{"id":334,"date":"2015-05-07T23:58:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T23:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamesfranconetwork.net\/?p=334"},"modified":"2015-05-07T23:58:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T23:58:30","slug":"james-franco-pens-love-letter-to-mcdonalds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/?p=334","title":{"rendered":"James Franco Pens Love Letter to McDonald\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"James<\/a><\/p>\n

He worked at McDonald’s while trying to break into acting<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I know is that when I needed McDonald\u2019s, McDonald\u2019s was there for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

So begins James Franco\u2018s adoring op-ed about McDonald\u2019s published in Thursday\u2019s The Washington Post, but perhaps \u201cop-ed\u201d is the wrong word\u2014the piece is really more of a love letter to the struggling franchise, where Franco worked in the \u201990s when he was first trying to break into acting, had just dropped out of UCLA and couldn\u2019t find a steady job.<\/p>\n

Franco\u2019s late-shift drive-thru position turned out to be more than just a financial necessity\u2014it allowed him to practice various accents, including \u201cBrooklynese,\u201d Italian, British, Irish, Russian and Southern.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was asked to give Italian lessons to a cute young woman who thought I was from Pisa; of course I couldn\u2019t follow up as I did not speak Italian,\u201d Franco writes, now 37. \u201cThe casting director for NYPD Blue liked my British accent, but was put off when I revealed that I was actually just a California boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from accent practice, there were other perks, too, like eating \u201ccheeseburgers that were headed for the trash\u201d and sneaking frozen apple bars, which he would eat in the freezer, \u201cstill frozen\u2014great with coffee.\u201d (Not to mention eating french fries straight from the fryer: \u201cI hate to whistle blow, but everyone ate straight from the fry hopper.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Franco\u2019s op-ed is published at a time when the iconic chain faces declining profits and nationwide protests over low wages. The chain has announced plans to raise wages to $9.90\u2014by over a dollar\u2014though workers say it\u2019s too little, too late.<\/p>\n

The piece will add even more star-powered buzz to McDonald\u2019s, which just announced release of the revamped (and, honestly, kind of sexy) Hamburglar mascot, who\u2019ll be part of a new ad campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter reading Fast Food Nation, it\u2019s hard for me to trust the grade of the meat,\u201d Franco writes. \u201cBut maybe once a year, while on a road trip or out in the middle of nowhere for a movie, I\u2019ll stop by a McDonald\u2019s and get a simple cheeseburger: light, and airy, and satisfying.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He worked at McDonald’s while trying to break into acting \u201cAll I know is that when I needed McDonald\u2019s, McDonald\u2019s was there for me.\u201d So begins James Franco\u2018s adoring op-ed about McDonald\u2019s published in Thursday\u2019s The Washington Post, but perhaps \u201cop-ed\u201d is the wrong word\u2014the piece is really more of a love letter to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/james-franco.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}