Dave Franco has shrugged off the suggestion that nepotism played a significant role in his sustained success in the film industry.
The Now You See Me actor, 40, is the younger brother of Pineapple Express star James Franco, who rose to fame in Sam Raimi’s superhero blockbuster Spider-Man (2002).
Speaking to Bustle, Franco credited his brother with helping him initially secure an agent, but insisted that he would have “disappeared” by now if he were relying on nepotism.
“No one was going to hire me just because I was James Franco’s little brother,” he told the outlet. “If I sucked, I would’ve disappeared very quickly.”
Addressing his current relationship with his brother, he said: “At this point, I think he’s excited just to see me trying new things and to see me grow.”
Franco and his brother acted together in the 2017 film The Disaster Artist.
In recent years, Franco has collaborated on several occasions with his wife, Mad Men actor Alison Brie.
Most recently, Brie and Franco co-starred in the body horror film Together, directed by Michael Shanks.
Asked about the association with Brie’s work, Franco said: “If the downside of working with my wife is that people are saying, ‘Oh, that’s just Alison Brie’s husband,’ that’s fine. It’s worth it.”
In a four-star review of Together for The Independent, critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “As a relationship horror, Together understands that the call is coming from both inside and outside the house, and that how two people feel about each other can be shaped as much in private as it is in public.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
Try for free
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
Try for free
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
“While Shanks’s ideas are smart, and his direction of the film’s digital and practical effects suitably crunchy and nasty, it’s the casting that makes all the difference. Brie and Franco are married in real life, and that lends an easy, lived-in quality to their characters on screen.”
She continued: “But the genius lies in the fact that neither of them are traditional horror stars – they’re comedy people, used to bending their bodies and faces in odd ways in order to get a very different kind of reaction from audiences. You have to commit every part of yourself if you want to be a clown, after all.”
After years as an A-list Hollywood star, James Franco has largely been away from screens for the past five years. In 2018, he was accused of sexual misconduct by five women. At the time, the actor said the allegations were “not accurate” but that he did not want to “shut down” people who “did not have a voice.”
Two of his accusers went on to seek legal action in 2019. The suit was settled in 2021, with the actor agreeing to pay $2.23m (£1.67m). Since the settlement, Franco has signed on to several film projects currently in development.
