James Franco Got A 'D' In Acting Class

James Franco is enrolled in several graduate programs, and he is not doing great in one of them.

He got a D in his NYU acting class, Showbiz411 reports:

"I did the work, I did well in everything else," he said. But the acting teacher probably felt uncomfortable with a working well known actor in his class. It was not the norm. Also, as Franco pointed out, he missed a lot of classes because he was shooting "127 Hours."

This fall Franco started working towards a PhD in English at Yale and began studying art at the Rhode Island School of Design.

He has attended Brooklyn College for fiction writing and North Carolina's Warren Wilson College for poetry. Last year he was snapped sleeping at a lecture at Columbia, where he was in the MFA program for creative writing.

'Howl' opens Friday.

Comments

[AlPal3]

11:02 PM on 09/26/2010

As an "A" list actor, I congratulate Jimbo Franco for dissing the professor who dissed him. Bravo!

[dulceburro]

09:55 PM on 09/26/2010

Fred Smith (Founder of FedEx) did dismally on his business plan for fedex at yale. The teacher supposedly found it to be 'not feasible'

[onceinalifetime]

04:41 PM on 09/26/2010

“Um 'Franco', maybe, just 'maybe,' you got a 'D' because you didn’t even know the subject of the course that you got a 'D' in? It was a 'Directing the Actor' course NOT an 'Acting' course as you say. And if you hadn’t missed so many classes, 'maybe.' you would have known the basic subject matter of the course, and that would have saved everyone all this noise? But then that wouldn’t have gotten you any attention, right?” – Onceinalifetime

[Tyrione]

02:06 PM on 09/26/2010

FWIW: The lowest grade in Graduated School is a B.

I'm not surprised he'd get a D in acting class during his undergraduate years. He was garbage in several of his early movies, including Spiderman.

[GatorAtLarge]

02:11 PM on 09/26/2010

Lowest grade in grad school is an F

Most schools curb to an B so their program seems respectable but people can still get F D and C.

[danny saunders]

12:15 PM on 09/26/2010

Maybe, but I bet he looked wicked good working for that D!

[Bigpink23]

10:21 AM on 09/26/2010

Well he can stick his "D" up in me!!! LOL!!

[Craig 212]

04:57 AM on 09/26/2010

I just hope he and Kimiko-tan will someday return to 30 Rock.

[Jeremy Kao]

04:32 AM on 09/26/2010

If he gets a D in Acting class, Justin Bieber gets a Y in Singing Class.

[miastella]

07:16 PM on 09/25/2010

Whatever - - -wherever he's going to school he sounds like a reallllly smart man. Personally, I don't think his acting is the same caliber. Prehaps he will reconsider his career to chase a higher performance in his life. It seems that someone that smart has more expected of him than so-so acting. We really need all the smarts we can get right now. Keep on truckin!!!

[situationcritical]

05:02 PM on 09/25/2010

So do you think Franco is going to have to rethink his career?

[jackstpaul]

04:29 PM on 09/25/2010

Horribly written article.

He isn't TAKING an acting class, he TOOK an acting class and got a D. It's over. Not going to NYU.

I seriously doubt that he's CURRENTLY taking classes at RHISD while enrolled in a PhD program at Yale. I doubt that Yale--or any decent university--would let a PhD student be enrolled elsewhere while a full-time PhD student at their school.

This reporter really fails at sorting out the timeline of what Franco's done and is doing.

[streetmagik]

02:45 PM on 09/25/2010

acting classes are a joke - acting is one of those things, you either have talent or you don't - and if you have alot of talent your teacher will probably resent you because if they had such talent they would not be teaching acting classes

[situationcritical]

05:03 PM on 09/25/2010

Probably resent you? Count on it. They're jealous as all get out.

[Spartan112]

06:33 AM on 09/26/2010

You have no clue. Actors take acting classes. Saying "you either have it or you don't" is like saying great painters or musicians are simply born and never study painting.

[TequilaMockingbird]

05:02 PM on 09/26/2010

yes but those are disciplines in which classes may make you better but can't give the student the actual talent for it..

[Tristan9]

10:17 AM on 09/25/2010

there is a longtime myth going around that if you go to college and those colleges are 'name' colleges that this is the right thing somehow to do for your future. My advice to younger people is to avoid college, strike out on your own, use the vast resources of the Internet and other learning mediums and remain creative and motivated. College is now a huge money draining scam that is a very old paradigm kind of like BlockBuster Video. You do not need some bored a-hole teaching you in some structured time period 3 times a week unless you are unmotivated and just following along and doing what the system wants you to do i.e.: falling further and further into debt. Just have a look at the list of college dropouts who went on to incredible fame and fortune. They were independent enough to realize very early in their lives that it was a waste of time and money. Just look at the 'brilliant' minds that Harvard and Yale have given us. Guns,Bombs and Banksters is what these places have yielded. Suck-ups who marry into a system of privelege and corruption. Thank you Larry Summers, Henry Kissinger,Robert McNamara, Geithner,Bernanke and all the rest of you. Ivy League trained sociopaths who used connections in school to skate thru life and into power and have zero creativity and even less ethical standard.

[anarkos]

11:54 AM on 09/25/2010

Exactly. In the field of business and innovation college is not necessary. The only way I would go to college is if I wanted to become a trauma surgeon or an engineer. I envision private colleges that also act as business startups, stables of apprenticeship. But public, compulsory schooling, and college, is a sham.

[panasonic52]

08:41 PM on 09/25/2010

I don't know if you meant college as just undergrad or if you were including grad schools as well. I'm working on a masters of science right now and hopefully next year will go to med school. I learned more relevant info in one week in this masters program than I did in all of college. Sometimes I think the US should have the structure that other countries have where you go to your "grad school" after high school. The perk about college is that you can change your mind about what you want to do in life. Downside is that you don't really learn any relevant info about the path you want to go in to.

[TequilaMockingbird]

05:04 PM on 09/26/2010

fanned and faved.. 

[pbnyc59]

09:35 AM on 09/25/2010

Sounds like sour grapes on the teacher's part. I'm sure Franco will not lose any sleep over this, as was seen while he napped in one of his many classes.

[Pennsylvanianne]

10:08 AM on 09/25/2010

Sounds more to me as if James Franco missed so many classes, the prof couldn't give him a better grade. Believe it or not, some professors still require reasonable attendance in order for students to earn a decent grade. If you're not there to act, you get an F for that day's work. It's NYU, which many great actors have attended. I doubt the intimidation factor.

[Spartan112]

11:51 AM on 09/25/2010

Thank you. Faved and fanned.

[JSDKoeln]

03:32 AM on 09/27/2010

Most of the time, screen acting does not translate to live theatre. Many "screen only" actors just haven't a clue about live acting because the screen shots are only 30 seconds at a time, if that.... then there's a break for hours setting up the next shot. Don't get me wrong, there is a technique for both and as much as i love JF, I think it would only be to his benefit to learn more from an experienced acting teacher. Think of Meryl Streep--a very trained and highly-educated actress. She has a perfect blend of technique AND talent. James is a decent actor, but he's no Meryl.

[ipresumelikely]

05:54 AM on 09/25/2010

There "aren't" enough hours in the day.