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General Hospital Welcomes James Franco

by Michael Logan November 05, 2009 03:37 PM EST

Daytime soaps are the Rodney Dangerfield of show biz, but they're getting big respect these days from James Franco. The unpredictable film star ("Milk," "Pineapple Express," the "Spider-Man" trilogy) asked to do a role on General Hospital and execs at the ABC soap hungrily obliged. Franco hits the air November 20 and will be seen in at least 15-20 episodes spaced over two months.

"There have been reports that James is doing this to research a movie role but it's just not true," says GH head writer Bob Guza. "As bizarre as it sounds, he really wanted to do a soap and we didn't go easy on him. His first day on the set we shot 130 pages. In the movies, that'd take six months! The memorization alone was a killer, but James has been fantastic."

At least he had no trouble remembering his character's name-it's Franco! The actor has not yet granted interviews and much about the role is hush-hush but here's what we do know: Franco will be connected to the mysterious C077X graffiti tag that's been popping up all over Port Charles. He's a psychotic yet self-deprecating artist who is fixated on death and will zero in on Jason Morgan, the heartthrob mobster played by Emmy-winner Steve Burton.

"Franco is fascinated with Jason and what he does for a living-he thinks they both love death and are essentially the same kind of guy," Burton reports. "But then Jason refuses to meet with him and that's when things start to go south."

Though Burton and Franco share the same personal manager, the two actors had not met before Franco reported for his first day at GH on October 30. "Obviously, the guy has no ego because he's doing a soap," Burton notes. "People were afraid about the workload on him and, to tell you the truth, I don't think he knew what to expect. But he's been very cool to work with, very easy. The stuff we've shot so far is great and it's only going to get better."

Despite Franco's A-list film status, he's known for nervy, offbeat career decisions: He recently enrolled in a class on queer cinema at NYU and popped up in a Saturday Night Live sketch in which he didn't have any lines. It's just been announced that he'll guest-star on 30 Rock. And he's already asked to extend his GH adventure. "We're mixing James up with as many of our major characters as possible and creating a big umbrella story that will continue to play out after he's gone," says Guza. "He's very excited and wants to do more. There's a very good chance he'll be back."