James Franco’s driving ambition

James Franco may be the most ambitious actor in the world, said Tom Shone in the London Telegraph. Franco, 32, is so hyperactive that he barely sleeps, and he fills his 20-hour days with a staggering number of self-improvement pursuits. He has, at the same time, been enrolled in four graduate programs—three in writing and one for film. On a typical day, he might take a train from Manhattan to Yale, where he’s studying for a Ph.D. in English, then return to New York for a film class at NYU, and later fly to Los Angeles to shoot a film scene. “All my days are busy,” he says, in a deceptively laconic voice.

Franco got into some trouble during his teenage years because he “didn’t know how to focus” his energy. Then he began acting. But his initial roles in bad comedies and action films didn’t satisfy his drive, so he began enrolling in every film and literature program that would accept him. Critics accuse Franco of staging a publicity stunt, with his self-improvement mania serving as a kind of performance art. But he insists he just needs to be busy. “I don’t want to be perceived as the actor who is just dabbling, just taking a class,” he says. “I’m actually taking it extremely seriously.”

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