Actor James Franco came to D.C. on Thursday to headline an event titled “An Evening with James Franco” for creative writing nonprofit 826DC.
Franco, who hosted the poorly received 2011 Oscars ceremony, is a student at Yale University and New York University as well as a graduate of UCLA. According to Politico, the Academy Award winning star discussed the importance of schools offering creative subjects.
“I feel like I didn’t get a ton of support in school in creative subjects,” Franco said. “And I went to a great public school. As a kid, I would have grown from that.”
Franco had some suggestions for students who don’t receive classroom writing opportunities.
“If you want to write, make the time,” Franco said. “We all have an hour or two a day that can be used for surfing Facebook or writing. No one is going to beg any new writer to write.”
The actor, who was slammed by media outlets for appearing aloof and bored while he co-hosted this year’s Academy Awards, said he’d cut back on his contributions to the Twitterverse.
“Social media is over. Still up there. Going down. You heard it here first,” said Franco, whose Twitter account is active but private. “My thought was ‘this is my Twitter. I can do whatever I want.’ But certain companies I work with contacted me about what I was saying.”
Though countless news sources, websites, and famous figures blasted Franco’s Oscar performance, he took noticeable offense when Yale’s college publication poked fun at his social networking techniques.
“James Franco, your Twitter sort of sucks,” Yale Daily News writer Cokey Cohen wrote in a piece the day before the 83rd annual Academy Awards. “James Franco is not just some rando [sic] on Twitter. He’s a Celebrity Tweeter, which deserves all caps and necessitates a higher quality of meaningless, incessant electronic communication…James, please figure out Twitpic.”
Two days after the Oscars ceremony, Franco reportedly tweeted a photo of himself overlaid with the words “F— THE YALE DAILY NEWS” in red capital letters.