James Franco: From Palo Alto to Hollywood Stardom - Essay Sample

Introduction

He was born on 19th April 1978 at Palo Alto, in California, his parents being Betsy Lou and actress and writer and his father Douglas Eugene Franco who had a business of Silicon Valley. His mother was from the Jewish community while the father was from Swedish and Portuguese lineage. James had two brothers, Tom, and Dave whom they grew up together and are also actors. In 1996 he attended Palo Alto High School where he also acted in various plays. His father always encouraged him to work hard in school and get good grades, and after graduating from high school, he attended CSSSA in 1998. He had an idea of pursuing marine zoology, though he had a passion for acting but feared being rejected in the field of acting. James got arrested and detained for being involved in the stealing and selling fragrances from the store; this made him change and start working hard to achieve good grades in high school. He then went to Los Angeles where he joined the University of California to pursue English major, after a year of learning he dropped out of the school and joined an acting school under Robert Carnegie at the Playhouse in West. His parents never supported this move, and they even declined to pay for his school fees, so he had to look for a part-time job to get money to help himself.

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Some of the films James Franco featured in are:

'Freaks and Geeks,' this is a film which he acted (1999-2000) just 15 months after study at Playhouse West Robert Carnegie being the coach where he took a role of bad boy Daniel Desario. Within the same year, he produced some other films like, Never Been Kissed (1999) and whatever it Takes (2000).' James Dean,'(2001) this film faced some critics, though it mage the young actor to be recognized and even got Golden Globe as the best actor (2002), and to prepare for this film James had to smoke two packets of cigarettes in one day.

'Spider-Man' Franchise, he featured in Spider-man 1, 2 and 3, on the year 2002, 2004, and 2007 respectively where he took the role of Harry Osborne. The same year 2002 he produced the other two films called 'In the crime drama City by the Sea' where he acted as male prostitute soldier in Nicola. He also wrote a person who lived with a talking gorilla 'The Ape 2005'. In 2006 he performed in World War I as an aviator in 'Flyboys.' The same year he stared in a romantic drama 'Tristan + Isolde' where he played the role of breaking the hearts of young women everywhere.

'127 Hours' this drama was produced in 2010 which saw the actor being nominated in the Academy Award as the best actor. This is a story of mountain climbing and the experiences and dangers. In 2008 he was included in producing 'Nights in Rodanthe. The same year 2010 some of the rolled films included, comedy Date nights, drama Eat Pray Love (2011), your highness (2011), the drama of the rise of Apes (2011) and the Spring Breakers (2012). On 2015 he acted alongside his brother Dave Franco in the film 'The Disaster Artist,' where he got awarded for the best actor, in 2017 he took the role of twin brothers in a film which aimed at showing the legalization and rise of porn movies in New York City in the 1970s.

How He Become a Successful Actor

Franco acted many films but not all of them made him successful, it took him three years to fully break into the holly hood industry after Spiderman and the Green Goblin. In 2007 he left his role in the Spider Man's film and ventured into smaller and impactful parts, writing more and going back to college, and in 2008 he was awarded 'Stoner of the Year' due to his role in Spiderman despite the rejections he faced. Most of his writings faced rejections and various reactions though, this was preparing him to one of the breakthroughs in his career when he wrote about the grueling experience of a hiker trapped in a canyon with no way of escaping, where Danny Boyle-directed 127 Hours. This chronicle earned him an opportunity for Oscar nominations. He was never swayed by all the fame and followers he had, after Oscar nominations. Instead, he worked even hard on other projects like he created 'Rebel' a mixed media.

Dropping out of UCLA have always disturbed him, so he went back to school, got a degree and started teaching students of UCLA on how to write an incredible movie. One of the most memorable films of later days that he featured in was that of 'Spring Breakers' where he was exposing how the use of drugs and sex-fuel movies have affected people from New York city especially Miami beach. His career reached at the pick when he finally produced a play called 'The Disaster Artist' here he presents the story of a wealthy nomad called Tommy Wiseau an actor from Los Angeles, trying to succeed in the Hollywood industry but, is faced by lots of rejections and critics, though when the film was launched most people loved it, and this earned him an award at New York's Gotham Awards, and this made him grab Oscar nominations, and amidst all these Oscar buzzes, James remained determined to his career for future achievements and objectives.

Struggles Encountered

The journey of success is full of setbacks and discouragements that person have to be ready to battle to emerge as a winner. James Franco as an actor faced various challenges in the field of the acting industry. First, he never received support from his parents for joining a school of acting, after dropping out of the school he was previously admitted, and he had to support himself financially. In the entertainment industry, it's not about who you know but who knows you; it requires much of networking for one to succeed. As an actor, many people will be your friends, and some will be your worst enemies, and some will even reject your work and career, and this can easily ruin your image and confidence, and since actors are much exposed to the public they are being judged without knowing what they do go through, media do post controversial news about them without adequately analyzing the sources of the information well, at a times the video has not gained the required attention from the viewers, the actors are mocked, also it is not easy to determine when they will land on their next role, and this keeps them on toe to work very hard to always give out the best in every play, and they end up even having sleepless nights, and also they do lack steady income. All these struggles never discouraged Franco. Instead, they drove him to success.

Being a Jew

Franco was brought up on a secular background and being a Jewish who were known to be staunch Christians, he at one time regarded not to have experienced the full life of being a Jew, in a particular interview he was asked if he believed in God, he was not decisive on this question because to some extent he believed but on the other hand he was not sure about his stand concerning God. His Jewish friends even told him never to worry about the idea of religion as it was only a source of community. Among top 50 talented Jewish men James and his brother Dave was ranked number two on April 2012 by Shalom life.

Conclusion

James Franco is an individual who started from a humble beginning, but through his passion and determination he managed to emerge victoriously, this shows that nothing is impossible in life when you remain focus and attached to the right people of the same vision as yours.