The Disaster Artist ~ Lost in Adaptation
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- Опубліковано 22 чер 2023
- The Disaster Artist recreated the best parts of The Room shot for shot, but how closely did it stick to the book it's based on by Greg Sestero and what was Tommy Wiseau really like according to him?
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As someone who worked on set I wish people won't look at people like Tommy like "aww he's so quirky". He's the type of director who won't feed/provide water to his workers, force them to stay on set for 12 hours, do stupid things that waste everyone's time, scream at you for following his instructions, force his actresses to get naked with him through abuse and fires you for going to the hospital. He has money and power over others. What could have been a simple job can turn into hell.
I'm really surprised that a person like him got a significant following.
At the very least, this man needs help. Not encouraging.
I never did. Always felt like something was very wrong with him.
Yeah, I'm always confused about people who still treat Wiseau like a fun weird uncle after the The Disaster Artist book was released. At that point, we learned that Wiseau was NOT Ed Wood (a guy who was completely incompetent as a filmmaker but reportedly treated everyone he worked with fun and respect) but a creepy asshole whose name would be lost to history if he wasn't weird looking and sounding in addition to being so bad at acting it's comical.
Obviously everything else you mentioned is awful and I agree he sucks, but genuine question from a former film major, when I was in school I was part of a program that had students working as the crew alongside some professionals, of a real proper film, and we basically worked 12 hour shifts; work 12 hours on set, get 12 hours rest. We were told that was the industry standard. Is that not the case?
@@Isilranna Might wanna ask SAG-AFTRA if you are in America, or some other Union depending on your country.
I had the same reaction you did; "The Disaster Artist" made Wiseau's success, even ironic, feel unjust. Franco clearly wanted to make "Ed Wood," a crowd-pleasing movie about holy fools with a dream. A friend put it, "Franco made a good film everyone will like but could have made a great film no one would like."
I'll just add that I lived under the room's billboard for like 6+ years, and it still made me feel uncomfortable
What was good about Ed Wood was that he was just a really incompetent as a director. He wasn't abusive to everyone(as far as I know). He was just an ambitious person who rushed through everything. Although he did cut corners and cut actors from roles, he was nowhere near like Tommy
@@georgebarrett8065ut no doubt Franco (and, possibly Wiseau himself) THINK that they’re Ed Wood.
I think there’s a lot of incompetent artists who are also terrible, abusive people that really believe they’re just like Ed Woods.
Now Todd’s doing movie reviews?
@@Cloudy_Jones he’s been making movie reviews since the whole madonna saga
For even more details about what a jerk Tommy is: About five years ago, I (and many others) contributed to a Kickstarter project - a documentary about called Room Full of Spoons. (You can find the trailer online.) It's a deep dive about the movie, interviewing the actors, fans, and critics. Tommy originally cooperated with the filmmakers, but then he changed his mind when he found they weren't making a movie about how wonderful he was. He's kept the filmmakers tied up in court for all this time. They are still fighting to release the film, and I'm hoping they do, not just because I contributed to the Kickstarter but because I'm dying to see what Tommy was so pissed off about.
Let's hope!
From what I’ve heard Tommy keeps losing the case then starting it up again at random
@@mrcritical6751 Yes, and I'm pretty sure he's representing himself in court at this point.
@@Remerdreseems like he was ordered to pay compensation
Reminds me of the documentary Best Worst Movie where the director of Troll 2 couldn't accept that people love how bad the movie is. The director, his wife, and music composer all believe that the movie is a masterpiece
The Room has garnered a reputation for being this quirky, incompetent cult film, but if you take it as how Tommy Wiseau sees the world and the people around him, it is massively disturbed and unpleasant
Especially how woman are portrayed in the film given his rampant misogyny in real life.
Not to sound horrible, but I'm starting to wish that car accident did more damage to him, now....
Every painting is a self-portrait.
@@jamesatkinsonja Oh yeah, people think The Room is nonesensical, but if you read it through the lens of an insane misogynist it makes perfect, if horrible, sense.
Fiction always tells the truth, even when it's lying
Last year a friend and I met Greg at a double feature he was doing of The Room and his directorial debut Miracle Valley. We were pleasantly surprised by the latter - he has great instincts for camera movements, atmosphere and editing, and the plot was unpredictable but fun. On the whole, Greg seems happier as a writer-director and I hope he continues finding joy and success on that path.
Thank you for sharing that. I was genuinely upset about how much worse the true story was vs this movie and it's nice to hear that he's off to better things now.
Ironically, the Room is great learning experience on how to make movies. Because everything Tommy did, you shouldn't do. So Greg probably thought the entire shoot "Doing it this way would be a Tommy thing to do so I shouldn't do that." and that's how he made the movie good.
@@backtoklondike That's not a bad way to look at it. It's always said that one learns more from their mistakes or failures, than they do from success.
@@curiousworld7912 Agreed. Like I have watched a lot of videos and read some books on movie production. And sure, they were really good in teaching you but its only by reading the disaster artist, that I truly understood those books, as The room is a masterclass on how to not shoot a movie.
@@curiousworld7912What'd they say?
I wasn't upset at you for making it up I was just upset that it wasn't an actual thing as I would legit read that version of The Room.
Same, I was more sad/upset that it actually wasn’t a real thing. The fact that I fell for the April Fools joke was on me for being dumb 😅
Honestly it sounds like an entertaining book if it actually existed.
@@TimeBunnyIt's not stupidity; the book, if it existed, would have been a European novel from the 70's. Anything is believeable.
Same
agreed. There are so many strange and bizarre books out there, the idea of a story about a vampire testing his mortal companions via eccentricities and self-dramatizing was absolutely 100% plausible. I wish it had been true.
"He noticed a pug and felt the need to greet it immediately"
Understandable. Might be the most understandable thing in the whole video. Would do the same
"So is it reeeaaal thiiiiing?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Your dog. Is it reeeeaaaal thiiiing?"
"……………………. Yes. 😇 My dog… is a real thing."
The only truly relatable thing about the man.
Greg Sestero wrote a book about how his only friend is a traumatized, unwell, manipulator - James Franco read it and was inspired to write a story about the brotherly love between the two dreamers. Considering how Franco behaves in his life including during the making of the film (see his on-set treatment of Charlyne Yi) I can see why he saw Wiseau as a kindred spirit.
