Thursday, March 19, 2015



For my live tweeting event I attended the James Franco interview at the O'Connell Center. I'm not much of a 'twitter-er' so the assignment was a little awkward for me. I was more focused on listening to the interview than tweeting about the event. A problem that I didn’t realize until after the event was that half of my tweets didn’t get sent through because of the amount of phone activity going on at the O-Dome, but I won’t let that get in the way of me reflecting on the experience.

Going in, I wasn't aware who James Franco really was outside of his acting career. I had no idea he directed his own movies and was as well educated as he is. Having studied at Columbia, Yale and UCLA, he definitely is smarter than he might appear in many of his movies. Upon hearing about how he teaches a creative writing class at UCLA currently, I began to think of our own class. I'm sure there are some similarities, probably less technologically based material in his class but similar ideas and ways of expressing rhetoric. 

I bet would like to take 's creative writing class
During the event they allowed a Q & A session to the public. The questions varied immensely. Some were specific questions about events in Franco’s life and required genuine answers. Unfortunately, there were some people I’m embarrassed of for Franco. One girl asked if she could take a ‘selfie’ with him. I was in shock when I heard this—a girl 18 and older asked to take a picture during a seemingly serious Q & A like she was a tween at a boy band concert. Following her question, the entire crowd began to boo her. I feel bad she most likely had her self-esteem knocked down a few notches, but honestly she needs to think before she speaks next time she’s in that large of a crowd.

It was comical to hear Franco speak of his past mistakes. Flyboys was a common theme among his mistakes. He explained that he was pretty desperate for roles at the time and he thought he had to take the part. Looking back, though, he said how he doesn’t think he should do it, for eventually you find something you like.



I don’t know how much truth there is to that. Well I know there’s some, but I know that when out of work it’s hard to turn anything down, even if it’s a part you’re not fond of.


The interview was shorter than I had expected, but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was going to be a more comedic talk with Franco, but on the contrary it was on a much deeper level than I could’ve ever expected.

Never saw "Flyboys" but it looks like I won't because of these reactions








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