On the frantic two-part finale of “The Studio,” everyone is having a terrible time—except for Dave Franco. As a suddenly way-too-high Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) attempts to get an equally inebriated Zoë Kravitz to Continental Studio’s CinemaCon presentation, Franco is simply stoked to be there, even if he is absolutely not helping. “Seth and [co-writer and co-director Evan Goldberg], they know I’m a generally optimistic, happy person. And so I think they maybe kind of took the seed of that and then blew it up to a level of toxic positivity,” Franco tells us with a laugh. “There’s a seed of who I am deep, deep, deep down. But this version of Dave Franco in the show… These are things that I don’t really do.”
We sat down with Franco to discuss his (Emmy-nominated!) work on the show, as well as what he’s learned from sitting in the director’s chair.
Franco has accepted he’ll be hearing his own lines quoted back to him for the rest of his life.
“Thinking back to ‘Superbad,’ it was a similar situation [to filming ‘The Studio,’] where I was there for one day…and I couldn’t have ever anticipated how big this movie would be. It became so huge that, even though I have only a few lines in the movie, people were yelling these lines to me on the streets. One of the lines that Jonah [Hill] says to me is, ‘Why don’t you go piss your pants again?’ So that was a line that people would yell at me. And I was like, Oh, I can’t be the guy who pissed his pants for the rest of my life.
At the end of the day, it’s a positive thing. It means people liked whatever job that I was in; it clearly stuck with them and resonated with them in some way. It’s really nice for the most part…. Relating it to ‘The Studio,’ I got a text from my buddy the other day, and he was saying very nice things about these final episodes. And he’s like, ‘I’m sorry to let you know this, but for the next 20 years, people are going to be coming up to you saying, “You did 21 grams of shrooms!” ’ ”
Acting in the long takes, or “oners,” of “The Studio” was exhilarating.
“Even if you are just coming in with one line, or even no lines, you are fully in it every take, because the camera will catch a piece of you. As an actor, it keeps you energized, as opposed to doing standard coverage, where the energy can get sucked a little bit. Seth and Evan were talking about how the sweet spot is roughly 16 takes. That’s when they generally get the best version of the scene. As an actor, you get a lot of takes to hone in your performance and try things. Especially in those early takes, you know they’re not going to use those, so you can really throw in some random stuff and see what happens. So by the time you get to take 16, you feel like, Oh, I’ve kind of tried everything, and now I’ve really solidified the best version of what I can do in this scene.
There were scenes that went on even longer that they cut down for good reason. I’m thinking about the scene when Zoë Kravitz first learns that she’s taken too many mushrooms and I’m very excited about it, and they usher her away to take care of her. Then the camera stayed on me, and I was doing stupid stuff. I was tossing weed gummy bears in the air and trying to catch them in my mouth and quoting ‘Swingers.’ And again, it was all probably cut for good reason.”
Stepping behind the camera for films like “The Rental” and “Somebody I Used to Know” made Franco a more generous actor.
“Directing has really made me love acting more than ever, just having seen the other side of everything and just wanting to come in and help whatever director I’m working with in any way I can. I just never want to be the problem. I now know how much a director has on their plate. I’ve always been very prepared and very punctual and all that. But I really do go above and beyond now, where I’m just like, ‘You will never have to worry about me. I know you have a million other things to worry about. I’m here to serve you. Let’s do it, whatever you need.’ ”
These quotes have been edited for clarity and length.
