BEFORE HE WAS an Oscar-nominated, geopolitically-antagonising superstar, James Franco was an aspiring actor.

A college dropout living on a couch in LA, he had few employment options. Step forward, McDonald’s.

Franco worked at a local McD’s for three months to allow him continue to chase his dream.

With the company’s sales slipping, public perception of the fast-food behemoth has never been lower.

And, having been saved by McDonald’s, Franco today decided to return the favour.

In a lengthy op-ed for the Washington Post, the 127 Hours star says that the restaurant helped him get to where he is today.

“All I know is that when I needed McDonald’s, McDonald’s was there for me. When no one else was.”

He says that he would practice accents while working the drive-through window (even being asked to fight while trying his Irish one) and stopped being a vegetarian by eating the cheeseburgers destined for the bin.

He then talks about how people ordering for groups of children are “the devil incarnate”, a homeless woman spent time in the restaurant and a hamburger cook wanted to have sex with him in a bathroom.

Franco adds that he hopes the company’s cost-cutting overhaul works because he was “treated fairly well” at McDonald’s.

“If anything, they cut me slack. And, just like their food, the job was more available there than anywhere else. When I was hungry for work, they fed the need.”

Franco landed a part in a Pizza Hut SuperBowl ad three months later and began his path to superstardom, but says he’ll have a cheeseburger about once a year.

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