Edit: heck, it almost perfectly parallels how Wiseau wrote The Room as a warped retelling of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
I thought that too. Greg wanted Tommy to see who he really was when watching Ripley only for him to completely miss the point and create a vanity project for himself based on it...seems like history repeated itself...
Hell Franco literally said he relates to Tommy on a personal level
@@Jimbo55151 ooofff
Also Franco needed to get permission from Wiseau himself to make The Disaster Artist so he wasn't going to allow them to show some of the darker aspects that Sestero raises about Wiseau.
That's true, that's why Wiseau likes the film so much better than the book. The book unearths almost all of his secrets, and considering how he is about his secrets both in the book and in public life, I'm surprised he and Sestero still hang out.
Honestly I feel so sorry for Greg, you see him in interviews with Tommy and he looks so beaten down and depressed about what his life has become
Truth
The good news is Greg’s making his own mark as a writer/director! His directorial debut Miracle Valley is coming to Tubi and it shows a lot of talent and promise.
@@thedoctorbitchcraft wasn’t his directorial debut Best F(R)iends?
@@mrcritical6751 nope, he *wrote* that one but didn’t direct it.
If all I was known for was being in a film made by a total asshole and weirdo that people laugh at for how bad it is I'd be depressed too.
The problem with this adaptation is that it's too wrapped up in the reputation of the Room, the "greatest bad movie ever made". The Room is such a weird and unintentionally hilarious experience that the filmmakers seem to have decided that the real life production must also have been weird and unintentionally hilarious, warping the events of the novel and leaving out Tommy's worst acts so that everything fits that narrative. It's essentially an attempt to mythologize the Room or perhaps more specifically Tommy-- to make him out to be a quirky, funny guy with a hidden heart of gold instead of the toxic, abusive asshole who only cared about himself that he really was.
Some of the making of it was unintentionally hilarious though. I read the book the second I was able to and my favorite parts at the time were Sistero going through shooting of scenes and pointing out the obvious flaws in production that happened constantly because of Wiseau's incompetence, like needlessly recreating locations to shoot instead of just shooting at the location. There was also Wiseau's inability to remember any of the movie's dialogue despite the fact that he was the one who wrote it, like that one scene on the rooftop even for how legendarily bad it is made it into the final cut because it was literally the only usable take they could get after shooting that five seconds of film for several hours.
@@bigbearkat2010 My point, though, is that the movie is emphasizing those points while quietly removing the nasty parts to make seem like the whole experience was nothing, but weird fun.
Another problem with the film is they didn’t even commit to the audio dubbing towards the end of the film which is one of the main things The Room is infamous.
@@trooper9249 they do somewhat touch upon it but they make it out like it’s out of character for Tommy, specifically when he stops Greg from getting on Malcolm In The Middle and refuses to let the cast and crew get water
@@mrcritical6751 It's why the scene where Tommy is filming the sex scene stands out as its a rare part of the film where he is a total jerk rather than just being another dismal side of his character as it is in the book.
The book felt like the story of an eventual murder victim. I had to keep reminding myself that Greg was alive since he wrote it.
As someone who's been in several toxic friendships, I originally thought the movie did a good of showing how Tommy was being manipulative and controlling, but to hear that it was so much worse is horrifying
It was very disturbing. Listening to the audiobook with Greg's voice was nice ^_^
@@fluffiedoomWhat?.
Yeah .....
@@AfianySnow29802 Maybe they are just saying he’s a very good narrator
This was one of the rare times a movie adaptation really disappointed me. The book was a harrowing, in-depth depiction of a toxic relationship between an up-and-coming actor and a terrifying, unknowable cypher of a man that began just because the former was trying to be nice; and I was surprisingly really _into_ that. The movie, however, left out almost all the drama and was just a self-congratulatory cameo fest for a bunch of UCB alums (whom I like, but did it have to be _this_ movie?).
Feels like it was more a movie about what the Room meant to *them* - all the Hollywood stars you mention, and who even get those interview clips at the start of the film - than about what the Room meant to the people who worked on it. Its why the ending is ultimately triumphant and celebratory, where in the book, the most positive reaction you're left with from the "success" of the Room is, ultimately, "so what?".
Given that Tommy Wiseau is an assumed identity for a fake passport and the puzzling money, can we acknowledge that the DB Cooper theory makes a lot more sense than it has any right to?
@@PosthumanHeresyWe know Tommy’s real identity and “Tommy Wiseau” is more of an Anglicization than a pseudonym. What Greg infers about him makes the most sense IMO.
What’s UCB?
@@SamAronowand his real name is?
When I watched The Disaster Artist, I had to keep reminding myself that it was an autobiography and Greg was fine, because constantly my brain switched to "this is a horror movie" and tried to convince myself that Greg was about to get murdered, especially when they drove to the middle of nowhere during the night to visit that memorial place.
OMG yes! It gave me real Foxcatcher vibes
It truly felt like it was going to becoming a slow-burn horror film at any moment. The guy is a total creep, I can’t believe nobody has found bodies in his basement or something yet.
As mentioned here, in the book, his mom said multiple times that she feared that her son would end up in a ditch, and Greg says in retrospect she had absolutely every right to be terrified
@@urbanarmoryfucking understatement. Wiseau was a creepy motherfucker who might actually be a vampire.
I think "fine" is generous, after learning what he went through.
My favorite thing that I read in the book is that the guy that played Chris R had never acted before or since. But he has such a "Go big or go home" mentality that he went all out for his minor one scene role in the movie and ended up giving what most people agree is the best performance in the whole movie.
It helped he was only on the set for a short time and had limited dialogue [not having to recite too much of Wiseaus's nonsense] and wasn't pulled down by the terrible writing or horrible production where professionalism and moral collapsed. The actor who played Chris-R found Tommy understandably insufferable and was strung along with the promise of 'more scenes' which were never going to happen.
This honestly paints a very sad picture. Imagine telling your painful experience where you were mentally abused and manipulated by your friend for years, explaining in meticulous detail every single one of his disgusting actions against you and many other people in order to make a delusional vanity project, just so a couple of years later they make an adaptation of your story where they clean the image of the person that abused you and got his persona in an even bigger pedestal
he wasn't abused. that is a ridiculous conclusion from this video. Greg is still friends with Tommy. why do you say that unless he says so himself? Greg was using Tommy for fame equally in my opinion, and comes across as a bit of a coward and shill in the book.
