collaborating with actors isn't it's the best you know when you get incredible actors and it was one of the things it's one of the things that made me want to go and teach cuz when I here's another sidetrack sorry but I think it's good stuff when I was at and I went back I went to the directing school at NYU after I'd been acting for like 12 years I had Michael Shannon in my shorts I had Charles dance you know hearing lannister yeah you know in my short films at NYU I was very lucky and I realized that was a that was a huge lesson for me as a director was like when I get the best actors I don't have to do that much directing mm-hmm in fact I want to kind of get out of the way if I need that you know just a little bit but they're gonna bring so much already and stuff that I didn't even think of and then I was looking at my classmates and a lot of them you know had newer actors in their short films right which is fine he was understandable and everybody needs to learn and do all that but I realized oh that might require a bit more handling as a director and so that maybe they're getting a false sense of how much they actually need to direct and get involved and and so that was one of the reasons I wanted to go and teach his eye then I after I graduated with you I went back and taught and I I did these classes where they made films and like the first year the Mila Kunis and Jessica Chastain and Zach Braff and you know a bunch of great actors were in the film and they got the students got the experience of like this this collaboration thing between an actor and a director is great you know so that's what I don't get when I direct myself just because a little hard to surprise myself [Laughter] you mentioned James Dean you also mentioned preparation and you sort of infamously really delved into preparing for that role yeah that's yeah that's kind of where I learned how to get into it too a part and and that was a particular that's a particular character I've done eight or nine characters based on real people James Dean as opposed to Aaron Ralston 127 hours was a very public figure he was an actor audiences can go and watch his films rebel without a cause needs to be an enjoying and see what he you know sound you see what he moved like and hear what he sounded like and all that and in addition that was a huge part of James Dean's character right like a lot of people nowadays just young kids they just know maybe like him from the posters of the cigarette okay you know scotch or whatever or from the room exactly who's that blonde guy like getting so upset and so that behavior was a huge component of capturing that character and so I just learned how to do like the outer behavior and really it's just basically what I was I was doing at McDonald's bad you know you know listening to his voice over and over and repeating it back and getting that down reading all the I'll talk about the inner life in a second watching the movies when they're specific scenes where he's doing you know a very kind of iconic bit of behavior that you know is sort of you could say James Dean II like practicing that over and but that's half of it with a character like that and Tommy where if you just do that then it becomes you can the dangers it becomes a caricature mm-hmm so you have to wet it to the inner life and so you get that wherever you can right so James Dean fortunately were like 13 biographies and you know his friends were still around Martin Landau was a good friend of his and dizzy Sheridan who played Seinfeld's mom on the on Seinfeld she had been his girlfriend yeah I was funny when I went over to her place like hey and then here's the thing about James Dean he was so mercurial and just was different with everybody that all the old friends all have a different take on him and they would get together every once in awhile and do you know interviews and roundtables about him they kind of disagree mark Boydell the director um and they'd all kind of disagree but I went over to to Disney Sheridan's and her book wasn't out yet she let me read it in her garden and she's just started she started changing I mean she must have been in her sixties or seventies right suddenly like transform because I was still so in games Dean mode and she started like I don't know you could say flirting but it was almost like she was just like a young woman again it was really sweet almost like visited by James Dean again it was actually really really sweet and anyway so I got it you know figure out his inner life and basically the you know the crux it could just boil down James Dean or at least for myself was he lost his he's so close with his mom lost when she was eight and she died and his dad decided he didn't want to raise him and sent him to live in Indiana with his aunt and uncle and so at the same time he lost both parents and so you could see like both this need for love from Authority but also a kind of rebellion against them you know because they've been so hurt and that's sort of the key to at least two of his three roles you know rebel and East of Eden and that and thank and in Kazan you know the master you know actors director probably you know keyed into that it was like I think I think we even say it another thing like he is Cal like he is the guy and and so just figuring all of that out and and and having the inner and outer life and and so that's I figured out how to do that now in other in other cases you don't eat I don't need to do that in something like you know why him I don't want to say it's not me or like this is the end this is the end the guys names James Franco it's not me it's an exaggerated version of me but like I don't need to like go practice some accent or something like that or you know what do you mean it's like yeah take what's there and then just kind of make it a little dumber than I than I am you also though and maybe I'm wrong cuz I shouldn't believe anything I read on the internet but you took up smoking and you kind of cut yourself off from your friends or was it back when people back before they that internet thing there was this game called Trivial Pursuit and one of the Trivial Pursuit questions was after I did James Dean was which actor didn't talk to his family or friends for like three or four months and started smoking to prepare for the role of James Dean or something like that no is it was it true yeah okay good because I don't want Trivial Pursuit to be proven a liar yeah it was true um yeah smoking if you didn't know is very addictive kids yeah took me about ten years to quit I mean was that