Actors Anonymous

[1][2][3] Published in 2013 by Little A/New Harvest, the novel is a series of connected short stories about actors in Los Angeles.

Critics complained that the otherwise interesting and well-written stories were marred by name dropping and references to the author's own career and personal philosophy.

[9][10] In 2017, Franco's book was adapted into a feature film, Actors Anonymous, starring James Franco, Eric Roberts, Emma Rigby, Scott Haze, Jake Robbins, Carmen Argenziano, and Horatio Sanz.

[14][15] The film had an unconventional development process, crafted by a collective of eight writers (Elizabeth Eccher, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Halla, Kaela Rae Jensen, Josh Litman, Theodore Martland, Alex Parslow, Osahon Tongo) and twelve directors (Melanie Aitkenhead, Abi Damaris Corbin, Shaun Duffy, Justin S. Lee, Kelly Luu, Kevin Luu, Jess Maldaner, Leandro Tadashi, Juel Taylor, Jay Wolff, Kerry Yang, Julio Vincent Gambuto), all graduate students at USC's School of Cinematic Arts.

[16] The project was supervised by John Watson, with James Franco playing a pivotal role not only as a cast member but also in a mentorship capacity.