Just when you were about to recline into the dog days of summer, here comes overachiever James Franco to make you feel lazy.
The writer-director-producer-author-visual-artist-painter and, most notably, actor has added a few new gigs to his enviable resume: surfing and hip-hop dance.
In a minimal but attractive spread for Out magazine, cover boy Franco has a thoughtful conversation with novelist and noted New Yorker Edmund White, where he lets the new hobbies slip.
White asks the common question, “How are you?” to which Franco responds:
“I’ve been learning to surf, and now I’m at the International Dance Academy on Hollywood Boulevard, about to take my hip-hop lesson.”
It’s easy to tease him for all that ambition, but it turns out the star has a deeper explanation for exploring the ocean and the dance floor.
“This new chapter, with surfing and dancing, is really about slowing down and trying to focus on fewer things but in a deeper, more quality-filled way,” Franco said,
The philosophy will translate to his Hollywood career as well, he added, in the less-is-more sense. Franco is about to make his debut in HBO’s “The Deuce,” about the rise of porn production in ’70s New York, where he plays twins and serves as director for three episodes.
“Of all the things that I’ve done, and I’ve done a lot, the actual process of directing is the most fun, because you’re in the middle of all these different creative people. But no, I will not stop acting. Most actors come to a point in their lives where they have to reassess what they’re doing and why they’re doing it,” Franco said.
Read more from the interview, and ogle the Gavin Bond photos, here.
“The Deuce” premieres Sept. 10 on HBO.