the furthest you think you now on the deuce have you watching my god I guess you every scene I'm smoking that's when they carrot both characters in the scene it's like double but they're fake I don't so I don't have the craving like if you stopped I'm sure a lot of you now if you stop smoking nicotine for a while then to get back into it takes a little effort you get edit and everything takes some effort so those things fortunately those things don't make me crave nicotine but I start getting I started craving the fake ones I'm like the only one everyone else is like those are disgusting but like when I'm directing and acting you and two roles on that show and I'm getting kind of stressed out yeah I'll give me one of the like off camera I'm like give me one of those yeah I mean do you think that's the furthest you ever went to prepare for a role or was that early on were you doing that a lot like really the furthest I mean I tried to do it on Freaks and Geeks Paul Feig tells the story about how I and all the other kids were just like excited and you know and they're probably doing the same thing and they're just like hanging out with each other and all that I before we shot I found out that Paul had gone to high school outside of Detroit and that a lot of the stuff in the show was based on him and his experiences outside of Detroit I don't think they even mentioned Detroit in the show ever they they make might mention a couple names I don't they say like eight mile but like something like pretty famous names around that area but that's about it so it didn't really matter if I thought the flavor of you know the suburbs of Detroit or not but I went out there mm-hmm found his high school it was a summer session oh and I went in and found his AV teacher he's like who's like he was almost like Steve Higgins who plays the a/v teacher on the show he's like wow oh yeah I remember Paul Feig and yeah he was great I don't know what I got out of that you know I don't know Daniel deSario on that show but like you could see that I had the desire to like yeah to as much as I could well I think obviously James Dean was a big break for you you won the Golden Globe as I mentioned and from there I know you went on to do spider-man which was probably the biggest movie of your career up to that point yeah the time it was it was at least for opening weekend it was yeah it was the it was the biggest box office it was also a time when we didn't have so many comic-book movies and people weren't sure you know if they would do well and if they could be good yeah yeah that I spider-man 1 and the first x-men movie this movie was sort of the the beginning of this new age of superhumans that were in and we didn't know I people have asked me because of my movie the disaster artists have you ever been on a movie where you thought it was gonna be good or bad and it turned out to be the opposite I have to say I was so I was I I just met you know I didn't just I just didn't know if some things I think I'm just not clear on so I was like I remember saying probably the kerstin or something she's like you think this is gonna be like look at that guy like the stuntman was walking across the stage in the tights and I'm like looks like it's like Disneyland this is it take us and yeah but did you know when you saw it I loved doing it yeah yeah because yeah on paper and especially at the time you couldn't have known it was gonna be good especially as good as it was exactly and from there you sort of balanced indie movies with you know I think it's well not that it's an indie movie but like you did 127 hours and pineapple Express pretty closely together and those are two wildly do that movie the year the pineapple came out I also did milk yes exactly that was sort of like the yeah that was a huge year for me and those movies and two movies in particular were very big for me because that's when I I had been doing you know I had been like a very dedicated either young actor but I didn't know I didn't really know how I just didn't know how it worked you know I was just I've been taught in a certain way that was not the best like I've been taught like there were no actors directors around and like you know that you have to you have to fight for your performance and it just set up this horrible contentious relationship on a lot of the sets I was on not everyone like James Dean mark Riedel understood he you know he was also an actor he kind of he knew how to handle this like strange young young person but and others you know I I was the problem and not for any other reason than I was trying to do a good job I just didn't understand how to work with others all that tommy was oh and when I the year I get pineapple and mil-mil you know was directed by Gus Van Sant like I said he'd been a hero of mine before I wasn't even an actor and then Shawn pine it was also one of my heroes and and then pineapple came about because I ran into Judd at the Austin Film Festival and he had just come out with 40 year old virgin and it's hard to it's hard to think of a time when like there wasn't a judd apatow as me right now but like freaks and geeks got canceled and undeclared got canceled basically show canceled yeah and so exactly so the 40 year old virgin I remember him saying that day he's like finally I finally you know they finally like me I got a head and he's like I don't know why you left the comedy world after freaks engage come back come back come back to comedy I was like I'm ready all right really like I'm not having a good time and he's like oh well that's gonna that's gonna do this movie with me knocked up and then you guys should do it the movie and we didn't even know that it was gonna be pineapple at that point he's just like you should do something with Seth and I was like yes anything I mean and so on that movie pineapple strange to say of all the movies in my career but I really learned how to trust on that movie and and because it was my friends and I thought they were the funniest guys around and so I just turned myself over to the process of that and and it was the best one of the best lessons I could have learned it hadn't occurred to me but I guess you hadn't really been doing comedy no I've been till then cuz you're so do you I mean do you think you were taking yourself too seriously or it was just yeah well yeah I mean here's the thing I I you know thinking about the disaster artist sort of thinking about like the trajectory of my career and how you sort of have some control over him in other ways you have you don't and then things happen