A new report titled Busy Bees: The World's Hardest Working Hollywood Stars shows that James Franco is Hollywood's most creative star. With the most producing, directing, scriptwriting, and 'thanks' credits, it's no wonder he attracts A-list talent like Seth Rogen, Bryan Cranston, and many others to his movies.
Hollywood's “Top Of The Class”
According to the report, Franco earned most producer credits–67 in the past 10 years, to be exact, mostly through his own production company, calledRabbit Bandini Production. He also gained most directing credits–35 since 2010, including the movie The Disaster Artist, which he both directed and starred in. Beyond that, he received 21 scriptwriting credits, mostly, for shorts, such as Age Of The Moon. And finally, Franco earned most “Thanks” credits, 12 in total, including a very special thanks for Dark Hours: Roxana short.
The only Hollywood "bee" that was able to beat Franco in all categories is actor Eric Roberts.
And Hollywood’s Most Creative
Undeniably, Franco fountains creativity. He has proven to be a multidimensional actor, portraying machos, losers, and psychopath with equal grace and authenticity. On top of being an actor, he is also a talented producer, director and writer (if you haven’t read his collection of short stories,Palo Alto: Stories, you definitely should). And let’s not forget that Franco teaches creativity too! He taught at Columbia, NYU, California Institute of the Arts, and UCLA.
Discussing creativity and business with Wall Street Journal, Franco once said: “There’s always that old balance of art and business. We still call the film business 'The Film Business' for a reason. It’s a mass-market form of art or entertainment. So that means that thing on the scale that you’re aiming for or the scale that you make the thing on, you’re thinking about the audience to a larger degree. Because it’s an investment. You’re looking to recoup an investment.”
He continued: “One of the hindrances to creativity in my business is trying to please or fit a specific model to where it hinders an artistic voice. But I’m not also one who says ‘screw the audience.’ Even in the movies that I make that are a little more esoteric, or based on William Faulkner, I’m still keeping in mind that this is a product. This is an investment. So I try to be responsible about my budget when I’m doing something like that.”
