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Dave Franco is forging his own path in Hollywood.
“It’s a complicated thing where I love my brother, and I’m so grateful for the advice he gave me coming through this business, and just even watching how he navigated certain situations,” Dave, 41, said during the Monday, September 14, episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast while discussing his relationship with older brother James Franco.
“I’m always grateful for that,” the Now You See Me star continued. “But I think in recent years, I’ve kind of gone down my path long enough that people have started to give me my own due.”
Dave is the youngest of three boys after middle brother Tom Franco and eldest brother James, 48. James achieved fame playing Daniel Desario in the 1999 TV series Freaks and Geeks, later going on to star as Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy and as James Dean in the legendary actor’s 2001 biopic, among other roles.
Though Tom, 46, primarily works as a professional artist and sculptor, he has had minor acting roles in films including 2012’s Spring Breakers and 2017’s The Disaster Artist alongside his brothers.
Dave first gained widespread attention in 2009 with his role as Cole Aaronson in Scrubs. His film breakthrough came in 2012 when he starred as Eric Molson in the comedy 21 Jump Street. He has since starred in Neighbors (2013), the action caper trilogy Now You See Me, the Apple TV series The Studio and more.
During Monday’s podcast chat, Dave admitted that it’s been difficult to build his own identity in Hollywood outside of his connection to James, calling his brother “very f***ing talented and happy.” However, he noted that he “worked my ass off” to make a name for himself in the industry and break away from James’ “shadow.”
Dave previously reflected on his dynamic with his older brother in an October 2025 interview with Bustle.
“At this point, I think he’s excited just to see me trying new things and to see me grow,” he said. “No one was going to hire me just because I was James Franco’s little brother. If I sucked, I would’ve disappeared very quickly.”
Elsewhere in his podcast appearance on Monday, Dave opened up about his decision to stay off social media and how it’s caused him to feel isolated at times.
“I’m just blissfully unaware; I don’t even know what the trends are, and because of that, I actually do feel a little on the outside sometimes,” he explained. “Where I’m like, I don’t know what people are talking about. I don’t know what the latest trends are. Is that affecting my own creativity of what I’m putting out there? Where I want it to be relevant. I want it to hit the zeitgeist. But like, so there is fear of that, I guess, of just not being tapped into what’s happening.”
The tradeoff is avoiding the “mental anguish” that social media can bring.
“I just know for me, no shame to anyone else, I get the advantage of it. I get why it’s so addictive. I get all this stuff, but it just scares me,” he admitted. “I just don’t want to put myself out there to a bunch of strangers who inevitably will tear me down every single day. I don’t want that negativity in my life on a daily basis. I love it.”