to you that pull you in different directions and and a lot of time they're not even aware of it you know while it's happening but I realized you know when I was young even even before I was acting like my heroes were more dramatic actors I James Dean and Brando like Tommy why is those heroes well and and then at age twenty twenty-one I did Freaks and Geeks and that's a still a very formative time in my career was the first real job I ever did and and as a formative time in anyone's life too you know your brain still growing I think and so I kind of got pulled away from the dramatic thing and went there and the universe or whatever was like oh maybe let's just try this out and and so that kind of grew and you know that sort of became part of my palette comedy but then after it ended I was like no I'm dramatic I'm going over here and then I played James Dean and then I did a series of dramas that say bad about him but I just didn't have a great experience on them and the jut again and it was ya know come over here so then so then but then that year that I did milk and pineapple is sort of indicative of what happened with my career from that point it was sort of like oh I'll do comedies and then also do these dramas and you know and soap operas and yeah yeah that's all others weird weirdness weird branch of the tree that's like but you probably would have done that what I I'm thinking you might not have done General Hospital had it not been for your foray into comedy with pineapple Express you were so set on this job that though it sort of came out of like the artistic you know path that I was like on also because I wasn't satisfied with where my career was going as an actor and so I was like I need to I want to try other things and that just came out of a conversation I had with the artists friend if you were really on a soap opera and say oh yeah we can make it happen that opened up all these other things and I was like oh what if you were the host of the Oscars yeah good idea [Laughter] I know someone who was in the room that night and said in the room you guys were killing and they were shocked later when people are yeah I mean I'll take any blame or whatever happened there is a you know interesting phenomenon I think that happens in that show for any future host that will definitely not be me but for any future house there is a weird phenomenon where things that play in the room don't necessary play you know on onto TV and yeah the producer came up to me Bruce Cohen after he's like yeah Spielberg said it was one of the best oh my god all right and then only afterwards nothing like this onslaught I was like oh I like holed up in a hotel in New Haven for real it was just like it was just like punishment just like I had a couple clouds still in school at that time I had a couple of classes but other than that I didn't leave and it was like room service and reading all the criticism I mean it is the world's most thankless gig anyone who's done it will tell you that I think if you're you know if you're I never dreamed of doing that I never wanted to do that you know it was just I was sort of in that experimental mode and they came and asked me and I was just like yeah they didn't expect me on General Hospital they didn't expect me here maybe something interesting will happen well kind of the opposite happened but someone asks you why not you know you're gonna have to yeah look it's part of my journey my you you learn from everything I know that I I know that I wouldn't be in the place I am now if I hadn't like okay that's too far in that direction yeah don't do that something find something else to do it is interesting but if you're like Steve Martin oh she was you know the best at that and you you know he put my friend Adam Shankman produced that year that Alec and Steve did it was just arguably one of the best of the recent you know you know past few decades they they put in so much time like if my attitude was I never wanted to be the host I don't need to write jokes you guys do it for me all you know I'll just fall into the mold that you want I'll go along with the program I have no you know horse in this race I'm happy I'm a vessel that was sort of my attitude it's just not the right attitude to have like you need to go in and I need to go into that and be like I really want to do this and I want to you know put my stamp on it yeah it I can't vouch though that many people who were actually there were like no I thought they were killing in the room and then you know what they were surprised by the response to somebody who I've been the nosebleed to it's like I think it's good seems good it was actually a winner that night who told me that I'll tell you later before we move on to the disaster artist actually um I think I'm just gonna hit on everything uncomfortable that I can I just want to bring up the interview sure just a movie about that oh I freaking love that movie it's a good movie it is so fun thank you yeah I mean you got Eminem to come out in the first man I've seen it piece of crap it's amazing he's playing it by the way he is I'll tell story about Eminem he um he's a great guy I always remind him he was so serious like I think he was really trying like really hard yeah and he wouldn't laugh late he's like this he wouldn't smile he not only wouldn't laugh he wouldn't smile but it was really funny you know what we're doing and I'm born I'm like as I've warned everybody that you know interacted with my character sky lager I was like um Marshall like I'm just gonna be really stupid like if I say some stupid stuff don't don't do anything hey he's like I remember and they I actually said that - um what's her name um anyway I said it to another person she was like you say something wrong and will slap you or something like this I guess so and anyway so he's really serious and I kept you know is really funny and he would he would laugh but he wouldn't smile so it was like this I'm not exaggerating I thought it was like in painting phrases like you know are you gay the whole time like that and um and you know Seth and I was like so seriously like well you know and it was like a mean and like we never got it really what's that Wow so then finally at the end Seth came over to give some direction and and Eminem was like you know set them I just you tell me tell me something don't worry about that I mean I know it's kind of become funny and retrospect everything that went down with you know a Korean dictator threatening you and the Sony leaked but yeah at the time I mean were you genuinely