An Exhaustive List Of James Franco's 31 Different Jobs

It's amazing that he even has time to flirt on Instagram.

1. Soap Star

General Hospital / ABC

In 2009, after receiving critical acclaim for his appearance in Gus Van Sant's Milk, Franco surprised critics by accepting a recurring role on daytime soap opera General Hospital as 'Franco, a multimedia artist who comes to Port Charles with unfinished business with mob enforcer Jason Morgan'. He was eventually killed off in the dramatic scene you see above.

2. Performance Artist

Francophrenia / James Franco & Ian Olds

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Franco later claimed that his appearance on General Hospital was a work of 'performance art'. He eventually presented the performance in its entirety in his experimental 2012 film Francophrenia (Or Don't Kill Me, I Know Where The Baby Is).

3. Film Director

Interior. Leather Bar. / RabbitBandini Productions

Francophrenia isn't Franco's only project as a filmmaker. Since 2005, he's directed sixteen feature films, including adaptations of William Faulkner (As I Lay Dying) and Cormac McCarthy (Child of God), and a biopic of Rebel Without a Cause star Sal Mineo.

4. Screenwriter

Howl / Oscilloscope Laboratories

He's also written seventeen films.

5. Film Producer

Sundance Channel / Via youtube.com

And produced fourteen.

6. Film Editor

Rise of the Planet of the Apes / Dune Entertainment

And edited one (a biopic of the American poet Hart Crane called The Broken Tower, which he also wrote, directed, produced and starred in).

7. Student

Whatever It Takes / Columbia Pictures

James Franco may be Hollywood's foremost Renaissance man, but that doesn't mean he's done learning. Having previously studied everything from filmmaking to poetry at UCLA, the Tisch School of the Arts, Brooklyn College, Warren Wilson College and the Rhode Island School of Design, Franco is now a PhD student at Yale.

8. Teacher

Palo Alto / RabbitBandini Productions

While continuing to study, Franco has also taught at USC, UCLA, CalArts and NYU. At the latter, he ran a course on how to 'modify poetry into short films', and hooked his students up with cameo appearances from Seth MacFarlane, Kate Mara, Natalie Portman, Chloe Sevigny, Kristen Wiig and Olivia Wilde.

9. Philanthropist

Katharine Clifton / Via youtube.com

That weird log Franco's holding may look like a rejected prop from one of the Spider-man movies, but it's actually an award from Los Angeles's Art of Elysium charity, which helps children with serious medical conditions and counts Franco amongst its patrons.

10. Dancer

AMPAS / Via youtube.com

In 2011, Franco mounted a dance-theatre show called Collage at the Stella Adler studios, featuring 'live dance, theatre, poetry and music'. Apparently he hung around after each show to chat to the audience too, which is nice.

11. Aerospace Intern

A California Childhood / Palace Publishing

As a teenage math whiz, Franco secured a prestigious summer internship at aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. He later said that the 'experience showed me I never wanted to work in that environment'.

12. Recording Artist

Kalup Linzy / Via youtube.com

To date, Franco has put out two records: a 2011 collaboration with video artist Kalup Linzy called Turn It Up, and the EP Motor City with his band Daddy. He also made a video for the latter featuring loads of behind-the-scenes footage from Spring Breakers.

13. Oscar Host

AMPAS

In an effort to widen the appeal of the Oscars to a younger audience, Franco was asked to co-host the 2011 ceremony with Anne Hathaway. Rolling Stone called him the second-worst host of the last twenty-five years (only Seth MacFarlane ranked lower, and he was awful).

14. Human Sculpture

Sundance Channel / Via youtube.com

For a 2012 episode of the Sundance Channel's Iconoclasts, famed performance artist Marina Abramović transformed Franco into a human sculpture. He was still more energetic as a static art object than he had been as an Oscar host.

15. Model

Gucci / Via youtube.com

Franco became the face of Gucci's male fragrance line in 2008. His job description includes driving convertibles, swimming in infinity pools and reaching out towards skyscraper windows in slow motion.

