Franco Premieres New Film, Explains Why He Skipped Classes At NYU

By Ashley D’Arcy

James Franco, the object of much affection and annoyance, is unsurprisingly in the midst of debuting another project. Unlike the gender-bending reboot of Three’s Company, or art that doesn’t exist, his new film The Broken Tower is relatively conventional. The B&W biopic of Hart Crane originated as Franco’s thesis in the Tisch M.F.A. program. During a Q&A following the premiere of The Broken Tower, Franco took the time to explain why he skipped all those classes, which resulted in his D grade for a class titled Directing the Actor II.

Franco said of Jose Angel Santana, the professor who is now suing the University after he was asked to leave his post, “I’ve been in eight years of acting class. I didn’t feel like I needed to waste my time with a bad teacher, and that I should go and work with Danny Boyle. I felt like that was the right decision.” And, he’s probably right. We’d also rather have an Oscar nomination than an A.

Franco went on to say that “No teacher will ever be fired from NYU for giving a student a D. He wasn’t fired; he was asked not to come back after three years because they didn’t think he was a good teacher.

“I did not care one bit about the grade; I knew I was going to get the grade,” he said. “I don’t even know what my grades are in NYU, because grades don’t matter — what matters is the films that you make. Anybody coming out of film school is not going to go to Sony or Warner Bros. and say, ‘Hey, I got an A in acting class, give me a job.’”

Okay, everyone — stop trying to get A’s and start recording more “Call Me Maybe” lip-synch videos. Perhaps Franco’s unpreparedness in his lip-synch video — he barely knows any of the words! — sheds some light on what type of student he is. It could be good for the Sprouse twins to take a study break and join their Disney cohorts.

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