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Bring Your "A" Game Everyday

In a recent podcast episode of the Adam Carolla Show, host Adam Carolla interviewed Bryan Cranston, Megan Mullally, and James Franco following a screening of their new movie, Why Him? Being a comedy podcast, Cranston and Mullally were more than willing to go along with Carolla's antics. They were very positive and upbeat, and I could tell the crowd was enthralled with them.

Franco, on the other hand, was... disengaged. I'm trying to reserve judgment of the actor since I don't know what he's like on a regular basis. Maybe he was just having an off night. But it was pretty clear he was just not into it. His answers to Carolla's questions were pretty straightforward, and Franco took no action to put any comedic spin on anything he said.

That's a problem.


Again, I don't want to judge Franco on whether or not he is this way all the time, but that shouldn't matter. While I'm trying to reserve my judgments, I am 100% sure Carolla's other fans thought Franco was lame, to say the least. How can I be so sure? Check out this post over at Reddit. One of the top comments (upvoted 23 times when this post goes live) reads like this:


"Damn, James Franco is kind of a dud. Bryan Cranston was great as usual, and Megan Mullally was pretty decent."


I would say that is a very fair statement, especially considering how nasty people can get in the online realm!

My point is that we never know who is watching us, so we always need to put our best foot forward. It's definitely a recurring theme here on this blog, this idea of being aware of your presence. In our digital age, stuff gets out there fast.

What Franco may have failed to realize is that while there were probably less than 200 people at this movie screening, there were thousands at home listening to the podcast the next day. He certainly didn't crush his career, but Franco almost assuredly lost fans from that interview.

Keep this in mind, friends: you don't know who's watching you. You don't know how far your actions will stretch. It might be a small slip up like this or a career-ender like with the dentist who shot Cecil the Lion. Our actions have lasting effects, so be mindful of them always. And bring your "A" game every single day.

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