Meet Macy Armstrong. She’s 13 years old, she’s Canadian, and she’s pretty much James Franco’s biggest fan. She’s also a mighty talented fledgling artist—her favorite subject is James Franco, natch.
In a sense, Mr. Franco knows all about fan art: during TIFF proceedings on Sunday, Franco visited Toronto to discuss his own Gus Van Sant -inspired art installation, “Memories of Idaho.” (He himself was 13 when Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho was in theaters.)
And that was when Mr. Franco spied our young heroine, Macy, in the crowd. She was wearing a homemade T-shirt (with Franco’s face emblazoned on it) and carrying a painting, a collage, and a portrait made of yarn (pictured).
“I was holding up my yarn poster for James to see,” Macy wrote afterward, “and he did! He smiled, pointed to it, and jokingly said he wanted to buy it. I just about died!”
Members of the audience giggled, but Mr. Franco wasn’t joking. He had recognized Macy’s work immediately. “I saw that one on the Internet, someone sent it to me,” he continued seriously. “I wanna buy those.”
And despite adorable reports to the contrary, Macy would like to point out that Mr. Franco did not “buy those”—she gave them to him for free! (“I would never make James Franco pay for something if I could help it!” Macy writes on her Tumblr.) Macy! Let James Franco buy your work if he wants to! He can afford it!
Mr. Franco also answered young Macy’s questions during Q&A. Since you were wondering about his cats, he flew Sammy and Zelda to Detroit, where he is filming Oz.
Mr. Franco left TIFF with all three pieces of art, including the collage below. It’s brilliant; it’s like a portrait of a teenage girl’s brain.
What wasted talent.