Hard to believe but movie star
James Franco has agreed to do a short-term role on
General Hospital—and it was
his idea! A publicist for the ABC soap say the adventuresome actor—famous for his roles in “Spider-Man” and “Milk”—wanted to test his chops on a grueling daytime drama.
“He loves to explore the different types of acting that are available and had never done soaps and was really interested in the amount of work soap actors do—he wanted to try it out,’ says the network rep, noting that Franco contacted
GH directly. “Basically, the attitude from the writers and producer is, ‘When you pick up the phone and it’s James Franco saying he wants to work with you, the only answer you have is, ‘Yes!’” Adds the rep with a laugh: “There’s an open invitation to any other A-List movie stars who want to come to
General Hospital.”
Franco supposedly knew about
GH and the back-breaking workload of soaps—because he shares a manager with
Steve Burton, who plays the show’s underworld thug Jason Morgan. Franco, who is currently in Ireland, is scheduled to tape several episodes in three days—October 30, November 6 and November 13—and they will air over the course of two months. His first airdate is November 20. So far ABC is offering very few details about Franco’s character, except to say that he will be “very mysterious and Jason Morgan’s worst nightmare.”