James Franco isn’t confined to simply being a movie star, artist, comedian, director or anything in between. He does it all. The quality of his work is subjective, but the vastness of his body of work is objectively incredible.

Consequently, he is a very famous man.

Franco is credited with over 225 productions on IMDB (including appearances as himself). He has a handful of different degrees from prestigious universities and he’s contributed to over a dozen books of various genres.

The man just does stuff.

So far in his career, Franco has ignored all the rules.

Now, it’s important to remember that, technically, there are no rules for fame. You don’t have to do certain things or meet a certain quota; it’s just that tradition is tradition for a reason.

When you get famous in your 20s (as Franco did with Freaks and Geeks), the paths are pretty standard. You become a humongous star a la Tom Hanks or Matt Damon, you become a sociopathic, drug-addicted nut job like Charlie Sheen, or you fade into anonymous, “that guy!” roles in B-list movies (see: Brody, Adam).

But Franco hasn’t really gone down any of those paths. He’s too risky and inconsistent to be considered a superstar. He hasn’t gone crazy quite yet — although an interesting case could be made for him being a sociopathic, drug-

addicted nut job, albeit not quite in the Sheen mold. And he’s still too famous to fall into “that guy!” roles, even though there are times when he strives for that type of anonymity.

Franco is in on the joke. He knows what America expects of him, and he refuses to go along with it.

His roast on Comedy Central was the perfect — and most recent — example of Franco doing something just to do it. Normally, these roasts are a place to make fun of the guest of honor and bring up all the things that didn’t work out for him in his otherwise successful career.

In Franco’s mind, however, nothing was truly unsuccessful.

Sure, some things didn’t make money. Some things were not well-received. Some people, myself included, gave up on ever watching another independent film after seeing “Camille.”

But that doesn’t matter to Franco. For the entirety of his career, whenever he wanted to do something, he did it. It wasn’t about the reaction or the reception. It was about him, James Franco, doing something just to say James Franco had done it.

When controversial/unique things happen in Hollywood, there is a standard timeline. Something happens. There’s a backlash. Then there’s a backlash to the backlash. Then there’s a backlash to the backlash of the backlash. And so on.

But Franco doesn’t care. Not one bit.

If he cared, he wouldn’t have had a

recurring role on General Hospital. If he cared, he wouldn’t have used his actual paintings in This is the End. If he cared, he wouldn’t have been the guest of honor at a Comedy Central Roast, which are notorious for has-beens looking for a cash grab.

But Franco is still popular, is only 35 years old and has five more movies scheduled to come out this year. But he decided to be roasted on Labor Day by his actual friends and standard roasters.

You know why? Well, actually, I’m not quite sure. But that’s the beauty of Franco. No one is quite sure what he’s thinking or what he’s

going to do next.

And that’s been his plan all along. At this

point, Franco could never act again, and we would still pay attention to him. We would still follow along with his career choices because, at the end of the day, the man is very, very famous.

Just like all the other celebrities of this generation, it isn’t about what they do. It’s about who they are.

And that’s what makes Franco so fascinating. We don’t pay attention to his actions because of his artistic ability, his squinty smile or his funny friends.

We pay attention because he’s famous.