scared I would have been terrified I probably should have been more scared than I then I was I mean they gave us a bodyguard I am stayed at the some secure hotel for a while but they said like they the Koreans are really good hackers they said this months before they in August when the trailer came out and there was like a weird response to that yeah as if like Obama had made the trailer it was like a really weird worth they're like yeah and beware mr. Obama there are people in your country that don't like you and it's like Obama didn't make this movie what do you but they're like you know watch out have your accountant like watch your accounts and keep it really they're really good hackers yeah Wow so you know five months later and yeah Sony got hacked but as far as my yeah somebody coming after me I didn't I wasn't worried about that it didn't seem like I don't know it didn't seem like they let anybody out of their country well I mean more that you would be hacked er you know yeah I mean I took uh I took all my personal photos off my computer yeah and then where did you put them I think they're on a hard driver [Laughter] it's so funny the the thoughts that are in there bad because I because I just you guys I remember you guys made jokes about it on Saturday Night Live and it was very funny and you were good yeah that's what it all came down yeah but part of me was really like like genuinely worried about you guys yeah I mean we after a while like we didn't know what was gonna happen like they weren't telling us anything like it was it's out of the theaters and then yeah that's the other thing like you've worked really hard on this movie yeah worried it would never be seen yeah funny yeah yeah we were worried it but that's what we were more worried about that people see this movie and then it became this weird thing I you know I was home for the hot he was supposed to come out on Christmas Day and we still didn't know for a while what was gonna happen and it was sort of on the news every morning I was staying at this hotel in Palo Alto my grandma was staying there and we'd have breakfast in the morning and be on the news and be different things and then and then I remember Obama coming on and he's like and he said it after it had been pulled from theaters everybody's like no it should be shown in theaters we should not be intimidated and this is a fun movie you know I love Seth Rogen and I love James Flacco I've told this story a few times hoping he hears when it yes as if he's gonna listen to a Saget hoping he hears it comes out and be like alright James I'm sorry I got the name wrong oh man you would think somebody with that name would know to pronounce other people's names right I think there's like some athlete named James Flaco oh really well he got a nice boost from you then I guess so I do want to move on to the disaster artist cuz I could talk about this movie for hours um and I was surprised to learn you were not like an initial fan of the room like so many people who were phenomena wasn't that I wasn't a fan I just it just somehow did not penetrate my consciousness and I remember you know you and I right the actors on actress thing and I was talking to Gary Oldman backstage and I was describing it to him I was describing the billboard that's all I knew no board that was on Highland and I just showed that I was just telling it to somebody in the airport and old friend of mine that I ran into and he was like oh yeah that thing I thought that was like a wanted poster veronik yeah and I guess and I I thought it was like Angeline you know like call that number and you get you know a vampire in a movie or something like that oh he's an all-american guy yeah yeah and and I was describing it to Gary Oldman and the it's not a light bulb go off and he's like oh that bloody thing I remember that thing yeah that's what your movies about that thing and he's like that just sat on the edge of my consciousness for years so that's all I knew of the room I found out later like Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd yeah Kristen Bell like were religious you know viewers of the room and we'd go to the sunset 5:00 and I'm like why didn't you know what did you tell me why don't you let me in that but I never had just never caught on and and then yeah I read the book for four years ago I I read it almost immediately after it came and it was it's just like you know certain things speak to you you just know and I thought there were two incredible ingredients just in the story that it was the most bizarre Hollywood story ever unlike any other right because Tommy Wiseau is unlike any other human being that's ever lived some say he's inhaling for that the room is as if an alien came down to our planet and tried to like portray life as as he understood it but on the other hand what Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell did in a book it was so beautiful because they made that bizarre story everybody's story and it was my story and as I realized you know reading the book like not only could I relate sort of in a general way as like an actor who you know came to Hollywood and then wasn't getting support from his parents and was working McDonald's and had to you struggle for a bit not only can relate that way I actually was in LA at the exact same time they were in Greg's the stereo was beating me out for parts and then and then actually when I played James Dean or there's a I think there's a scene in the book this guy blew Tommy gets stuck in traffic and it's all this traffic that's going to the Golden Globes and he gets really upset he's like I don't want to wait in this traffic Golden Globe whatever you know and it was the night that I won oh yeah so lay that ballroom and somewhere out there in traffic is the guy you're gonna play exactly her so like and then I approached them I read the book and I got in touch with Greg and then I approached them but it turns out that I was one of two people that Tommy wanted to play him I was maybe a second choice he wanted he wanted Johnny doubt but I was his second choice largest because I had played Jane rice and he watched that movie many times and and so in a weird way it's like we were like drawn to each other you know of all you know you have two people in your mind and one of them comes out of the balloon and is like yeah I want to do it but but in Tommy's world yes he's probably like out of course like like should I let James do it or maybe I should wait cuz Johnny is probably going to knock any moment yeah I've been waiting like almost