@@ventricityEven if we suppose that he was "using Tommy for fame", that doesn't mean he wasn't abused.
it doesn´t mean he was abused! that is the point and it´s evil to say that without proof and when they are good firends @@Allukard353
@@ventricity Imagine being this dumb lmao. You wouldn't recognize an abuser if they decked you in the face and said it was your own fault.
@@Allukard353 I'm sure you know more about Greg's supposed abuse than the man himself, right? Since you're all so very enlightned here.
Incidentally, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" would make a good Lost in Adaptation episode.
Agreed. Maybe even with the original French version thrown in?
@@jamesatkinsonjaOK, so I wasn't misremembering then!
That would be AWESOME! Seconding the vote for Talented Mr. Ripley!
This is such a good film and book.
@@jamesatkinsonjaWait, it was originally French? That makes Tommy's inspiration from it even funnier
I absolutely fell for the April Fool's joke (omg, didn't recognize Blue!) and I love that the vampire ending was actually kinda sorta vaguely an actual thing
Same
Yeah, I fell for it too. I only realized it was an April Fool's day prank when I remembered what day it was.
@@pkrockinomega4184I watched it like a week later, and I didn’t check the date it was posted, so I ate it all up and only realized it was a joke now that I watched this video.
@@pkrockinomega4184 I was emotionally out of it by the time I saw the video, so I completely missed the date. 😂
I 100% fell for it. That seemed to be like something that would actually inspire Tommy.🤷♀️
I met both Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero, separately. At a midnight showing with Tommy, I bought a t-shirt for him to autograph, but he was really really weird. I was with friends, and at one point he grabbed one of their arms to get in the picture with him, and even left scratches on her arm. Meanwhile, at another showing (alone this time) there was a time before to meet Greg, and he was really super nice, talking with everyone, throwing footballs with people, he signed the other shoulder of the t-shirt (that shirt signed by both of them is still one of my prized possessions) and was just a generally chill guy. To this very day, I remember both meetings and still can't believe how someone so out there can be friends with someone so cool.
Your friend is lucky she got away with her life.
He has brain damage, it's quite obvious when you know a lot about what that can look like. Everything from the severe memory problems (e.g. 35 takes for one line he wrote, asking people their name again before each separate item he autographs), rambling speech, and social disinhibition, to the random intense sweating at meet and greets (a form of physiological dysregulation), things most people wouldn't piece together if they didn't have experience around others like this.
Greg's over-protective mother who was distrustful of Tommy at first, is now friends with Tommy too, and defends Tommy when Greg complains about him. That says a lot about the fact that if you don't already know much about it, you have to spend more time with someone with brain damage or dementia to really get it.
Greg is a good person and talks about what he loves about Tommy in Q&As and interviews, but sadly many people like Tommy with RARE invisible disabilities (dementia is so common and everyone thinks they might get it, that they get treated MUCH BETTER than people with the same social understanding problems, emotional dysregulation, rage outbursts etc. from brain damage instead), don't meet many people willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and get to know them like Greg and his mother.
The rarity of such friendships that you mention is true, but with education we can do better and stop it being rare for people with stigmatised disabilities (and stigmatised symptoms of disabilities that people don't know are symptoms of disabilities) to have friends outside of support groups and a few family members.
It's very telling that Franco casted his friends and family in a movie in which an abusive man manipulates people to be around him. Just very weird.
Somehow, it makes too much sense.
That's the Hollywood machine for you
I guess he was either method acting, or he really wanted misdirect everyone in his life. Whatever, never liked him or his punchable face from the start and hated he actually was from the same town I grew up in, Palo Alto CA (no I never encountered him in person don't ask)
Ehhhh. I could make the argument that casting your friends & family would be the best option simply so there's far less chance of potential hard feelings. Ya'know, if James Franco weren't a monster.
@@shawklan27 That's the oddest part about Dominic constantly saying Franco is a POS across this video. That ain't exactly rare in the industry.
Hell, Seth Rogan deserves the POS treatment in this video too.
But I guess it's normal inside and outside of the industry to only receive social backlash if you're called out by the industry...
Tommy Wiseau's awful behavior is also why I've gotten kinda disillusioned with The Room's cult status. The movie's fun to laugh at, but the fact that its creator was such a nasty piece of work during production makes it way less funny -- and that he's been able to successfully cash in on the film's ironic fanbase and portray himself as an eccentric but loveable weirdo really rubs me the wrong way. I feel like the jokes about The Room are no longer on Tommy Wiseau, but on the audience.
Agreed. It also doesn't help a lot of the jokes have been run into the ground at this point and just feel stale now. Watching the film without an audience can be uncomfortable [the horrible sex scenes, especially when you know what the actress went through] and dull at times.
Felt that was the case the moment he turned around and tried to play off the movie as a dark comedy, as if it was all planned or something. He won't even accept it didn't do what it set out to do and wants to rewrite history to make himself look like he was a genius all along.
I can definitely understand that. For me, it added a different "depth" to my fascination with the film. It has those comedic elements and how it's brought people together... and then there's that "childlike" side of Tommy... then there sre the mysteries and psychological theories... (I've personally believed, like Dom, that braindamage from the accident has a lot to do with his practical struggles and some of his "quirks")
... and then there's the darkness, some of which I can recognise from my own stint with emotional abuse and loneliness.
I enjoy the book a lot, it's one of my favourites. The abusive, toxic friendship feels so real because of the moments that are genuinely moving as well. It's appropriately conflicting while you experience it, because that's how it feels to be in it. I can relate to Sestero through it, how you can love and be afraid of someone at the same time.
The fact he hated the French, but his movie can only be described properly by a French word (nanar), though...
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740 He's also a highly patriotic person for America and came here on a fake passport.
Fun Fact: Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill were early devoted fans of The Room. At one point, Hill saw Tommy Wiseau at a grocery store in Los Angeles and was so starstruck that he secretly took a photo of Wiseau shopping that he immediately sent to Rogen.
Lol
I loved this book, and I actually got to meet Greg Sestero. He is incredibly kind, down-to-earth and has a great sense of humor. He even seems a little shy in some ways. Dave Franco's portrayal REALLY did him dirty. The character in that movie is NOTHING like Greg either in his autobiography or in real life. Hated the movie adaptation so much!
