James Franco at SBIFF

Last night I had passes to go see James Franco receive The Outstanding Performance of the Year award from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Despite the fact that I crammed down my first real meal in a week and rushed over to the Arlington Theater to not miss a thing, the guest of honor proceeded to be an hour late to his own award ceremony. 8:00, 9:00, same difference. Roger Durling, the creator of the entire film festival, chimed in a few times during the hour to apologize for the delay and to report that James was actually coming from direct from LA. He was coming from the Oscar's rehearsal because he is a host of the show this year, and also happens to be an Oscar-nominee. Once he was in the building all eyes were on him, lights were turned down low and moderator Leonard Maltin cruised through James' filmography and playing clips of his career's highlights.

James Franco's career started over 10 years ago when he starred in the One Season TV show Freaks and Geeks (Watched a few episopes recently, pretty dang funny). From there he landed the role of James Dean for a TV movie and ever since he's been steadily working. I've seen him in a few movies like Spiderman 1 & 2 and Pineapple Express but found out about others I hadn't heard much about, like a Nick Cage directed Sonny and James' latest venture 127 Hours directed by the super talented Danny Boyle. What's so appealing about James is that he is such a diverse actor who is not at all afraid of holding back with his roles, whether he be a gay man or a complete stoner type which he is the complete polar opposite. He is wickedly smart and down to earth, and did I mention he is ridiculously good-looking? What a dream boat, or Captain of the Dream Boat I should say. 

To give him his award, Seth Rogen come out and said some words about James. "I have never seen a theater built inside of a Mexican restaurant," said Seth of the Arlington Theater to start. He continued to be brash and funny just like in his movies, dropping F-bombs and talking about how many times he's been high in front of Franco even boasting, "I've even blown it in his face a few times and he always just walks away." Overall it was a good speech and great Date night.