Actor, author, stoner icon, polymath James Franco is liable to cause a worldwide hyphen shortage. The three-time Golden Globe nominee (Best Actor Drama for 127 Hours in 2011; Best Actor Comedy for Pineapple Express in 2009 and Golden Globe winner in 2002 as the eponymous star of James Dean) Franco is also an Ivy league university teacher, PhD candidate, author (the short story collection Palo Alto), dance theater director and conceptual artist who has mounted installations from Sundance to the Gagosian gallery. Now our favorite postmodern renaissance man is back on the small screen in Hulu’s first scripted series, 11.22.63, an adaptation of Stephen King’s historical sci-fi novel in which unhappy junior college composition teacher Jake Epping (Franco) finds new purpose – to use a euphemism – as a time traveler tasked with stopping the assassination of John F Kennedy. The HFPA's Kirpi Uimonen Ballesteros and Mirai Konishi spoke to him about the show and King’s fascinating thought experiment.