Who knew James Franco began acting to overcome his shyness! Before he found acting in college, he found painting in high school: “I needed an outlet in high school and came across painting. I’ve actually been painting longer than I’ve been acting. A movie is a collaborative effort, and with painting you just have yourself.” Sounds like a fair comparison, but how does he define acting? Simple: “Acting is an art form and you want to take roles that are challenged and it’s more of a challenge I think to play dark characters. Not that I want to always play those, but it is a challenging and challenge, are rewarding and fun.” This helps explain why most of his characters have a troubled history. When I think over his various roles of characters with troubled pasts, I think of the Spider Man trilogy. Yes, I realize Tobey McGuire landed the leading role, but I bet you remember the charming, handsome villain as well!
Along this comic book hero story-line, James recently starred in The Green Hornet. Even if you missed that one, there is a good chance you caught him in 127 Hours, which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actor this year. Let’s rewind for a minute to see how this dapper young man got his start. Like many of his peers, his breakthrough starring role was in a TV series. Starring in “Freaks and Geeks” led to his role in the TNT made-for-television movie James Dean in 2001. Since everything (or mostly everything) in life is cause-andeffect, his role in this movie caught Robert De Niro’s attention and landed James the role in City by the Sea. Have you noticed a pattern yet? Each of his characters seems to have a troubled past.
Speaking of past, James has a mixed heritage. His mom’s side is Russian Jewish, whereas his dad’s side is Portuguese and Swedish. I had no idea he was part Jewish, but according to Salon.com, he is one of "10 men who might just inspire the rebirth of Jewish male cool." Sounds good to me! I wonder if his mixed background inspired him to play a yoga-practicing, bohemian in Eat Pray Love.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is his starring role as a pothead in Pineapple Express. It was at this point that he developed his friendship with slapstick buddy Danny McBride. The two had so much fun filming together that they are reuniting, along with, Natalie Portman in the upcoming epic comedy-adventure movie "Your Highness".
For future reference:
Actors of fully Jewish background: -Logan Lerman, Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mila Kunis, Bar Refaeli, James Wolk, Julian Morris, Esti Ginzburg, Kat Dennings, Erin Heatherton, Odeya Rush, Anton Yelchin, Paul Rudd, Scott Mechlowicz, Lizzy Caplan, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Gal Gadot, Robert Kazinsky, Melanie Laurent, Marla Sokoloff, Shiri Appleby, Justin Bartha, Adam Brody, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Gabriel Macht, Halston Sage, Seth Gabel, Alden Ehrenreich.
Actors with Jewish mothers and non-Jewish fathers -Jake Gyllenhaal, Dave Franco, Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Radcliffe, Alison Brie, Eva Green, Emmy Rossum, Jennifer Connelly, Eric Dane, Jeremy Jordan, Joel Kinnaman.
Actors with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, who themselves were either raised as Jews and/or identify as Jews: -Andrew Garfield, Ezra Miller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alexa Davalos, Nat Wolff, James Maslow, Josh Bowman, Ben Foster, Nikki Reed, Zac Efron, Jonathan Keltz.
Actors with one Jewish-born parent and one parent who converted to Judaism -Dianna Agron, Sara Paxton (whose father converted, not her mother), Alicia Silverstone, Jamie-Lynn Sigler.