The Disaster Artist may have shone a light on the enigma that is filmmaker Tommy Wiseau but there was a lot about him that did not make it to the big screen. The film adaptation used Greg Sestero and Tom Bistell's book of the same name as its primary influence, but James Franco and screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber omitted a number of details.
This may well have been done to streamline the narrative; most book-to-film adaptations tailor the story to fit within a cinematic time frame and the writers had a lot of material from the 268 page book to work with. So, here's a list of facts and stories concerning the enigmatic Tommy and The Room the Oscar-nominated movie chose not to include.
Related: You Don't Have To See The Room To Enjoy The Disaster Artist
1. Tommy's Origins
The Disaster Artist does not delve deep into the past of its lead protagonist, unlike Greg Sestero does in the book. Greg relates stories that Tommy told him about a young boy called Pierre which he interpreted to be actually about his friend, whose middle name is the same. Pierre grew up in the Eastern Bloc and fell in love with cinema after seeing 101 Dalmatians. The young boy fled to France and began working as a dishwasher, but after a terrifying confrontation with police he contacted family in Louisiana and managed to secure transport to the States.
While Tommy says he's from America, and in the movie specifically from New Orleans, the 2016 documentary Room Full of Spoons claims he is actually Polish and born in the city of Poznań.
2. Rebel Without A Cause wasn't the only film they bonded over
The Disaster Artist really plays up Greg and Tommy's love of James Dean, even having them visit the site where the actor died, but it fails to acknowledge another film close to their hearts: The Talented Mr. Ripley.
In the book, Greg said they watched the Matt Damon-led film in January 2000 and felt that the relationship between Tom Ripley and Dickie Greenleaf was much like their own; however, it had garnered a much more life-changing reaction out of Tommy. It was after they watched the film that Wiseau decided to make his own movie unlike in the film, which suggests a comment by Greg inspires his friend to start writing.
3. People thought Tommy raised the $6 million budget through money laundering
The movie doesn't go deep into how Tommy made his money, let alone enough to fund an entire film. Wiseau claims he made his fortune from selling denim and leather jackets via the clothing brand Street Fashions USA, but according to Greg many people thought he actually achieved this through criminal means.
Greg himself couldn't understand how Tommy managed to make so much money in a short space of time, but didn't truly believe his friend was laundering money for the mob. To this day we still don't know.
4. Tommy hired an actor to play Mark but was too scared to fire him
Greg didn't originally want to play the character of Mark, but was pestered so relentlessly by Tommy that a week before shooting began on The Room he agreed. There was a slight hitch, though, as Tommy had already cast an actor called Don in the role, and instead of just firing him he got them both to shoot the same scenes. Tommy tried to pretend to Don that Mark was only getting footage for a screen test when in fact his plan was too shoot Greg on 35mm film and Don on HD (as he decided to use both types of cameras) then delete Don's footage.
Of course Don found out and left the production allowing Greg to take on the role of Mark completely. Lucky Greg.
5. There was another Michelle too
Don's girlfriend Brianna was also hired to be in the film as Michelle (a.k.a. Chocolate Girl), but when he found out about the whole double Mark role-playing scheme she quit the project too. Tommy then hired Robyn Paris to play the character. The Room was Robyn's first and last movie, but she did end up making a web series called The Room Actors: Where Are They Now? 13 years later.
6. Tommy may not have directed The Room
In The Disaster Artist, script supervisor Sandy Schklair (played by Seth Rogen) is presented as the unofficial leader of the crew, but the real Schklair says it went further than that. Speaking to THR, Schklair says that he directed most of the movie, not Wiseau, and even set up shots so they would look deliberately bad:
œThe idea was to keep the insanity, but push it as far over the top as I can and preserve the fact that everybody there knows I'm making a comedy except one person.
Schklair ended up leaving the film early as he was offered work with two time Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski.
7. That tackle towards the end of the film was actually about Greg speaking French
Greg has French heritage through his mother and could speak fluent French, as could Tommy. According to the book, Greg first took an interest in the soon-to-be filmmaker because he overheard a conversation he was having with another member of their acting group about the 1998 World Cup (which France one).
When they were shooting the American football-throwing scene Greg got so frustrated by Tommy's inability to catch the ball he shouted œcatch this in French. Tommy wanted to maintain his all-American image in the film and didn't want foreign languages to feature in it, so he tackled Greg out of rage for doing so.
This wasn't the only time when one of Greg's ad-lids got him in trouble. His famous line about a girl being beaten up so badly that she ended up in "a hospital on Guerrero Street" was actually a reference to Tommy's San Francisco condo, which was located on that street. Wiseau, who was extremely protective of his personal information, was absolutely furious about this information being committed to "thirty-five-millimeter film," but the take where Sestero had ad-libbed the line turned out to be the only one with usable audio - so it ended up in the movie.
8. The Room went through three directors of photography
Franco's film included the tempestuous relationship between Wiseau and Raphael Smadja (Paul Scheer) and even the DP's firing but it didn't include his replacements. Graham Futerfas took over from Smadja but couldn't cope with Tommy's brand of filmmaking, so left the production. Todd Baron was the last director of photography brought in.
Apparently, before Smadja left he set up a private room to laugh at Tommy's onscreen mistakes (another detail omitted from the movie). Instead, they showed the DP and the crew's disdain for their director through the documentary-esque footage secretly captured by the onset videographer.
9. The Room was originally intended to be a play
According to a 2008 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Wiseau had actually wanted The Room to be performed on stage but felt that Americans weren't going to the theater anymore so decided to make it into a movie instead.
œOriginally, my idea was actually to present in a theater. But then I concluded that not so many people actually got to the theater, particularly in America. The theater is not as popular as a movie. Even a theater like Broadway. That's my idea, now, the next one, that I want to show The Room on Broadway. That's what I want to do. Then I change my mind and I say, œYou know what? Let's just make the movie.
10. The Room's premiere wasn't the success the film made it out to be
In the film, the audience members cheer and laugh at the film and give Tommy a standing ovation, but according to Robyn Paris the reaction wasn't nearly as positive. She explains in her review for Entertainment Weekly:
œIn reality, at The Room premiere, people were laughing, but certainly not cheering ” yet. I personally was laughing so hard, I had tears streaming down my face ” but quietly because I didn't want to offend Tommy. In fact, many people walked out of The Room premiere within the first five minutes. Those who stayed got a delicious treat.
More: The Best Way To Watch The Room
