James Franco: The next James Dean By Kelly Carter, USA TODAY TNT James Franco immersed himself into the role of James Dean. BEVERLY HILLS  James Franco slinks into the room as if trying to go unnoticed. For much of the next 30 minutes, he avoids eye contact and stares out the window as he softly answers questions. Maybe he's gone too far with this James Dean thing. The 23-year-old actor, who plays the lead in the TNT movie James Dean (Aug. 5 at 8 p.m. PT/ET), can't help but laugh when asked if he's shaken his character. "Oh yeah," he says. "If I hadn't, I'd need some help." Like the famous method actor who achieved cult status after being killed in a car wreck in 1955 at age 24, Franco immersed himself in the role. He went from being a non-smoker to inhaling two packs a day (he's since quit), dyed his dark-brown bushy locks blond, and learned to ride a motorcycle, play guitar and the bongos. To better understand the talented but troubled Dean, he spent hours with Martin Landau, a good friend of Dean's, and Leonard Rosenman, Dean's onetime roommate and the composer on Dean's films East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause. He read books on the actor and studied his movies. The TNT biopic, a psychological portrait, explains how Dean was shunned by his father and sent to live with an aunt and uncle in Indiana after his mother died when he was 9. So Franco, while making the movie, cut off communication with his loving family and friends, including girlfriend Marla Sokoloff of The Practice. "It was a very lonely existence," he says. "If I wasn't on a set, I was watching James Dean. That was my whole thinking. James Dean. James Dean." Franco's intense dedication paid off. Dean director/executive producer Mark Rydell, who used to pal around with Dean in New York, raves about Franco's performance. "Jimmy Dean was the most dedicated actor that I've ever met  until I met Franco," says Rydell, who plays Warner Bros. chief Jack Warner in the film. "His achievement is one of the most remarkable things we've seen in years. My God, you feel like he's channeling Jimmy. He found the essence of Jimmy without losing himself." Franco studied and admired Dean long before the role came along. "If I respect (Dean), then I should give him everything that I can," he says. Says Rydell, "He's got the potential to be a great American actor. He has Montgomery Clift in him. He has Jimmy Dean in him. He has Brando in him. His future is unlimited  if he can handle it." Rydell says he was ready to cancel the project because it was so hard to find someone to play Dean. Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Steven Dorff were considered for the role as the movie languished at Warner Bros. for seven years. Rydell, who got involved with Dean in early 2000, says Franco was hesitant, but he persuaded the actor to take the role. Franco admits he was afraid he might be typecast forever if he captured Dean too convincingly. "It just took fate and confidence on my side to say, OK, this is one facet of me. Obviously, it's not me. I had to do a lot of research to get it. I am somebody different." His authentic portrayal already has had a major impact on his career. After watching a snippet of Dean, Robert De Niro tapped Franco to play his drug-addict son in City by the Sea, due out in October. Best known for starring in NBC's Freaks and Geeks and opposite Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed, Franco will play Harry Osborn in next year's Spider-Man after losing the lead to Tobey Maguire. In September, he can be seen in the gang-war drama Deuces Wild. Franco, who grew up in Palo Alto, Calif., and is the eldest of three sons, comes from a non-showbiz family. To overcome his shyness, he got into acting while studying literature at UCLA, which, much to his parents' dismay, he left after only one year. "I didn't really know who I was or how to express myself," says Franco, who paints and draws in his spare time. "It wasn't until I got to L.A. and I found the acting thing. It was like a miracle. It changed me."