16. NASCAR Grand Marshal

NASCAR / Via youtube.com

The Grand Marshal of the Daytona 500 is expected to say four words: "Drivers, start your engines". When Franco took on the job in 2013, he instead chose to give a shout out to the race's sole female driver, Danica Patrick — "drivers, and Danica, start your engines" — prompting onlookers to wonder why she failed to qualify as a driver in his eyes.

17. Headmaster

Funny or Die / Via funnyordie.com

Since February, Franco has been the headmaster of the Los Angeles acting school Studio 4, which teaches twice weekly courses in the Meisner technique, an approach favoured by such Franco-level stars as Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock and Aaron Eckhart.

18. Author

RabbitBandini Productions / Via vimeo.com

Franco published his first novel, Actors Anonymous, in 2013. The Independent called it 'irritating and self-indulgent'. This year, his short story collection Palo Alto was adapted into a movie… starring James Franco.

19. TV Host

Saturday Night Live / Via youtube.com

Franco has hosted Saturday Night Live on two occasions. The second time, he brought his "Career-Move Tombola" with him, which predicted that that he would 'play a dead body on Law and Order' the following year. We're still waiting.

20. Photographer

Howl / Oscilloscope Laboratories

Franco has launched several solo exhibitions and published two multi-media books containing his own photography work. Last year, he wrote a think piece for the New York Times on the nature of the selfie.

21. McDonald's Cashier

Spider-man 3 / Columbia Pictures

Fresh out of UCLA, Franco worked as a cashier at McDonald's while looking for work as an actor.

22. Painter

Columbia Pictures / Via youtube.com

Franco, who created all of the paintings featured in This Is The End, has exhibited his canvases all around the world. Last year, his Berlin solo show Gay Town featured a series of works entitled 'Fuck Spider-man'.

23. Documentarian

Samsung / Via youtube.com

Alongside his countless fiction films, Franco has also directed or produced half a dozen documentaries, on subjects ranging from fashion (The Director), to sketch comedy (Saturday Night) to BDSM porn (Kink)

24. LGBT Activist

Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival / Via youtube.com

Having played more gay characters than almost any other Hollywood A-Lister, Franco was well deserving of the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival's first-ever ally award, given to a prominent figure who works to help the LGBT community. Not that the avalanche of gay jokes at his Comedy Central Roast did much to further their cause.

25. Journalist

Huffington Post

In the last five years alone, Franco has been published in Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Vice, while also maintaining a regularly updated blog at the Huffington Post. His profile there refers to him as an 'actor and author', callously ignoring his thirty other jobs. Wise up, HuffPo.

26. Conceptual Artist

Brainard and Delia Carey / Via kickstarter.com

As part of a collaborative project called The Museum of Non-Visible Art, Franco sold the concept of 'Fresh Air' for $10,000 in 2011. The buyer, a social media marketeer from Montreal, received only a description of her purchase: 'No matter where you are, you always have the ability to take a breath of the most delicious, clean-smelling air that the earth can produce.'

27. Pilot

Flyboys / MGM

Franco secured a Private Pilot License in preparation for his role in the 2006 box office flop Flyboys. At least some good came of it.

28. Film Critic

Vice

Not content to simply be involved in every imaginable stage of the filmmaking process, Franco has been exercising his right to reply for almost a year now, in his 'A Few Impressions' column for Vice.

29. Voice Artist

Funny or Die / Via youtube.com

Amazingly, unlike almost every other actor in Hollywood, Franco has built a successful career without once lending his voice to an animated movie. Until now. Next year, his dulcet tones will feature in both The Little Prince (the new film from Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osbourne) and Sausage Party ('an animated movie about one sausage's quest to discover the truth about his existence').

30. Poet

James Franco / Via youtube.com

Franco has published several books of poetry, but his best-known work is probably the poem he wrote on the occasion of President Obama's inauguration, which contains such golden lines as 'When Obama entered / The crowd converged. / Finally, I got to shake his hand / He knew me from Spider-Man.'

31. Actor

New York Times / Via youtube.com

Apparently he's been in a few movies as well. The more you know.