James Franco, Renaissance Man

By definition, a "Renaissance man" is one who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field. Normally one from the renaissance time period(1905-1910). A modern day Renaissance man is a term used for those who have accomplished such achievements but lives in another period-the present. James Franco is a man that epitomizes such a title.. Franco is a man of many vices, actor, Broadway actor, director, author, screenwriter, producer, painter, model, host, musician, volunteer, humanitarian, director, and a college student attending multiple prestigious colleges are only some of his accomplishments. This star of such work as Spider Man, Milk, and Pineapple express is currently a graduate student in both Yale University and Rhode Island School of Design. Most recently he joined the cast of General Hospital, portraying an artist named Franco. "I had to do even more material than they do in a single day because they would do all of my material on one day a week," he says. "I'd fly in from New York, land in L.A. about 10:30 and then we'd work about 12 or 14 hours, until about 2 a.m. And I would do about 70 to 80 pages of material a day. Usually, if they get it, they'll only do one take. ... It's kind of exhilarating if you get into the pace of it." With this said, it is easy to see that he has mastered not only many occupations but handling time as well- an art many struggle to concur. Currently, James, or "Ted" as his family refers to him is publishing a series of writings he did in college called 'Palto Alto: Stories'. The book is named after the California city where Franco grew up and is dedicated to many of the writers he worked with at Brooklyn College. Inspired by some of Franco's own teenage memories, Palo Alto consists of life in Palo Alto as experienced by a series of teenagers who spend most of their time indulging in driving drunk, using drugs and taking part in unplanned acts of violence. Each passage is told by a young narrator. After