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How many selfies does James Franco take? A lot. So much so that he's called the "selfie king" and as an expert in the format, he penned a column in the New York Times on Thursday about the art and meaning of the selfie.
He wrote:
But a well-stocked collection of selfies seems to get attention. And attention seems to be the name of the game when it comes to social networking. In this age of too much information at a click of a button, the power to attract viewers amid the sea of things to read and watch is power indeed. It’s what the movie studios want for their products, it’s what professional writers want for their work, it’s what newspapers want — hell, it’s what everyone wants: attention. Attention is power. And if you are someone people are interested in, then the selfie provides something very powerful, from the most privileged perspective possible.
Franco will get tens of thousands of likes for even the most mundane shots; he rarely smiles in them. There's Franco with a book on his head, Franco with his shirt off, Franco eating ice cream in bed... The list goes on and on. A good chunk of these snapshots are coupled with him advertising his latest film or book projects.
In an interview in October on the TODAY show, host Savannah Guthrie confronted him about his plethora of selfies. "I mean, I don’t want to post those things," Franco said. "I just look at the number of likes, and if I put on a book or something I get, I don't know, this number, and if I just put a stupid selfie, it’s like 10x, though. When I try and get attention for something else, I’ll put a selfie and then something like, 'Go see this movie.'"
Never change, Franco, never change.