like he knew a movie was gonna be made about his life like yeah yeah you guys took you 14 half years like what happened like five years ago were you drawn to it as a director or an actor or both at the same time yeah they were like three things I I saw in my mind when I when I was reading the book was like I have to tell the story I do want to direct it I think I I think I know how and I want to play Tommy I relate to him like even though on the surface maybe there's a lot of differences underneath you know I got it you know and there are there are roles that you see as an actor and you're just like I know my way I know that there's a way I don't know all the details yet but I know that I can get in there and I and I felt that way I felt that way about James Dean and I and I felt that way about Tommy and and then I knew I wanted my brother to play yeah Greg that I loved him as a yeah he's a great actor he was a great actor but also that we had the right dynamic for several reasons that Greg and Tommy do have a friendship that is almost like their brother yeah strange brothers but brothers and that that would be great to have my own brother but also we had done this series of sketches for Funny or Die where I played this ridiculous acting coach and here's my student and that popped into my mind when I was reading it was then it was like basically that was the seed yeah for the relationship in the in the room because Tommy's a bizarre Gregory Greg's an actor you know um when people see the movie I think we all know it's going to be hilariously funny which it is I never used this term but it is like like you hurt yourself laughing it's so funny it is what it got punching Lee anyway it's really funny but I think people are taken aback by how like how empathetic it is how it is about dreams and you know in a weird way like redefining what Hollywood success is this guy gets to see his dream and he's so sincere about it you know yeah that it actually kind of breaks your heart but that's what we had to find yeah and that's what they did so well in the book and when I so when I read the book like if I had just gone to see the room I would have been like oh this is this is amazing and if I went you know the actual experiences are so fun and communal and but the most I could probably pull out of it would be some art project because I wouldn't you wouldn't necessarily know from the room all that amazing backstory right you might be able to surmise you know and I think audiences do get this feeling whether it's subconscious or not of wow this guy is really trying like there is you know you can read into it and see oh he's he was trying to be sincere when this thing and I think that's it's actually one of the things that sets the room apart yeah my mother bagged a magazine yeah set out to make you know great dramatic movie though you know people be disturbed for two weeks after watching this movie you know Tennessee Williams yeah Tennessee Williams Louisville drama and but reading the book I saw and we all saw and and and that the way in was to make him you really tell the story of creativity you know it would be you know it's Tommy has the same level as he had the same level of passion as a young Coppola you know what I mean it's just that he had zero self awareness you know he you know he thought he was James Dean he looks like a pirate makes with a vampire and he thinks he's James Dean and so and so that's why that passion it just gets filtered through this weird cheese grater of you know and comes out over here you know but I thought we will be able to if we do it right we'll be able to tell the story of all kind of artistic striving of all Outsiders you know with a dream it'll just be through this weird upside down lens and yeah you also got two of the best screenwriters in the business exactly and so exactly so by the way when the National Board of Review you know best me yesterday yeah that sort of shows you know hiring Scott Neustadter Mike whatever kind of shows where we wanted to put our focus cuz they're not necessarily comedic writers you know they wrote 500 days of summer and Fault in Our Stars and so it showed that we really wanted to put the emphasis on the relationship right Regan Tom there the relationship guys yeah yeah and so hiring them already put us in that direction and then I only I learned like a month and a half ago that Mike with her I was there yes he's like you know I didn't even watch the room before we wrote the first draft and I was like yes and he's like yes Scott did so we you know one of us was aware of it but we wanted to make sure that what we wrote would work for you know people that weren't initiated it make sense honestly yeah but yeah I couldn't tell if you were genuinely stunned by that because you seem to have trouble process no it was done I am sort of like you're like really really oh yeah thank you but I mean it works everything it works whatever he did work and the truth is like I have seen the disaster artists with people who haven't seen the groom and it does work and then there's still people I know you know you mentioned actors on actors you were paired with Dustin Hoffman he watched your movie and still didn't know the room was a real movie which is a little weird like you're wonder if he didn't get to the end I'm like yeah Justin do you watch the end like we he was side by side comparison like I figured he figured it out by then but maybe not you might be right he was like yeah what we can see we considered putting actual footage of Tommy up front really of our film because people that hadn't seen the room maybe would think wow James is really taking a big swing here that is a choice little over the top James and but we put it at the end and so people realize oh he's not exaggerating onazi yes that's the guy it's weirdly dead-on and in fact I assume there had to be times where because truth is so much stranger than fiction did you have to hold back yeah well what we did learn was Tommy's such a fun character and he's such a fun character to do and everybody sort of got into it by the end and like I said it was sort of a Judd Apatow set environment where new Saturn Webber on set every day you know writing alts and we had other writers Kelly Oxford and other people writing alts and and we'd come up with something everybody loved you know coming up with Tommy stuff so much but then we realized no we can't go too far like we it's not about playing the jokes it's about playing the situations and so there were a lot of Tommy isms yeah that we that we tried that