James Franco "takes the edge off" his over achievement with humour.
The 36-year-old is an actor, director and producer, does charity work, paints and has completed degrees - teaching university students at one point too. This has led to him being unpopular in some circles, so the star has come up with a way to show he is approachable.
"I do do a lot of things and if I go out and am super serious all the time then it's harder for people to swallow. But if I add humour to these endeavours it kind of takes the edge off and I'm able to go in other areas that I wouldn't be welcome in," he told US talk show host David Letterman.
This is one of the reasons the star commissioned a series of paintings of fat animals - including a stallion and squirrel - from an artist, which were sold as part of one of his shows. He thought they were funny and so did many others, as they sold out.
"It's sort of like when you do animation, the guys of South Park can get away with so much because it's animation. Or even as an actor in a certain sense, when you're playing a character you can get away with a lot more than if it's just me, so by painting animals I'm able to kind of do more than I could if I was just painting people," he laughed.
The subject was also close to James' heart as he is a big fan of pets. He is a cat rather than dog person and has looked after many felines. Although two of his cats still leave a slightly sour taste in his mouth, as their affections so quickly moved away from him.
"I'm a huge cat lover and I have one cat. I always get my cats in pairs so I always get siblings. I had two brother cats and they're huge, they must be half bobcat, and my brother lived with me for a while - we're talking four, five years ago - and he fed them and they slept in his bed, so he essentially stole their love," he stated. "When he moved out he took those, so then I got these two black cat sisters and then sadly one ran away."
