Hit film’s Bay Area roots
‘Disaster Artist’ follows local man’s bizarre Hollywood saga
Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero created and starred in the cult movie “The Room.”
Last year, one of the big holiday-season films, “La La Land,” followed the story of two dreamers who fall in love as they weather the highs and lows of chasing their artistic, star-struck ambitions. Even though they both find success, they lose each other.
This year, “The Disaster Artist” follows a similar script, with some major tweaks. Dave (Sestero) and James Franco (Wiseau) portray the stars in “The Disaster Artist.” First, you’d have to replace “falling in love” with “forming a colorful, enduring friendship.” You’d also have to note that the pair are still close friends and redefine how you define success.
But the account of their Hollywood adventure is what’s so wonderfully entertaining about the story of Greg Sestero, a Walnut Creek native, and Tommy Wiseau, a modern-day Ed Wood who wrote, directed, produced and starred in the hilari-
ously awful cult movie “The Room.” It’s also got a happy, if ironic, ending in that critics and audiences alike appear to think “The Disaster Artist” — James Franco’s movie about the making of “The Room” — is actually a really good movie.
“The movie is a bizarre story, unlike any Hollywood story, and Tommy is unlike anybody in Hollywood history,” said Franco, who directed and plays Wiseau in the film. “But at the same time it’s a very common story of people coming to Hollywood to follow their dreams, feeling like outsiders and fighting to get their vision across. Basically, this is the upside-down of ‘La La Land.’ ”
A surreal experience
Based on Sestero’s 2013 book of the same title, “The Disaster Artist” boasts a cast of Hollywood stars who are part of “The Room’s” cult following, including Bryan Cranston, Josh Hutcherson, Alison Brie and Seth Rogen. Palo Alto native Franco is getting Oscar buzz for his portrayal of the mysterious, outrageous Wiseau. His brother, Dave Franco, stars as Sestero. As with the book, it’s very much Sestero’s story and deeply embedded in the Bay Area.
Sestero left Monte Vista High School in his junior
year to work as a model in Europe for designers like Giorgio Armani. That led to small parts in TV’s “Nash Bridges” and the movie “Patch Adams.” He lacked confidence and experience, which he was trying to gain in an acting class in San Francisco.
It was there that he met Tommy Wiseau.
”He was fearless,” Sestero explained in a recent interview at Coffee Shop in downtown Walnut Creek. “While everyone else in the class was cautious and predictable, Tommy set the room on fire with a charismatic chaos I was drawn to.”
“I could see that (Sestero) was a lonely guy,” Wiseau said in a distinct but unidentifiable European accent, in a phone interview from his home in Los Angeles. After they became acting partners, they bonded quickly over their admiration for James Dean and eventually became friends.
“We took a lot of trips, did a lot of crazy things.”
“The Disaster Artist” alternates between two storylines: The chaotic making of “The Room,” and the friendship between Sestero and Wiseau that somehow survived it.
Sestero’s parents were unenthusiastic about their son’s Hollywood dreams, especially when Sestero took Wiseau up on an offer of free board in his apartment in L.A. His mother tried desperately to dissuade him.
“I come from Europe, where education was No. 1,” explained Marie-Jose Sestero, who grew up in France and now lives in Danville. “L.A. is a big town, and I was very concerned for his safety. You need a deep connection, or you don’t get in. I thought, ‘They are going to eat him alive.’ ”
Wiseau says he felt much of their initial friendship was because, unlike Sestero’s parents, he believed in the much younger actor’s potential.
“I remember meeting Greg’s mom, and I know she was thinking, ‘Oh my god, the world is ending,’ ” Wiseau said. “I mean, she is a very nice person, but it is always stressful if parents don’t understand your thinking.”
Three years later she was nearly proven right. While his chiseled looks and a starring role in the B film “The Retro Puppet Master” had gotten Sestero an A-list agent, his career had stalled. Supporting himself working retail, his checkbook and prospects dwindling, he was ready to head back to the Bay Area when Wiseau, who’d had virtually no success getting hired in Hollywood, insisted they make their own movie. Moreover, Wiseau had the financial means — $6 million — and his utter lack of filmmaking experience in no way undermined his self confidence.
Sestero says he had no illusions about the script, but agreed to serve as “The Room’s” line producer out of his loyalty to his friend, and also because it bought him more time in Hollywood.
Sestero says the making of “The Room” was every bit as surreal as he portrayed it in “The Disaster Artist.”
“It was truly insane, and every day was a surprise,” Sestero said, recalling the stiff acting, ludicrous subplots, long and awkward sex scenes, and lack of continuity. Wiseau showed up hours late every day and often
couldn’t remember his lines.
“The Room” reportedly grossed less than $2,000 when it premiered in June 2003 in Los Angeles. But it did catch the eye of college film students, whose attendance helped keep it afloat until it eventually gained a cult following with fans that included Judd Apatow, Rogen and Franco.
In 2008, “The Room” catapulted onto the pop culture map with a six-page story in Entertainment Weekly magazine.
“That’s when everything changed,” recalls Sestero, who was cobbling together a post-“The Room” career with international modeling and obscure acting gigs.
The other side
Fans asked so many questions, Sestero realized there might be interest in a book. He convinced Tom Bissell, a journalist who had impressed him with a story he’d written about “The Room,” to partner with him on the book. “The Disaster Artist” was published in 2013 to enthusiastic reviews.
Franco and Rogen quickly bought the rights, and “The Disaster Artist,” on which Sestero worked as a consultant, premiered in March at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, where it received a standing ovation. While many details from the book were tweaked in the interest of a tighter story, Sestero is pleased with the movie, in part because
Franco’s portrayal “humanized Tommy,” who has “a hugely enjoyable, lovable side. He’ll try anything, say anything, do anything, no judgments.”
Wiseau says he approves “99.9 percent” with how Franco depicted their story, with the exception being a humorous scene in which Wiseau, Sestero and others play an extremely awkward game of catch with a pigskin.
“I don’t throw a football like that,” he said.
Sestero says that while there’s also the other side of Wiseau — “the secretive, controlling side that can be downright unbearable” — he was willing to work with him again. And the success of his book inspired him to come up with his own vision for a movie.
The result is “Best F(r) iends,” and this time Sestero is in control. Based on a road trip they took in 2003, it stars Wiseau as an “eclectic mortician” who was very much affected by the Black Dahlia murders, and Sestero as a homeless drifter. He describes it as David Lynchian — “A Simple Plan” meets “The Lost Highway.” It premiered to a sold-out audience at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles in October.
Designed for “audience participation,” “Best F(r)iends)” is expected to screen in 800 theaters nationwide for a few nights in late March and then Sestero is hoping Netflix will pick it up. Sestero already has a sequel in the works.