Dave Francos Raunchy Lowbrow Breakout

Not long ago, Dave Franco was just an A-list actors D-list little brother, being bullied in a 2008 Funny or Die video called Acting With James Franco. Dave wanted to act, too, but he was stuck in the big, weird shadow of James, who was balancing high-profile roles with poetry, nudity and crazy art films. Onscreen, Daves good looks got him typecast as a clean-cut prick. He played Greg the Soccer Player in 2007s Superbad and a couple of forgettable bit parts on TVs Greek and Privileged. I wasnt proud of the projects I was involved in, says Dave, 29. I didnt want my family and friends to see these things.

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Then Dave told Christopher Mintz-Plasse (a.k.a. McLovin from Superbad) how badly he wanted to fuck him. Youre so hot, Dave said in their first Funny or Die video. I want to literally cover every single inch of your body with my tongue.

Their stupid-hysterical Youre So Hot videos went viral and relaunched Francos career as a lowbrow comic actor. I found out later that the videos helped me get cast in 21 Jump Street, he says.

Now Franco is a legit rising comedy star. His best work yet came in this summers smash Neighbors, a frat-house comedy he says was perfectly catered to my wheelhouse: dick-oriented humor. Francos shot-slamming frat boy is a jackass, but a jackass with soul self-aware enough to realize all the partying is temporary, sensitive enough to be hurt when his bud (Zac Efron) turns against him. After 21 Jump Street, I was offered every douchebag-asshole role in Hollywood, he says. In Neighbors, It would have been easy to make the frat brothers douche assholes, but we tried to make them human.

Of course, Franco is not about to clean his act up. In 22 Jump Street, out now, he has a cameo as Rob Riggles prison bitch and he promises more Funny or Die shorts are on the way. Franco will also reportedly star in The Disaster Artist, a behind-the-scenes romp (directed by James) through Tommy Wiseaus hysterically incompetent cult classic The Room, and hes developing a film based on the novel The Interns Handbook, in which he would play a hero who is hardly a jerk at all. To be completely candid, Im not an asshole, he says. I swear! I am not a douchebag.

Franco is on a roll, but theres one thing that he just cant wrap his head around: his brother. Ive got no explanation, he says. I know to expect anything at this point, and Im still shocked by certain things he does. And I know better than to ask him why hes posting naked selfies.

This story is from the July 3rd-17th, 2014 issue of Rolling Stone.