I've heard Greg wasn't a big fan of the movie
He doesn’t even look like him!! I hated that
I am kind of miffed that when promoting the movie, Franco brought Wissue instead of Greg Sestero, the guy who wrote the damn book it was based on
Greg's a cool guy I messaged him on Facebook after listening to the audiobook (done by him by the way, such an amazing audiobook!) And surprised me that he responded! He was very kind and encouraging
The best way to experience the book and this story in general is absolutely the audiobook narrated by Greg Sestero.
100%. Greg is the most qualified person on earth to do a Tommy wiseau impression
Yes! I'm surprised more people aren't aware of it and the creator didn't use it for the snippets in the video here
It's the only way to read this book, as far as I'm concerned. Having Greg do Tommy's accent throughout is essential to the experience.
Maybe the best book/audiobook experience of my life. I can’t stop re-listening again and again to this day.
"Your dog. Is it reeeeal thiiiiing?"
I thought the prank was funny and I was one of the gullible people who took it seriously at first😂
Same, "Why would the Dom lie to me?"
Cause april fools lol
@@idontknowwhatimdoing6543
This is why i hate april fools now
Before the prank review was even over I was actually on my phone looking for it and being completely flummoxed until the penny dropped 😂
@ashessakura7518 it mayyyy have took me until this admission to figure it out. In my defence, I've watched the video, found it hilarious and fully believable given how odd everything about The Room is and then never thought about it again.
I actually believed it until just now, when I started the video
I absolutely loved your April Fools joke. Now whenever Tommy Wiseau is involved with a project I jokingly say that he’s tackling another of Prima Aprilis’s work.
I just understood the name of the author. :DDD On my first go with the video I just noted to myself that it doesn't sound very Polish.
all right, white people, the only group you liberals are allowed to hate, mostly yourselves.
@@UmbraKrameri every time someone points out a new detail about that video, I feel a little stupider for falling for it all the way through. I think I may trust Dom a little too much lmao.
The only reasonable thing Tommy Wiseau has done in his life is be overcome by the urge to greet a dog the moment he saw it
One thing that sticks out to me is the interesting way Tommy's bad with money despite having a lot of it. He'll bribe the man he wants as a lead with too much money to walk away from, but fights to avoid paying for a line manager, supply shoes (and then try to avoid replacing shoes he ruined), didn't replace the spoons in the picture frames etc. It's an interesting combination of 'has crap tons of money, but is a total cheapskate except for very select things.'
He was a weird guy indeed Tommy. He is probably clinically insane who knows.
Alot of rich people are like this. They preach financially spartan living while making wildly erratic financial decisions that don't always come back to bite them.
Using money to control people. Spoons don't need to be controlled
It's moments like these where I am glad that I understand polish :D
The title of the prank book reads "this is not a real book"
I didn't fully catch on til now. Mostly because I'd gotten used to the aesthetic by now (and I grew up around goths). I was watching Square-Eyed Jak with my partner and she said something about his polish, so I looked it up.
It’s telling that Tommy likes the movie but not the book.
Yeah, the way the Room fandom (and Disaster Artist adaptation) portrays Tommy as this charmingly quirky Ed Wood-like artist too passionate to let a bad idea go instead of the incredibly screwed-up psycho he really is made me sour on it, and I was a huge fan once upon a time.
James Franco is to the Disaster Artist as Zack Snyder is to Watchmen.
It’s a loyal adaptation that suffers from a fundamental misunderstanding of the text.
Except Snyder just suffers from a teenagers idea of what’s “badass” and “deep” and so depicted deplorable characters as admirable, whereas Franco has the far darker problem of being a toxic abuser admiring and sympathizing with the toxic abuser of the book.
Hence Wisau’s abusive behavior being depicted as quirky and kind of funny rather than, you know, horrific.
I feel like thoss teenage ideas part belong to Micheal Bay than that Zack Guy
@@madfox1006 agree. Snyder isn't Kubrick or Nolan if you will but he seems to be a bit mature than some give him credit.
@madfox1006 While I get what you mean and agree that Bay is the more juvenile of the two...the Watchmen example is VERY specific and accurate. Watchmen is a satire of superhero specifically made to contrast the squeaky clean image of classic DC comics characters wearing spandex and punching people to save the day while having otherwise well-adjusted lives. Moore's take was that in real life, the kind of people who would do that would be unstable, sexually frustrated, politically dubious weirdos, and thus while they're a fun fantasy, you shouldn't take their stories so seriously, because if they were "realistic", they'd suck.
Snyder openly stated that he didn't care at ALL about superhero comics because nobody was horrible dying or having sex or doing drugs or being traumatized in them. Thus, when he read Watchmen, he though it was cool as hell, but it really seems like he mainly appreciated it on an edgy surface level and not a satirical one. Thus, while a fair amount of Moore's intent survives into Snyder's film just by virtue of how slavishly he recreated the visuals and dialogue...you can tell in the small things he DID change that he took away different things from it than the author intended (most prominently that the fight scenes are slick and cool, whereas in the book they were sweaty, gross, uncomfortable, frightening affairs, like a street fight in real life).
So yeah, I'd say Franco's adaptation of The Disaster Artist fits that, though with the added layer of "because Franco's a scumbag, he whitewashes the scumbag to avoid recognizing himself". But even besides that, it's clear that Franco and company are too big of fans of watching The Room for laughs to actually take shots at Wiseau.
@BlueScarabGuy @BlueScarabGuy I get your point, but I feel like Snyder's work and the stuff he said on the interview just don't correlate A better example would be Garth Ennis, I read The Boys, and that right feels more of someone who hates or doesn't care about supes. I feel like yeah Zack may not care about supes but that was either long ago, or that he doesn't care but still knows importantce of them. I've seen the work of Alan Moore, and yeah, an argument can be made that he didn't get the work of Watchmen in some areas, but compared to other adaptations, it was closer.
Both the satire and deconstruction were there for the most part, and while flashy still had that brutalness in the comics. Regular directors would've changed everything, and mainly the ending. So Zack, for me, is that he may seem like he doesn't care about this or that, but he still gets in a way.
@@BlueScarabGuy Couldn't have said it better myself. Great sum up.