we ultimately didn't put in just because it doesn't wasn't it wasn't the thing yeah and you spent time with him because I think you know did you ever get his life right yeah I I did spend how I spend a lot of time with him now at this point he's amazing yeah I mean he's amazing in the sense that he's just surprises every time he put I'm getting to know him a little better when we were when we were preparing for it I knew I thought I'm not gonna be able to talk to him him about who he was before the room very much because I'm not gonna get a straight answer because he is you know the master at rewriting history is unaware as he was when he was making the room about you know we was he's become inversely proportional II you know a maverick at capitalizing on the comedic success of the room and he's taking on that persona you know yeah I'm intended to be common it you know I you know like like that and so to talk to him about who he was and how sincere and earnest he was when he's making the room now wouldn't serve me I know he you know I intended to be you know even has at the beginning of the room if you go to the screenings now it's like it's one it's one of the best things he's made since the room it's just this little like video that goes before like it's these little sayings and then these explosions come up you know and it's like you say I you said I didn't have script how dare you you say you say I don't intend it to be comedy how dare you you say you say I don't know what I'm doing I have you know 35 millimeter camera and HD bow down you you know say Tommy stupid cause it's like this insane thing so like that's who we like if I went to him and be like you know you you were trying to be some terrible okay to my dairy like that's basically what I get right and so so I did have something else though that was of equal value it was as it would be as if I had interviewed him and talked to him before he made the room he you know in Tomi fashion did something weird he used to record everything he would record every phone conversation and in the room there's this scene where he's suspecting his girlfriend you know cheating on him right I will recall her every conversation you know whatever he says and he goes to the phone and he just happens to have like a mini tape or something in his pocket yeah and you're like what the heck that's so stupid but in fact no that's it makes total sense for Tommy why though because that's what he did he always had mini tapes because he was always recording everything and and so he would also drive around in his car with a mini tape recorder and record himself to talk to himself and he had hundreds of these tapes and 20 years ago his good friend Greg is good friends do uh stole some of these tapes like not knowing you know this is bad or the room before you know there's this you know cult phenomenon before his book he just took some of these tapes and he had digitized them and when I was getting ready to play the role Greg gave them to me and they're incredible I mean they're you know when I was playing James Dean I heard about this child this teenage journal that he wrote didn't that his nephew Marcus who runs the estate has and I think he's never shown to anyone these whereas if I had the journal but it was like not only that it's like the audiobook version you know read by the man himself and and you know he's like complaining about acting teachers you know like and it's everything I need it was like you know oh he told he don't treat me like the other you know the other students well ivory come down on me told me to like speak French and like why would I do that like and then you know I think I think he intimidated he says my power and I think he just intimidated treat me different you know my mother and this is five years before the room he's like maybe I'll go do my own thing maybe I'll make movie or my bad join rock band and I make rock album or something I mean with that like right there that little nugget yeah that's Tommy you know in a nutshell where the whole town tells him no and he's like and then you see him make the switch in his mind he's like well they don't understand I will show that my look you know make my own movie and like I had little bits like that or even others that were like actually now he knows I have them it's not yeah he calls them secret tape Jame everybody James everybody asked me about secret tape they I know you have my secret tape but for an actor it was gold yeah yeah and the I've harped on this before but the physical transformation because I wouldn't I mean it as a compliment when I said I wouldn't look at you and think that you would be the first person to play Tommy Wiseau but like the makeup and the hair and then I mean how long did it take you to get into the look yeah two and a half hours every day and I was the director so I didn't get there before everyone it wasn't like go set up and go to makeup it was like because it would take they'd be waiting around for hours so yeah two and a half hours every morning we didn't know if it was gonna work before because we had you know I'd done in the interview with Seth and point gray and in fact doing kim jeong-hoon right with Randall they had put some prosthetics on and it didn't it looked kind of cartoony mm-hmm so we ended up not using that and so so point gray was a little worried about me using prosthetics and so I had we did a test and so I had chick cheeks no bridge on the nose chin eyelid and wig we had we were gonna do because he's got it Tom he's got a pretty big forehead but then it would have involved like going over my eyebrows and then putting fake eyebrows on and we're like I would let's not do that one but yeah it was yeah I was important it was important yeah you know it was it was an interesting thing you know the actors talked about how I like stayed in character you know when I was directing now here's the thing like I had all that stuff on and what you realize you know the amazing thing when you about playing like a role way you look so different in gary oldman talked about this too like you really people just treat you differently you realize oh you know it's just I don't know it's just automatic we don't think about it we just you know and just people treat you differently so people we start already sort of treating me like Tommy we're like if I would meet or like Seth Rogen's grandparents came and they're like they just did not know what was going they didn't know it was me and and then like Lauren his wife just hated she just really yeah she didn't talk to