Does James Franco Have a Twin?

Perhaps you’ve seen his lookalike and you might be one of the many people asking if James Franco is a twin. 

James Franco doesn’t have a twin but he does have two brothers who look like him. Confusing fans even more, he also plays a twin on one of the shows he’s recently starred in. 

James Franco has two brothers who happen to look very similar to him, so much so that many people are wondering if James Franco is a twin. Many people are familiar with one of the brothers, and the third has recently been in the spotlight—and he’s got nearly identical curls to James Franco. 

James Franco’s Brothers

James Franco was born in Palo Alto, California. He grew up in a “weird and artsy” family. His parents were artists, and both of them painted in college. Betsy Verne-Franco is a writer and Doug Franco was a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. The family was eccentric, but that doesn’t mean that the boys didn’t excel.

And while most people only know about James and his brother Dave Franco (also an actor), there is actually a third Franco brother—Tom. Tom Franco is two years younger than James and five years older than Dave. 

According to Dave, Tom is the sweetest of the three and the nicest guy to be around—and he’s also somewhat of a secret to the world. 

Tom Franco, like the rest of his family, has prioritized an artistic side. He’s a well-known artist who works predominantly with ceramics. According to fans, he’s also generally considered the most attractive of the three.  

Brotherly Similarities

While Tom may be out of the limelight for the most part, Dave and James have actually worked together in the film While they’re both actors, it took them a while to decide to be on the same film set. 

According to Dave, the two spent a lot of time distancing themselves in the work world. He corrected the assumption that they people normally make—that since they look and talk similar, they must act similar. 

In fact, Dave and James have very different similarities and, as such, different preferences for work. Because both actors wanted to maintain their reputation and credibility, they also wanted to work in separate films. 

On the other side of the coin, James and Tom have actually worked together on several art exhibitions. 

Playing a Twin

One of the reasons people might be wondering if James Franco is a twin is because in one of his more recent roles, he actually plays one. 

In the HBO TV show ‘The Deuce,’ James Franco is joined by no other than… James Franco. He plays the main character, the bartender Vincent. He also plays the twin brother, Frankie. 

Oh, and James Franco is also one of the directors in the show, too. James Franco himself admitted how crazy this was during an interview, “It’s insane. But when you saw me, I was at the height of multitasking.”

The filming had to be done in a very specific manner. They started with Vincent’s character before changing the hair and makeup entirely so that Frankie could appear. They then had to combine the scenes (sometimes the same scenes!).

As we could all imagine, there was a lot of improvising going on. Franco had to talk to what would be himself on several occasions. He had to say lines that his future self would respond to later. 

Then the real magic happened— after both of James Franco’s characters had made their appearances, they had to put it all together. Using some extremely impressive VFX technology in the post-production stage, they combined the scenes with both James Francos into one. 

Well, there you have it. James Franco is not a twin. But he did play one pretty well. He also has brothers that look similar, but they’re all different ages and are each into their own respective creative endeavours. 

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