Dave Franco
I went to USC where there's a huge Greek system. The school is in a pretty seedy area, so the only social life is at these fraternities. I never joined one myself, but I had a lot of friends who were in frats and I would go to those parties. I had a healthy dose of being around frat life while I was in school.
You can't make a good movie with a bad script, no matter who's involved.
No one ever sets out to make a bad movie. There's almost always incredible amount of passion and work put behind any given project. You just have to give it everything you got, and sometimes it works out, and a lot of the times it doesn't.
I don't just wanna be James Franco's little brother.
It's the most incredible feeling in the world when you finally land a job.
I burned down my dorm room freshman year. I was that kid. When you live in small quarters with two guys, the smell in the room starts to take over a little bit. So we decided we wanted our room to smell like fresh baked cookies. So we order a cookie-dough-scented candle off eBay, and then we accidentally burn our room down with that candle.
When I think of myself, I'm definitely... I'm not like a comedian.
I'm not one of those people who are, like, always joking in person.
I'm a cat person.
I'm a tough critic on myself.
As much as I love and respect my brother, I'm doing my best to distance myself from him and kind of show people that, even though we do look similar and have similar mannerisms, we are completely different.
I'm a small shifty kind of guy.
I think my first big purchase was actually for my mom. She had one of those '90s TVs in her living room that's like a 10x10 brick, so I purchased her a flatscreen for her living room.
I can't say I was like a die-hard zombie fan, but I've definitely seen a few different zombie movies and TV shows.
For example, for me, my brother helped me get a manager, which I don't take for granted. It's tough getting a manager, let alone one that actually cares about you and is smart. But from there, no one's going to cast me just because I'm James Franco's little brother.
I just know that it's smart for my career to carve my own path and do my own thing.
To be honest, I was kind of a shy kid growing up.
At this point, I feel like I can allow myself to be goofy and take more risks, and even if I do fall on my face, I know it's not the end of the world and at least I tried to do something different.
My first job ever, I was 14 years old - I was working at this mom-and-pop video store, and they basically paid me by allowing me to take home as many movies as I wanted, and that's how I started watching all the classics and really getting into it.
You're in high school, and you're telling your friends that you're skipping lunch to go write poetry, and they were all questioning my sexuality.
I've always loved to write. I've been writing a lot longer than I've been acting, and I hope to continue to do that and maybe do it a little bit more in terms of, like, writing movies that I could potentially act in.
I've been lucky enough to, for the most part, surround myself with a lot of people who are more talented than me and who I can learn from, and it makes me up my game.
When you look at other good-bad movies like 'Sharknado' and 'Birdemic,' those movies know that they're B movies, know that they're silly and over the top, as opposed to 'The Room,' where Tommy Wiseau, the guy at the centre of it all, he attempted to make a very earnest drama.
My brand of humor is trying to play the situation as real as possible because I'm not the type of guy who is a joke a minute.
My secret is just surrounding myself with people who are a lot funnier than me.
I think 99 percent of actors have gone through severe rejection before they ever landed a single role. I probably auditioned for 100 projects before I was cast in even the smallest role.
I can't stress it enough that we genuinely love 'The Room.' Like I said, I've seen it more than any other movie that's ever been made, and it gets to a point where if a movie is that watchable, when can we just call it a good movie?
I love working with family and friends because, as an actor, it makes my job easy. I feel comfortable with all of these people, and I feel more willing to take risks.
As a young actor, you hear 'no' every single day for years on end.
I've personally been involved in movies where people on set were talking about awards for the movie, and I bought into the hype. And then the movie would come out, and not only was it not good, it was horrible.
It's a weird thing about our business: You give everything you have, and there are moments where you go back and forth in your mind about if what you're doing is brilliant or a total disaster.
I guess I've kind of recognized what my worth is and what my specific brand of humor is. And that's not necessarily being the guy who's super witty and saying a joke every second. I'm the guy who you throw in a bizarre scenario, and I'll play it as real as possible.
I can't remember the last time I was out at a bar or club. I'll still drink, but I just can't remember the last time I blacked out. Which I think means I'm growing up.
I was just so nervous every time I was onstage. It took me many, many years to get to the point where I realized, 'All right, if I'm going to keep doing this, I've gotta remember that it's supposed to be fun. I've gotta stop putting so much pressure on myself, because otherwise, it's not worth it.' And I still am too critical of myself.
I think - in general, I don't think I've been involved in a single movie that turned out the way I anticipated it to turn out. Just because, as an actor, there's only so much that I can bring to a project.
Films are a director's medium. We're all stemming from the director.
I swear to God, that movie comes up more in my life than any other movie. Someone says 'Bowfinger' once every month or two to me. And how many years ago did that come out?
I don't know if I was born weird. I think it's just that I was exposed to very strange things from a very early age by my brothers.
When I'm dating someone, if she bonds with my cats I'll give her a chance maybe more than I would otherwise. But if she doesn't like my cats it's kind of a deal breaker.Collection: Cat
One time I was hanging out with a girl and I wanted to kiss her. I was too nervous to do it, so I wrote ‘Can I kiss you?’ on a Post-It and handed it to her. And it worked!Collection: Girl
I'm not one of those people who are like always joking in person.Collection: People
I'm always trying to find that role that will allow me to stretch and play a lot of different sides, but it's hard. To be frank, as an actor, I read maybe a hundred scripts a year and I really strongly respond to probably two, but every other actor in town responds to those two scripts, as well. It's hard to land those roles that are really good because they're coveted. That's why I try to create for myself, and that's why I've been doing things outside of acting, like writing and producing. I try to not have to depend on other people so much.Collection: Writing
I don't know if this is an illusion but I would love to be able to take my card-throwing skills and be able to puncture a watermelon. Now I know I can take this question and say, "I would want to solve the economic problems in the world" - but I want to stick that card in that watermelon.Collection: Skills
As much as I love and respect my brother, Im doing my best to distance myself from him and kind of show people that, even though we do look similar and have similar mannerisms, we are completely different.Collection: Brother
On the flip side, no one has any idea who the hell I am. I felt like I had to prove myself to them. On any new project I'm working on, the first week is nerve-wracking, but especially with these people that I admire so much and who I just want to be equal with.Collection: Ideas
I'm a cat person. I have two giant cats [Harry and Arturo] that I call the small panthers. They're like 17 pounds each-they're big boys! Every photo on my phone is of them doing something funny.Collection: Cat
On how he spent his first Hollywood paycheck "I think my first big purchase was actually for my mom. She had one of those '90s TVs in her living room that's like a 10×10 brick, so I purchased her a flatscreen for her living room.Collection: Mom
I definitely want to start my own production company at some point. I'm actually teaming up with Funny or Die to put together a TV show right now, that I can't really talk about because it's still in the very preliminary stages, but if it pans out this will be the first project under my production company, which I have yet to name.Collection: Tv Shows
When I was in high school, I was dating this girl and wanted to make her birthday really special. I showed up early to school and went around to every single one of her classes and left a rose with her teachers. Each rose had a note with a little inside joke.Collection: Girl
Everyone always says it's a blessing to look a lot younger than my age, but sometimes I just want to look my real age.Collection: Real