James Franco at the 2011 Austin Film Festival Credit: Jana Birchum

Actor/scholar/novelist/documentarian/performance artist/awards show host James Franco is famous for having his finger in a lot of pies. Now the new media maven is fixing his attentions on the University of Texas.

Earlier this year, Franco debuted a new web series, Undergrads, which chronicles life (and liquor consumption) at the University of Southern California. Other Undergrads outposts are in the works, including Undergrads: South, which is set at UT. (The issue of why “South” is a problematic, even repugnant, classification for many Texans, we’ll leave for another day.)

Franco, the series co-creator and producer, will premiere the pilot of Undergrads: South and talk with three of his collaborators, UT film student David Bukstein, Joy Gohring, and Vince Jolivette, at 11am in the Austin Suite of the Austin Convention Center as part of SXSW’s Digital Domain programming. Wonder what you’re in store for? Well, if the preview for Undergrads (embedded below from WhoSay) is any indicator: a lot of drunken nekkidness, then a lot of grainy footage illustrating the tedium of studying. Decent enough approximation of the college experience, we suppose.


James Franco on WhoSay

This article appears in March 9 • 2012.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...