I don’t follow what celebrities do outside their art so it’s always jarring when I stumble across someone calling them out and revealing some of the truly horrible things they have done. I was a fan of James but I’ll never be able to look at any of his characters the same again.
Is it about the amber heard debacle ? Cuz yeah that just sucked to hear how he did that to his friend.
@@danialyousaf6456
His students accused him of SA as well before the Amber Heard stuff
Supposedly have done. Innocent until proven guilty.
@@Tajarim88 Didn't he literally confess to those accusations in an interview though??
My dad knew that guy in High School. They called him Teddy.
I listened to the audio book on a drive to Tennessee. I remember gripping the steering wheel and yelling "WHAT?!?" in reaction to Tommy's behavior, once every ten minutes or so.
Same except I was reading it. First thought was "no amount of money is worth this..."
haha. u sound like a fun person to be around
One of the things that stood out to me the most when I read the Disaster Artist for the first time was how it’s written by someone who was on track to become a “failed” actor. The book goes into a lot of detail into the part of the film industry that aspiring actors have to go through and how hard it is to make a living acting. If The Room didn’t become a “so bad it’s good” icon, Greg might still be stuck trying to get odd roles or even quit working in film for his own personal well-being. In that way these types of “so bad it’s good” icons kinda scare me sometimes because it means peoples’ entire lives can change if the internet decides a poorly made indie project they worked on was funny.
From Sestero’s description of him, I can say that I had the misfortune to be in the acquaintance of someone very similar to Wiseau. They he described how manipulative Tommy was, his creepy behavior around women, how he acted around people who didn’t immediately fold to his bs to just feeling so much happier Greg felt when he got him out of his life… I honestly relate to all of that despite me never becoming close to this particular person the way Sestero got to with Wiseau. They’re the kind of person who just absolutely *DRAINS* you when around them.
As someone who also has a history with emotional abuse, hearing the differences between what they kept and didn't was rough. Maybe I'm overthinking but seems like Franco maybe saw too much of himself in Tommy and didn't realize how horrific these things are. Franco (allegedly) made an ex-student write the first draft of this script, paid him peanuts then changed the terms he offered to get him to sell for such a low price.
Lola Sebastian has a great video on Franco's adaptation of As I Lay Dying (it's horrible) to save Dom from having to brush up against Franco anytime soon.
EDIT: She also recently put out the sequel about The Sound and The Fury! A couple people mentioned it in replies but it was blocked in my country when people were commenting about it. Highly recommend both!
Seconding the recommendation of Lola's videos, especially the most recent one on The Sound And The Fury and the various allegations - Dom's got good timing
I suspect Franco thought he'd get an Oscar for it and turned Tommy into a loveable goofball. Given his initial reaction to the allegations was thoroughly obnoxious [such as wearing a 'time's up' pin to the golden globes'] and lacking accountability I doubt he was able to see what was in front of him.
Her second video on The Sound and the Fury just came out, and goes into a lot more detail about the allegations against Franco including testimonies from people who worked with him who contacted her after her first video.
You are overthinking it. Franco was almost certainly in love with The Room as a movie and a cult film especially.
I knew it was April Fools, saw it, wanted to believe it, kept watching, forgot it was April Fools, believed it, realized it was April Fools and got really disappointed it wasn't true.
But I loved the joke and I still love it.
i work at a theater on my college campus and we had greg sestero as our special guest for our yearly screening of the room. he signed a copy of his book for me and i absolutely loved it. even teared up a few times.
Ive been through rly emotionally controlling relationships too. One romantic, one was a friendship. Its frustrating how people seem to dismiss abuse within friendships, even though its a very real thing, and it does irk me how they kind of erased a persons story abiut that very tooic..
I really liked the book. The movie was fun too. But I felt like it missed much of the essence of the story by dropping so much of Sestero's autobiographical portions. And the theme of the movie focusing so much on "it was all worth it because in the end they made a movie people will remember" just feels jarring, compared to how much stuff Tommy does that just feels inexcusable, even within the movie itself before the ending 10 minutes.
The ending was funny for me too because I can remember a time when the bad reviews were coming around online and he was making sure to get them all deleted with copyright claims well before this movie was a thing.
Yeah, the Hollywood circlejerk is very strong. "Anything is justified in the pursuit of success!"
@@Rynjinivar Not sure it's fair to suggest that attitude is unique to Hollywood.
@@jimballard1186 it’s very much art and really life in general.
Has anyone asked Dom to make a Lost in Adaptation for the book and movie Holes? I feel like he would enjoy a break from talking about terrible people.
As far as I have found (on accident, not deliberately looking and while I have both read the book and seen the movie, my memory isn't that great) the only difference is that they wouldn't make the actors dramatically lose weight like the characters did.
That would make it a rather faithful adaptation then, although knowing Dom he’d likely find more small details or interesting factoids about the author or movie’s production to entertain us with.
Isn’t Shia LaBeouf in that film? He’s not much better than Franco
Hmm, looking it up it seems you are correct about the movie’s casting, which means it may not be as much as a break from talking about crappy people as I originally assumed. I suppose the question instead would be where the line should be drawn over covering a work on its artistic merits and possibly giving coverage to people who don’t deserve it.
@@alyssafitzgerald83 You're not missing out whatsoever.
What little the book had in terms of messages and depth is completely gone in the film. It's kind of just...awkward.
Dude, your "original" book of the Room actually gave the film a brilliant backstory and made it semi coherent! I was upset to realise I'd been duped because it took away the closure I got from a terrible film!
I always told people the key difference between the book and the movie is that in the book Tommy is the villain but in the movie he’s the hero.
He’s a tragic villain in the novel by Greg. Greg describes him as a terrible man, but a pitiful one. I’d say he has poorly dealt with or undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder. You get some hints of abandonment issues, deep insecurities, past brain trauma, and suicidal behavior in Tommy.
As Greg portrays him, you get the sense that Tommy is not a particularly good man. However, you also definitely can’t help but feel sympathy for this deeply bizarre, delusional, immature, insecure, and lonely man. I think that pitiable aspect of Tommy’s personality is one of the main reasons that Greg stuck by his side all these years. You know, aside from the money that Tommy gave him.
