James Franco Talks About Casting Friends in 'Disaster Artist'

James Franco and his brother Dave Franco pose for a photo at their panel during the Vulture Festival LA on Saturday (November 18) at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood.

The brothers star together in the new movie The Disaster Artist, which James also directed.

Many of the cast members are friends of James‘, including Dave‘s wife Alison Brie and his longtime collaborator Seth Rogen.

“A lot of them were friends. Or fans of The Room. The one sort of insider guy that we knew that we wanted in the movie was Paul Scheer,” he told THR. “I was not aware of Paul and Jason Mantzoukas and June Diane Raphael‘s podcast How Did This Get Made? at the time. But Paul was at an early script reading and gave incredible notes. And we were just like, ‘Wow, this dude needs to be in the movie in some capacity.’”

“With the Bryan Cranston section, I had just worked with Bryan, and it was really fortuitous that we could have him in it. And it would be Bryan Cranston from Malcolm in the Middle before Breaking Bad! And I just thought, ‘Oh, this is perfect.’ So I really fought for that one,” he added.

FYI: James is wearing an Alternative Apparel t-shirt.