Over the past two weeks, James Franco relied on brooding stares, sinister laughter and one-note monologues to maximize the illusion of his character's evil persona. But during today's episode of General Hospital, the performance art-motivated actor tapped into something much deeper: textbook soap opera skills. Franco was angry, so James Franco raised his voice, pointedly gestured, and adopted all of the body language taught in the "Fury" week of Acting 101. It was a scene with such formulaic passion that it immediately brought to mind Tommy Wiseau's brilliantly craptastic performance in The Room.
With Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) captive in his death studio, Franco poured champagne and admitted to witnessing many of Jason's murders. Franco propositioned that the two work as a team, with Jason as the muscle and Franco as the creative mind who swoops in afterward, decoratively arranges the corpse's limbs, and sells the art for a fortune. When Jason waffled and questioned whether Franco had actually seen him kill, the performance artist lashed out in a horrifying tantrum that even Jason did not know how to interpret. The Daytime Emmy-ready clip:
Compare that to the potentially inspirational clip James Franco used to perfect the shouting and the precise hand motions that say "I am so angry":