“The Room” is a truly special film. Written, directed, and starring Tommy Wiseau, its famous for just how spectacularly awful it is. And in a world filled with plenty of bad movies, “The Room” rises above all the rest not just because of the horrible acting, writing, set design, and everything else, but also for the legendary behind-the-scenes antics of Wiseau. These near legendary stories are so strange that it’s hard to believe that any of them are actually true.
At least that’s what test audiences thought when James Franco and co. initially test screened “The Disaster Artist.” The film is an adaptation of the memoir by actor Greg Sestero about the incredible making of “The Room.” And in an interview with Slashfilm with “The Disaster Artist” writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, when these audiences watched the film, they didn’t believe that any of the story was actually true. However, in the case of this film, “Based on a True Story” really meant just that.
“I think we were fascinated by the real. In this particular case – I guess in most cases – the real is way more interesting than anything we’re going to come up with. It’s crazy. It’s funny, because when we were testing this movie initially with an audience of people, the one thing that they said at the end, which we couldn’t believe, was that they didn’t think any of this was true. Even though it says, ‘Based on a True Story,’ they just thought it was another Franco/Rogen [project], making something up and a funny character they were doing. The side by sides – some people still watch this movie and cannot believe, until the side-by-sides, that there is footage out there like what we shot,” said Neustadter.
To help show just how accurate “The Disaster Artist” is, Franco and the rest of the cast faithfully recreated some of the most iconic scenes from “The Room.” When these scenes are shown alongside the original film during the credits, they’re pretty much identical. Even when you think Franco is maybe overacting as Wiseau, he’s truly embodying the filmmaker perfectly, down to the unique accent and mannerisms.
The odd thing about “The Disaster Artist” is more people will probably see the film than actually have seen “The Room.” For those viewers, the idea that what they’re watching play out on screen actually occurred will definitely be a tough pill to swallow. For the rest of us, who have been luckily enough to see Wiseau’s masterpiece, we know it was probably much, much worse.