me for months because I was Tommy but I sort of stayed in character and you know we and we were thinking about it sort of we couldn't think of another example where the director of a movie was acting in it playing a director acting in his own movie wow yeah and then on top of that like staying in character when he directed like we couldn't think of that ever happening on the other hand you know this is amazing it's my new favorite thing this amazing documentary on Netflix called Jim Andy Andy yes you know yeah yeah where it's all the footage of him playing Andy Kaufman and he goes so deep into Andy Kaufman the gym is gone right and you see is just like he's got Milosz form in there like one of the best directors ever ever he's like cowed by you know the Tony Clifton character and like like I didn't do that you know II mean it wasn't like the disaster artist yeah was directed like the room you know it wasn't you know like I'm giving Tommy direction like you know your sister this is what he actually would like when you do auditions like your sister a lesbian she just died go wait that is direct I did not do that I directed like James it was just sort of like through the filter oh yeah and I think when you're in that outfit you almost can't help it yeah but be Tommy it just made it simpler I'm sure was bizarre oh you know for most of the actress but and and and like Seth on his first day we had a lot of cameos and when people would come to set it would be a minute I didn't know that this was going on they I learned later that the producers and other actions would be like or my brother I'd be like alright so before we go to set just so you know like James ain't gonna be there and it's gonna be really weird but whatever and so yeah it took some of the actors a little while but I think it helped for the with the app yeah you know and I don't want to spoil anything again but there is a nude scene of Tommy in the room that you have to read and so I was watching this thinking you know you're running around set naked as Tommy wise oh well also directing yourself look yeah there's be clear like that we were again recreating what really happened that wasn't like James saying yeah I gotta do this scene where I'm running around with a ha ha ha [ __ ] aah gun but if you know the room there are like three or four sex scenes within the first 30 minutes they're like the most ridiculous frightening goofy sex scenes that you've ever seen not only that tommy was so enamored of you know with his sex scene that he repurposed right the footage from one sex scene and made an additional sex scene like ten minutes later like you're not fooling anyone it's like not the same scene from like just slightly different moments yeah and different music yeah but we in our movie so in the book they talked about how when he was directing those scenes he would walk around without a robe on and like was like that all day yeah Wow if you're I never on a set like that just run the director is pulling that just go yeah I mean if we've learned anything but in our movie it was a very important scene because it wasn't just showing how ridiculous and inappropriate that set was in fact the character is going through kind of a breakdown Tommy's worried that he's gonna lose his best friend so he's acting out on set and it's like it's actually a lot of like self-hatred and fear that's going on and he's just taking it out on his set so it was it was it was it's sort of the client and one of the climactic scenes and totally is the nucleus of our movie because it's funny and scary and you know sad and you know so many things are happening and at one time I we planned it out with my DP Brendan trust yeah he was amazing yeah beforehand that we would shoot it there's a few cuts in it but we shot it is if in with one shot and one and and so all the energy would you know keep building and stay you know hi and and so we only we only really did it maybe like five or six times we just it would just be like a mini one-act play oh because it you know go all over the sad and AH you know all these different there's like different sections of that scene and so my crew the disaster artist crew was only subjected to my partially nude body for you know only five or six takes I know we're almost out of time but I want to get through some audience questions real quick speed round if a question from is it Raphael Oh way back over there what's the most challenging role you've had and why I I think the character like you never wanted you never want to judge the characters you know when you're playing them and so there's a speed around sorry okay there's a movie called true story I did with Jonah Hill it's based on this real guy who and he was like the worst guy that I ever played and and the real guys on death row Christian Longo and he wanted me to go meet him and I just thought you know why this guy is done nothing of note in his life except murder his kids and his wife and I have him on video like I have his deposition I have enough you know and I don't want to have this guy give this guy any bragging rights or anything you know and so I didn't go meet him and then when I was playing him like I said you don't want to judge the character but I found myself just like hating him so much that I almost like felt like I wasn't in character like I just wouldn't think about it I just you know I did all my preparation but I just wouldn't even like think about him and and then I realized it's exactly how he works like he's so he's she opened he's so unaware of himself and what he's done that that's exactly probably the minds that the state that he was in yeah yeah it was kind of hard to get through it was hard for me and Jonah he had a hard time when I let me to uh a question from is it men Ola you film a lot of movies with your friends which film was the most fun to shoot they're all you know that all of them are fun that was the lesson I learned on pineapple Express you know that you can make a movie with your friends you can have a good time and still make a good movie and so all of them you know they're all great I remember on the set of this at the end like you know while they're setting it up we just hang out in that house it's supposed to be my house it's not my house just laying on the beanbags and be sitting there with Danny McBride and be like why it doesn't feel any different like when we're off camera and on cameras like this is just hanging out and and so the disaster artist was the same way yes not only was it friends with his family my brother and my sister-in-law