Disastrous search for James Franco
Takaka had a starring role in the continuing quest to interview the director of a film festival favourite, writes Stephanie Bunbury.
One thing I won’t forget about The Disaster Artist is the sheer grit and determination of the publicist who made sure I saw it.
James Franco, the film’s director, star and producer was going to be at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, as was I.
We could get an interview with him, but only if I saw the film – already dubbed ‘‘the comedy sensation of South by South West’’ by Variety magazine – before the festival started. Except that I was in New Zealand, in Takaka, two hours over a switchback road out of Nelson. It isn’t the kind of place where you expect to be able to get to a press screening.
Jesse at Roadshow, however, didn’t see things that way. There is a charming community cinema in Takaka that is managed, programmed and projected by Natasha. Jesse found Natasha at home and asked her if she would come in to project the film on a Sunday morning. The film could be delivered electronically; the one bit of the jigsaw that was a bit tricky was meeting Warners’ stipulation that the screening also had to be attended by three security guards.
One would sit with me, ensuring I didn’t pirate the film. One would guard Natasha. One would guard the door to the empty main street. When three uniformed men duly arrived in town, Natasha said that the last time there was a security detail in Takaka was 25 years ago when Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands visited the local monument to Abel Tasman. Queen Beatrix and me. The local paper gave the story quite a splash.
The Disaster Artist is the first production from Ramona Films, a company Franco set up with his brother Dave. It is the story of the making of The Room, an earnestly conceived and spectacularly bad film made by and starring Tommy Wiseau, an eccentric man of uncertain origins, bizarre accent and unexplained wealth.
Wiseau roped in a much younger friend he had made in acting class, an out-of-town hopeful called Greg Sestero (played here by Dave Franco) and together they pulled together a bemused crew and scratch cast to recite Wiseau’s muddled script.
Convinced it was a masterpiece, Wiseau even bankrolled a redcarpet Hollywood premiere for his magnum opus. The one-off audience hooted with derisive laughter but, 14 years later, The Room is a midnight cult hit.
Sestero wrote the book about making The Room on which Franco’s film is based; Wiseau apparently maintains that only 40 per cent of it is true. Even so, he supported the idea of making a film out of it, on the condition Johnny Depp played him.
Eventually he accepted Franco on the grounds he had once played James Dean. ‘‘And Tommy, if you’ve seen him, looks nothing like James Dean,’’ Franco told Deadline. ‘‘I mean, he looks like a vampire that dyes his hair with a magic marker.’’
Franco clearly revels in playing Wiseau, so much so that he stayed in character for most of the shoot.
‘‘Working with my brother was fun,’’ says Dave Franco. ‘‘It was like we were being directed by Tommy Wiseau at points. That is something you get used to after a few days, or at least adjust to, but then there were so many cameos in the movie where people would come in for one day and you would have toprep them, to let them know they were not going to meet James today. It’s a hard concept to wrap your mind around.’’
Dave Franco is speaking at what is described as a mini press conference in Toronto. Around 15 journalists are squeezed into a small office, with a couch for the talent. Franco minor is flanked by Paul Scheer and Ari Graynor, who plays Wiseau’s leading lady in The Room.
James Franco is on his way, we’re told. Franco never does arrive. Nobody apologises, but that’s Hollywood-normal. A few days later, I amasked to contribute questions for an online email press conference. That never happens either.
Cheery Dave Franco and the other actors are very enthusiastic about the film, however. Graynor recalls how they improvised jokes but also tried to reconstruct the scenes in the original film exactly. ‘‘You are in these sets where you are literally walking into The Room and we’re studying these clips on an iPad harder than when we were studying for the SATs [exams] to get these moves right.‘‘
Scheer says he was struck by the fact that stars who loved The Room kept turning up to do cameos. ‘‘It’s just really neat to feel like every day you’d look up, and say, ‘Oh look, Bryan Cranston’s doing something!’’’
Toronto is enthused about the film, too; it finishes runner-up in the audience award. People start talking about Oscars. James Franco was last nominated for his career-best performance as a climber trapped under a rock in Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours in 2011. Meanwhile, the film is due to compete at the prestigious San Sebastian Film Festival, just a week after Toronto has ended. John Malkovich is head of the jury. And the Golden Shell, one of the top awards in European festivals, goes to The Disaster Artist.
Franco is in Spain with the film, but there don’t seem to be any interviews on offer there either.
‘‘This was a family affair, my brother, my sister, my old friend Seth Rogen,’’ he says, clearly thrilled, at the ceremony where he receives his prize. ‘‘It’s a very simple film about a crazy man. But he had big dreams and it’s better than not having dreams.‘‘
Next up, he returns to New York for a junket; we are promised a 10-minute phone call with him between face-to face interviews. In a recent interview with Australian GQ, Franco said he had recognised he was a workaholic and was consciously cutting back although, according to IMDB, he still has 15 projects as an actor and six as director listed after The Disaster Artist. He also exhibits paintings and videos and writes poetry and novels.
Franco has, however, cut out teaching film in universities, is not taking any courses himself and delegated most of his social media to assistants. He also seems to have cut back on press interviews because that New York call never comes through.
London is on for a while, then off. I feel destined to be in every city Franco visits, not talking to him in any of them. But we did kick one goal: screening The Disaster Artist in the Takaka Village Cinema.– Sydney Morning Herald
❚ The Disaster Artist (M) will open in select New Zealand cinemas on November 30.