Actor James Franco was the keynote speaker invited for the Commencement Ceremony at Cornell University on Sunday and despite promising to keep his speech short, he was able to inspire many of the graduates after talking about the many hardships he had to face in show business.

The 38-year old actor told the graduating crowd that while he would have loved to study in Cornell University since he was accepted there after high school, he instead went to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to study English, the Ithaca Journal reported. He then dropped out against his parent's wishes to pursue a career in acting and had to take odd jobs to make ends meet. Once, he had to practice accents for an audition while working at McDonalds just so he would do well at the test.

"At the time I knew I wanted to be an actor at any cost," said Franco.

He also told the graduates of his experience working with esteemed actors like Kirsten Dunst and Willem Dafoe, who all inspired him to constantly study acting until he met a mental dead end. He decided to go back to school to finish his English degree from UCLA which he did impressively in two years.

This is not the first time that Franco gave a commencement speech, the Cornell Sun reported. He previously addressed the Graduating Class of 2012 of University of Texas at Arlington, receiving rapturous applause from the crowd for his humorous speech despite initial hesitation.

Franco was also invited by UCLA to give the commencement speech in 2009 however he had to back out because of backlash from students were skeptical of his qualifications especially since he only graduated from the school the preceding year.

You may watch the video of James Franco's commencement speech in full below.

Topics Cornell University