so yeah it was great I was Alizee what are the things you wish you could still do that Fame took away from you and how do you deal with that you know privacy a freedom of speech that's a good question I mean it's a part of my life and it's one of the things that I just had to I've been in different ways sort of struggling with sometimes not even knowing that I'm struggling with it you know coz it's great you know there's great things you know and I'm so grateful for my career and and then you relate you know my relationship with it you can get funny you know where you think like I don't know like oh I'll just have fun with my public sona or something and then it's like I don't know it's not you're not having fun like that's actually how people are gonna read you now like that's how people consider you this way you thought you would be in frivolous and funny and in fact that's how people now read you I I don't know what I don't get to do I mean I've I've really tried hard to as you can see like going back to school and going to multiple schools like I've really tried hard to have a life that you know is apart from that as well so I don't I don't know I think I get to do everything but you're so busy always working not anymore really no you taking a break I only acted two weeks this video what you did it Coen brothers saying The Ballad of Buster Scruggs the Western what is that coming out did all that horse riding come in handy good a little bit I don't want to ruin I don't want to ruin anything it wasn't riding as much as uh there's a part where I'm have a noose around my neck I mean a horse that's under me and like a lot of activity going around on around me and I kind of had just like and the horse is supposed to get spooked and they'd have it like rear up and stuff so fix it you know ya know how to stand up yeah finally yeah when is that coming out do you know I think next year oh that's so cool um and finally a question from Cody Christianson wants to know when was the last time you remember one to give up on the business and what did you do to keep going um do you drink both of these well so I didn't mean to call you out but I'm yours and the coffee sohcahtoa my long answer I I think right before I ran into Judd about twelve years ago or so whatever it right before pineapple I just you know I would I was trying so hard and it was just you know not working out I just was not happy with a lot of work out the work I was doing and no and experiences I was having and it was largely due to me I had to make that adjustment that was the lesson I learned on pineapple but it wasn't fun and and I wasn't getting the results I wanted and it's just whatever and so that's when I went back to school and that's when I did pineapple and that that helped a lot and then recently you know I slowed down you know I I think you know I was known for doing a lot of things and part of that was that I had learned early on you know when I was working at McDonald's like okay James nobody is except your teachers is saying you should do this you know I'm gonna you you know you should take this chance on yourself so I was like alright I'm gonna just believe in myself I gotta work really really hard I got to show everyone that I did that I'm supposed to be doing this and then two or three years later I was on Freaks and Geeks and so I learned from that experience like oh if you work hard at something that that's how you get better like any any athlete you know if they are professional they've practiced right you don't you're not gonna find anybody in professional sports that's like nope I never practiced just there I'm a natural you know like people have natural talent but they work at it and and so part of me you know directly so many things and doing all that was like oh I just want the experience and doing that and you know a lot of those movies I'm happy with most of them but you know some are more successful than others in different ways and but a lot of that was I think getting experience and you know I get to direct on the juice now and I don't think I would have been able to direct an HBO show especially for David Simon if if I didn't have all that experience behind me and and I wouldn't have been able to make the movie I made if I didn't have that but in addition the change that I had to make was and the other problem the other thing that was going on though was that I was just running for myself and any actor and in any creative person I believe you know now in hindsight like you have to you know in addition to like what I was getting was you know all the sort of practical know-how and you know and just learning all the mechanics of it and getting all that down but I wasn't balancing it out with a life and balancing out who I was and so I was in some ways not growing not maturing because I just was letting my real life sort of like dwindle it was almost like I was like this you know she hated like being at the center of this other thing that was my career and and so now I'm learning you know I had to learn how to balance everything out and and then the result you know I think the results show and I feel so much better about my work just slowing down now and now that I have all that experience under my belt and giving more time and focus to fewer things and I do well I'm so excited the disaster artists is finally opening this weekend because my friends are sick of hearing me talk about it and spoil it for them because they really want to see it on their own but could you ask Tommy tell us why we should go see this movie [Laughter] okay well how long you want I think you have to be somewhere okay that's up to you as Tommy said at the premiere of his movie the room this also applies to me James as my movie the disaster comes out because as I tried to talk about this was a very personal story for me even though on the surface in some ways it's very different it was incredibly personal and so as Tommy said I will say this my movie this this my life be cool [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 140,783

Rating: 4.8765717 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, The Disaster Artist, Conversations, James Franco, Freaks and Geeks, Never Been Kissed, Whatever It Takes, James Dean, Spiderman, Flyboys, Tristan + Isolde, Nights in Rodanthe, Milk, Eat Pray Love, Your Highness, Date Night, Spring Breakers, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 127 Hours, Q&A, Interview, Career

Id: ndA4qRo4v8w

Length: 92min 50sec (5570 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 14 2017