That being said, Tommy absolutely was/probably still is a creepily abusive, controlling, deceitful, manipulative, and misogynistic creep. He’s obsessed with being around young people between their 20s-30s and lies about obviously being between his 40s-50s because he wants to relive his youth. No one is really thrilled with the knowledge that we’re going to keep growing older and weaker until we die one day, but most of us learn to accept that life doesn’t suddenly just lose value and happiness once we’re over 40 either. Most of us can also hang out with people around the same age as us, whereas everyone Tommy, an obviously middle-aged-elderly man, is close to is between 15-25 years younger than him.
Yeah, I’ll always enjoy laughing at the ridiculousness of The Room, but Tommy Wiseau is still an awful man. Sure, he’s not pure evil. There are aspects of his background and personality that are genuinely pitiful and tragic, but he certainly was inexcusably toxic, too. I’m glad Greg didn’t shy away from portraying the ugly side of him, too. Yes, I do believe that he’s being honest about the abusive and unstable side of Tommy’s personality, too. The other cast and crew members on the set of “The Room” backed up Greg’s allegations of Tommy being a nightmare to work with on set. Besides, how would it have benefitted Greg’s career to make stuff up about Tommy being abusive and manipulative in his novel? He got his big break because of his relationship with Tommy Wiseau. The media had this image of Tommy being this bizarre and delusional, but harmless, weirdo, who had an unconventional friendship with Greg Sestero. Writing about Tommy’s ugly side tainted that image.
I'm a little saddened that your Beautiful Watchers gave you crap for that April Fools joke, Dominic. I too was fooled and thought you were serious about the vampire ending; but, frankly, I felt it was a vast improvement to the story. I ENJOYED the vampire ending and I'm GLAD you fooled me! That was FUN!! :D
Tommy supposedly did actually want the vampire ending but thought it would be just a bit too expensive to pull off so he didn't include it.
Unless I misheard him, I don't think anyone gave him crap for it. I think a lot of us were just genuinely fooled by it and were a tad upset when we discovered it wasn't true
I loved that I fell for it! That's the kind of April Fools joke I actually find funny.
I was pissed that a guy thats that good of a story teller isny making his own book!
There is a point-and-click video game adaptation of the room that reveals Johnny is an alien.
…no I’m not joking.
I met Tommy Wiseau at a midnight screening for The Room. He was unsurprisingly very strange and off-putting, but my biggest impression of him was how he smelled. He smelled like an old fridge with that combination of years worth of different rotten food smells. He also seemed to try to cover up this smell by drenching himself in cheap cologne which only made it worse.
Oh god imagine that smell getting accentuated by hot stage lights
I remember listening to Redlettermedia's commentary of the film, and even if they hadn't read the book they were pretty frustrated that Tommy essentially succeeded in making people like him with his movie.
I am ashamed to say I am only now learning that the room was a prank. Well done Blue you look snazzy.
Me also. In my defense, I've encountered so much bizarre and horrible writing that I have trouble seeing the difference between deliberate parody and unintentional awfulness.
Saaaame 😂
"The proverbial wolf comes to devour the flock of the boy that cried it."
You Sir are a poet.
An eloquent one
at that.
I get the same feels, if you are the person who went through this disgusting abuse and saw another abuser turn it into a story about odd friendship , well, you have just been abused again.
Hearing about what poor Greg went through brought back unpleasant memories. I actually had a writing partnership with someone a lot like Tommy. Very controlling, very manipulative, always making a lot of questionable decisions. We had a lot of clashes, both over creative differences and dealings with other collaborators. He invited me on as a collaborator, but really he wanted a ghostwriter who'd do things his way without questioning it, because he was too lazy to write things for himself. He wanted my input and he wanted me to "write it good", but he didn't want to put the effort in himself. And he would bend over backwards trying to find fault with your ideas to give a reason why he couldn't use what you suggested, even if your idea was categorically, subjectively better. He micromanaged every creative partner he ever worked with, and he had no sense of loyalty to the team, no qualms about dropping someone for any reason at all. He cut ties with people just for calling him out, or because they couldn't give him as much time as they used to because of their own real life issues. We worked on an audio series together and it'd ballooned into this whole thing far beyond what he'd created himself and there was a whole creative writing team collaborating, and he was jealous of that and that it wasn't totally his own work, and he actively tried to sabotage it and was planning to end the series just so that it would remain "his" and stay within his creative control. Thankfully this was only over the internet so this guy wasn't invading my space or being physical or anything, but I can really relate to what Greg went through and my heart goes out to him. It's totally disgusting that people like that get propped up and put on a pedestal and people will just overlook this terrible behaviour. Bullies and assholes are easy enough to deal with, but people that are toxic like that are more insidious and more difficult to deal with.
Greg's voice is amazing!
Oh!!!!! It was you!!! I heard the voice and went "why is it familiar? Who is that?!?" lmaooo
I recognised it was you! Cool to see you pop up in a cameo and you did a great job.
I always listen out for you and Dom when quotes are read in people's videos. Always a great addition to any video.
Dom, don't apologise for the April Fool's gag. If it actually fooled people, you did something right! It even had me going for a moment and I tend to see through April Fool's gags like glass.
"He just noticed the pug sitting on the counter mid take and felt the need to greet it immediately"
Honestly kind of relatable. Kind of glad that's all I relate to with Tommy though
Honestly, Tommy Wiseau just seems to live in a different REALITY than everyone else. Are we sure he’s even aware of how awful he is?
Honestly, you might be on to something there. One part I always remember from the book is how Sistero talks about how The Room was basically Wiseau's fantasy life. Sistero then points out how weird that is because this so-called fantasy life consists of of his fiance and best friend hanging the horns on him, his other friends mooching off him constantly and keeping the previous betrayal a secret from him and not being respected at his job on top of everything else.
@@bigbearkat2010 it really feels like maybe The Room is Tommy both living his fantasy life and trying to send a message to Greg “don’t betray me Greg, or I kill myself”
@@mrcritical6751Now that you've said it, I can't unsee that message. It really does come across that way.
According to Greg he read how Hitchcock and Kubrick treated there crew and thought that's how he needed to behave to his crew. But even without it he comes across as a wanna be tyrant [particularly in his controlling behaviour with Greg] and ends up having a meltdown when the second director of photography called him out on his lying and quit [which is where he hurled the homophobic insults as mentioned in the video]. He's also a rampant misogynist.
