Roberts rates Franco

Emma Roberts rates James Franco as being so “nice and normal”.

The actress stars in new film Palo Alto, based on the book written by James, who also starred in the movie.

Although Emma admitted she heard “weird” stories about the star prior to meeting him, she found collaborating with him to be both fun and easy.

“He was so fun to work with. I loved our stuff that we got to do together. He’s just so good, and it’s really cool to see him work,” she told Collider. “He seemed really excited about the movie. I think he was excited to see it come to life. He was having just as much fun as we were.”

Although James wrote the film, Emma claims he never micro-managed the cast. Instead, he let director Gia Coppola take charge and put together the project.

“We never felt like, ‘Oh, my god, the writer’s here! Everybody get out of the way!’ He just felt like another person in the movie,” said Emma. “He never really even brought up that he was the writer, which is really crazy and cool and shows what kind of guy he is. That would have created such a weird dynamic.”

Emma campaigned for the role after reading the book years ago, and admits she even tried to buy the rights for it at one point. The actress begged Gia to let her be in the film, even though she would be playing a teenage role at 23.

“We kept running into each other, and I kept telling her how much I loved the book. And she was like, ‘You know, I thin, I’m gonna go for real teenagers. You’re a little bit older.’ But, I kept a close eye on it and they finally ended up casting me, a week before we started filming.”