Regardless of what we might think about his ancillary projects, we all know James Franco is a good actor. But sometimes, too much method acting can be a bad thing. The LA Times reports that, at a Paley Fest panel on Saturday, the cast of Freaks and Geeks reunited without Franco (who sent in a video in lieu of appearing) — and told a few stories that suggested they might kind of hate him.
First, Judd Apatow called him a drama queen. Then, Busy Phillips came in with the big guns. In one scene, where Phillips’s Kim Kelly and Franco’s Daniel Desario were arguing, the script called for Phillips to tap Franco on the arm. When she did, he cursed at her and threw her to the ground. “I had the wind knocked out of me,” she recalled, and once she got up, she went back to her trailer and cried. According to Phillips, Franco had decided Daniel had “maybe been abused by his father, and so he didn’t want any physicality between him and his girlfriend.” But, she added, “This was unbeknownst to me.”