Tommy has a screw loose and abandonment issues clearly
I'm with you on Wiseau. He's like a weird version of my own father and so I've only watched The Room, and the Disaster Artist once each and didn't really laugh at any point.
Yeah. I've tried watching The Room and it wasn't "so bad it's funny," it was just uncomfortable and I turned it off halfway through.
Boy got daddy issues
I read 'The Disaster Artist,' and the impression I got was that Wiseau was a DEEPLY paranoid individual with massive trust issues, which was largely what drove his manipulative and abusive behaviour. I think it may have been driven by some very negative past experiences, most likely people using him for his money rather than being real friends to him (Wiseau himself alludes to this many times in the novel, with a lot of bitterness.) Of course this doesn't excuse his behaviour, but if it's true it does explain a lot of his motivations for controlling and manipulating everyone around him, particularly hamstringing people with money and financial commitments.
I felt that he was particularly manipulative and gaslight-y with Greg because he was one of the few people he'd decided he wanted to keep as a friend - and that made him irrationally terrified of losing his friendship. Tommy was so weird and unpredictable that he'd likely struggled to make and keep friends his whole life, so one way he got around that was to literally 'buy' people's friendship - smother them with financial gifts and benefits while making them feel obligated to accept them (and guilty for rejecting them, because that would be 'mean.') Unfortunately, once he'd done that, he regarded the 'friendship' more like ownership - in his mind, lavishing all these 'benefits' on his friends meant they weren't supposed to do things he didn't want them to do - or do things without him, or challenge him in any way. When Greg started getting acting work from other sources that Tommy wasn't involved in, Tommy wasn't just jealous - he was TERRIFIED it would mean Greg wouldn't be dependent on him anymore. And that, if Greg realised he could make it in life without Tommy, he would do that and abandon Tommy... maybe like others had done in the past. Again, this doesn't excuse any of Tommy's abusive behaviour, but I'll admit, there is a certain sadness to it.
Confirmed Tommy really is a vampire. Greg said it in the book. He's like Colin Robinson, he's just an energy vampire. He drains people's energy and emotions. 🤣
Using context clues about Wasos life, it sounds like he is some rich guy from Europe who came to the America to be a movie star because he really wanted to be a movie star. Like...that's it.
That or he's actually a vampire.
He’s a God from Mount Olympus! 🧔🏻♂️
I loved your April Fool's video. It was what a prank should be: funny, harmless, and clever!
Hollywood is weird. This explains a lot.
Also, that April Fool's episode was hilarious.
Was james franco convicted or only accused, because we all know women never lie, evah!!!!
weird, nice word for criminally abusive, potato tomato huh
@@carlosrivas1629 he himself have admitted to some stuff and sex addiction
@@AltonV sex addiction, he is so dam charming, there is no way he forced himself, the women were willing. should have been a PRON Star.
@@AltonV But human garbage, i mean he makes Dominic look like a monk for sure even if he is gay. i dk? don't care.
I like how you sum up the true nature of the book. I got caught up in it as an entertaining memoir, but as it progressed into the shoot, and flashed back to the origins of the 'friendship', it did indeed become a horror story.
When I first read it, after awhile once I caught on to the book's formula of it going to back and forth between the shoot and their friendship, I almost decided to skip the friendship chapters because they were getting uncomfortable.
honestly super cool that you covered this. I listened to the audiobook (I'm a sucker for autobiography audiobooks) years before the movie came out, and I've always felt that the movie is uncomfortably soft on Tommy. I've always attributed that to the real Tommy's involvement in it, but I never considered the James Franco aspect.
anyway, great video as always, and for the record, I thought the prank video was very funny
I thought the same thing when I saw the movie. I had read the book first and was surprised how much of Tommy's creepiness they left out. I still remember reading the part where Greg wakes up and Tommy is just like standing in his doorway. It gave me the ick real bad. Great video!
I had a teacher who was in bad accident years before I knew him, and he honestly would act similarly to Wisseau sometimes. He just did not understand social cues at all. Even other teachers talked about how different he was after. He was an incredibly nice guy tho. Just was awkward, obsessive about certain things.
I truly find it terrifying how much of one's personality can seemingly be altered by serious TBI (brain injury), let alone more subtle damages like Alzheimers or various vascular disruptions?
We like to think of our emotions, decisions & interactions being something we consciously control for the most part, but it's all SO dependent on what's going on up in the brain case. If that gets damaged or impaired, the way it can rewrite people into someone they would not otherwise willingly become is like a kind of horror story to me... Super hard on friends & family too 😢
I regret to say it, but that ‘hi doggy’ line is just so me. I too would mid-take greet a dog.
You couldn't possibly have hit the nail on the head more when you said "Franco and Co. turned a horror novel into a comedy". That's exactly it. That's exactly the reason why I like the book so much more than the movie.
I was this many years old when I realized that video was a prank. That movie was just so bad your prank sounded so much coherent and well thought out
I got halfway through that video when i wanted checked out the book when I found that there was no book I had a good giggle the vampires at the end.
Another "The Room" related review, and this time it's the real deal! I found the first one to be a hilarious April Fool's gag, and hope that Dom will create more in the future! 🔮😻
The bloopers brought me some joy after watching Dom be traumatized by this story. 🥺
Also, I think “snookers” came from “shoe sneakers”.
Isn't snooker some kind of game, too?
@@victoriaogle9625 Yes. It's a cousin to billiards.
Seconded on both counts.
I recently went to a screening of The Room where Greg did a Q&A near the end. He voiced his feelings about wanting the movie to be somewhat comedic but substantially darker and to include things such as the consistent aspects of Tommy’s life before coming to America (in the book he says details of his life seemed to change a lot).
It's really hard to see what I thought was just a moderately absurd movie with terrible acting actually turn out to be a horrific nightmare for the people involved.
The fact that The Room cost 6 million dollars is one of those things that should make almost anyone feel better about their creative choices.
Turning a horror into comedy is a great description of the movie's tone. Except somehow the movie feels all the more uncomfortable due to that angle, along with the presence of James Franco.
