Paul Rust Recalls 'Upset' James Franco's Outburst over Bad Reviews for Hosting 2011 Oscars with Anne Hathaway

• Comedian and actor Paul Rust recalled watching James Franco "flip out" when they filmed a CollegeHumor sketch together in 2011, just days after Franco's infamous 2011 Oscars hosting gig with Anne Hathaway.

• Rust told his With Gourley and Rust podcast cohost Matt Gourley that Franco "was in a bad mood" while filming the sketch, mumbled his way through his lines and grew acidic to other actors on set before eventually storming off with the piece unfinished.

• "I've been on different sets where people go a little nutty, and you go 'Okay, I'm not going to talk about that in public,' but I'm willing to stick my chin out for the canceled James Franco," Rust said.
  

Paul Rust is sharing an experience he had working with James Franco shortly after the actor's infamous 2011 Academy Awards hosting stint.

On the Friday, Dec. 27 episode of the With Gourley and Rust podcast, the comedian and actor, 43, said he was reminded of an experience he had working with Franco, 46, as he and podcast cohost Matt Gourley discussed how and when people in the entertainment industry choose to discuss others' bad behavior.

"This is me now telling a story about somebody who's been ostracized and so it will have no repercussions seemingly on my career," Rust said. "Okay. I saw James Franco flip out once."

Rust recalled that he acted in a CollegeHumor sketch filmed as part of a publicity campaign for Franco's 2011 movie Your Highness, which he costarred in with Danny McBride. As Rust remembered, he was portraying one among "a group of nerds playing Dungeons & Dragons" with McBride, 48, and Franco. While Rust said McBride proved "very cool, no surprise," he said that the video shoot took place "literally two days after [Franco] had hosted the Oscars with Anne Hathaway."

"He was in a bad mood," Rust shared. Franco and Hathaway's Oscars hosting stint was widely panned at the time, and Rust remembered that Franco "[had] his head down and he's mumbling all of his lines and it's unusable" as they attempted to film the sketch.

PEOPLE has reached out to Franco's representatives for comment.

Related: Jason Segel Reveals How Both He and James Franco Landed Roles in Freaks and Geeks Despite Initially Competing Against Each Other

According to Rust's story, Franco grew more visibly upset after the shoot's director confronted him about mumbling his dialogue and began "going off-script."

"The joke that he's probably tired of which is like 'James Franco, Renaissance man,' " he said. "So the premise is that each person picks their character and goes, 'My character is Skippy the Great and he's a warlock who has these powers,' and then it cuts to James Franco and he goes, 'My character is James Franco and he's been getting into cooking chorizo.' So he has to be self-effacing here, and that's also part of the problem. So he starts doing ad-libs about other things people say about James Franco, but in the mumble voice, he's still doing the mumbling thing."

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"So he's got his head down and he goes 'James Franco was high on heroin when he was hosting the Oscars last night,' " Rust added, recalling that even Franco's publicist confronted him following the outburst.

"I faintly remember when the time came out people are like, 'What is this guy, high the way he's acting?' " Rust said. "I don't know if they were saying he was high on heroin, and for the record, I don't think he was high. James Franco, I don't think, lives his life in a way that he would be doing drugs." 

Rust also said that Franco started behaving poorly toward the other actors in the scene with him while "in character," calling them "you f---- nerds."

Related: James Franco Says 'I Had to Change My Whole Way of Life' After Accusations: 'Being Told You're Bad Is Painful'

"It reaches the point where I see James Franco stand up, kick a chair and storm out of the stage," he said. As Rust recalled, Franco never returned to the set and the sketch was likely never released.

After relaying the story, Rust admitted that he feels people in Hollywood often don't "tell tales out of school" because they do not want to be seen as someone who unearths open secrets. 

"I've been on different sets where people go a little nutty, and you go, 'Okay, I'm not going to talk about that in public,' but I'm willing to stick my chin out for the canceled James Franco telling that story,' " he joked.

Franco's Hollywood career was offset in the late 2010s after he was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by five women, four of whom were his acting students. (Franco settled a lawsuit with two of the women in 2021.) In 2024, he appeared in three movies, his first projects to release as an actor since 2019.

"I mean, it is what it is," Franco told Variety during an October interview, when asked if he felt what happened to his career "was unfair."

"I’ve honestly moved past it," he said at the time. "It was dealt with, and I got to change. So that’s it, it’s over. I mean, I’ve worked in the U.S. too. So I’m just trying to move on."

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