Throughout the years, Florida State University’s Golden Tribe Lecture Series has presented a variety of intellectual, entertaining and engaging speakers such as Arianna Huffington, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Neil deGrasse Tyson and John Legend, to name a few. This year, the Lecture Series brought yet another memorable guest to the stage. On Thursday April 14th at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, one of FSU’s more celebrated professors Mark Ziegler moderated a two hour long question and answer period with director and actor James Franco.
Courtesy: Flavor Wire
Franco is known for his on-screen roles in Freaks and Geeks, the Spiderman trilogy, Milk, Pineapple Express, Your Highness, Date Night, Spring Breakers, This is the End and OZ: The Great and The Powerful. As with every Golden Tribe Lecture Series guest, Franco is quite the intellectual. He has been enrolled in a variety of prestigious universities around the country including Yale, New York University, Columbia University, the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of California at Los Angeles. Never one to stop pursuing knowledge, Franco shares what he has learned about English and film with students at USC, UCLA, CalArts and NYU.
Students began to arrive to line up outside of the Civic Center as early as 3 p.m., nearly four hours before the start of the show. Once the doors finally opened, a dash began to get seats as close to Franco as possible. After settling in and watching a review of Franco’s most celebrated roles, the man himself walked onto the stage to address the crowd.
Courtesy: James Brannin
Franco answered many questions, but when asked what advice he would give his college-self, Franco replied, “You’re here to get better at some skill and to prepare for some job, but there are also things you love. Maybe these things aren’t the most practical, but college is the time to take a chance on yourself. There are ways to be practical and ways to be a little more daring. Give a little space in your life to try those things you actually love. Of course you need to think about your future, but we do not have control over how over what might happen in the future. We do have control over how hard we work. I would tell myself, ‘give yourself a little space.'”
Courtesy: James Brannin
Near the end of his time on stage, Franco remarked “I got accepted here. I almost came here.” We can all agree that James Franco being a full-fledged Nole would be amazing, but we all certainly accepted him as one during his time with us here. Franco showed how willing he is to give his time to others by staying on stage for nearly 45 minutes more to sign autographs, take selfies with fans and talk to some lucky students individually.