Thing is the book is still funny, the back is covered in reviews from people talking about how funny it is mainly due to Greg’s descriptions of how bizarre Tommy is
@@mrcritical6751 Yeah, I'd agree the book works as kind of a nonfiction dark comedy. Moreso intended than the actual Room movie. 😆
Who was upset?! That was the best AF prank I’ve had pulled on me in years. I’m still telling people about it 😂❤
i felt so stupid when i had to google if the room actually had vampires in it T-T. its so obvious in hindsight im just dumb sometimes
Don't feel stupid. That was a REAL idea Tommy had for the end of the film, that he was convinced to drop. It was insane, but true 😂
I had an filmmaking instructor who worked in Hollywood at this point and said he would see the billboard all the time. He was under the impression, at the time, that it was a horror movie.
Apparently, Tommy Wiseau was very negative about the book claiming that it was falsified so while the movie was actually praised by him for being “more faithful”. This feels really telling especially when you consider that a large part of the marketing for this movie was Franco and co consistently consulting Wiseau himself and even bringing him to press interviews and other promotional stuff. And very little mention of Greg himself too.
THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS!!!!!! The film cut out so much about the power dynamic and it really just comes off like fanfiction for Franco
Dont worry Dom! I thought it was hilarious and its one of my favorites now!❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊
What made your "The Room" video so good was committing to the bit, "For a lie to work it must be surrounded by Truth".
I'm really glad that Sestero went onto have a successful career and I didn't even realize he was in stuff I recognize.
In all honesty, this shows money isn't a guarantee for success.
That April Fools' video was one of the most brilliant and well-thought out videos ever. It was absolutely amazing! I'd say make it a thing, but I know it was probably a LOT of work and you're already a busy man.
I loved the April fools joke! I think some people watched it when it wasn’t April 1st and it threw them off 😂
I always check to upload date of videos I watch, especially if they feel a little off 😅
I knew the film bothered me and you managed to hit the nail on the head: Franco sees himself as Wiseau. And that kinda makes sense in how terrible they are. The book made you feel sorry for Tommy to some extent as someone who could honestly be a good person if he wasn't so lost in his own insecurity and ego and instead became a nightmare to everyone who he meets. You could do a comedy, but a tragicomedy, about someone who is destroying himself and others.
Thing is, Franco doesn't see what Wiseau does as wrong- to him he sees a down on his luck quirky guy, an untalented underdog who succeeded through force of will. and that's how Franco sees himself- he has no self awareness of the lives he ruins, because he has a narrative as a quirky genius triumphing over all the odds. "I'm Tommy but talented" he's basically going. And like Tommy his own ego destroys everyone he encounters.
8:54 he was also (allegedly) addicted to painkillers after the accident. It's been a long time since I read the book, but I do remember it being mentioned that he took a lot of medication while filming.
Last I checked, Greg said Tommy didn't take anything that wasn't prescribed.
I had a somewhat similar conclusion about the tone of the book and the movie. I listened to the audiobook while reading and while Greg's narration helps sell the comedy of Tommy's on-set antics, a huge part of the book was actually quite suspenseful and relayed the feeling of being trapped in a dependent relationship with a manipulator. Much of this was lost in the movie where they spent more time playing up the silly antics.
Given his accent, his draining nature, his mysterious wealth, his bizarre entitlement, and the fact he literally refuses to tell anyone his age or his past, I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if he actually turned out to be a vampire.
That’s even more fitting since he treated Greg like his own personal Renfield, a submissive thrall to constantly deal with his ever more deranged demands.
The fact that he seemingly intuitively knew where Greg was in Romania certainly doesn’t help.
The “train my accent away” thing is even something Dracula claimed as an excuse for holding Jonathan Harker essentially hostage.
His wealth isn't mysterious anymore, the people listed in the credits of The Room who are not in the film industry knew Tommy and basically gave him money to help him when he came to America. Basically old wealthy people in SF who tommy befriended who left or gave him lots of money or real estate. That coupled with his clothing business and being a property owner allowed him to get all the money for the films budget. We're talking about multiple buildings in a very desirable part of SF.
@@sdgc8667 Oh cool, thanks for the info…the call to Romania is still suspicious though 🤨 🧛
Okay that mention of Mark being named after the Talented Mr. Ripley's star "Mark Damon" had me in stitches.
I'm a man who finds 99% of april fools joke videos far more tedious than funny... and I friggin LOVED your The Room video. The patience and confidence in the bit really helped it become a worthwhile form of entertainment for me.
It was great.
A true story from a more fun alternatve reality.l
Firstly, loved your April Fools prank. It was great.
Second, I'm sorry you had to endure emotional manipulation Dominic. I hope you're doing better. That stuff can be hard to move past.
Thanks for another fantastic video. Always look forward to your videos popping up in my timeline
The twist ending was extremely believable.
I stumbled onto Retro Puppet Master last year; had *no idea* Greg Sestero was in it, so it was...actually kind of a joy to see him in another movie?
I've never been able to get into the Room myself because of Wiseau's actions, and I'm glad to see you addressing it. Not that I would expect you to do anything else based on your track record
What do you mean about the track record?
@@cesarsuarez7538 I'm referring to the fact that Dom regularly speaks about the problematic parts of stories and their creators, and there are things he openly refuses to platform as a result.
A lost in adaptation based on a book about a film that is itself an adaptation 😉😉
It's adaptations all the way down
The wildest (non-shitty) thing about the making of "The Room" is: the explanation for the spoons is exactly the lazy, moronic thing we all kind of assumed it was initially.
And I agree wholeheartedly: the book is almost shocking in how it throws out any notion that Wiseau was a decent person. At best, he's a DEEPLY damaged one behaving incredibly destructively.
I started to have weird feelings about Tommy, when Doug Walker (when he was himself) interviewed him. And when Doug asked some deep questions, Tommy was an asshole about it. Now makes alot of sense.
I've seen Tommy Wiseau here in LA on two occasions, one on which he spoke to me at my job, and he is definitely a weirdo who likes hanging out with much, much younger men. It's amazing how thoroughly unmemorable the movie was, considering how weird the story is in real life.
20:48 The way Lisa is portrayed in the film is more evidence of how Wiseau thinks he's a saint and that everyone around him is evil since through the Lisa character he paints the woman he was with as a total bitch.
Many years ago, I was in a terrible friendship that was emotionally abuse. How Greg described Tommy as sucking the light and life out of him, and how when he wasn't around Tommy, he was happier and friendlier, is something that I relate to a lot. Those relationships, to put it slightly and lightly, suck hairy rat balls.