Greg Sestero On His Role In The Best Bad Movie Ever

Scene from 'The Room' with Tommy Wiseau

If you’ve never seen the 2003 cult classic The Room, yours is a life only half-lived. Writer/director/star Tommy Wiseau crafted a film intended to be a serious drama, but instead turned out to be one of the most absurdly silly farces of all time. Its reputation grew to the point where, a decade after it was made, it is still packing out cinemas across the world. It’s now in its fourth year at the Cinema Nova in Melbourne, and if you’re considering watching it, be sure you do it with a crowd.

Co-star Greg Sestero wrote a book about the experience called The Disaster Artist, which is about to be turned into a film by James Franco. On the eve of Sestero’s Australian tour, we talked to him about how it feels to be forever associated with the worst film of all time.

VICE: Could you give us a background to how The Disaster Artist came about?
Greg Sestero: I made The Room, it premiered in 2003. What was crazier than that is I had known Tommy since 1998: I’d met him in an acting class, and we’d gone on this crazy journey about trying to make it in Hollywood. We were two opposites. Now The Room really wasn’t much more than an LA cult film that showed once a month in this theatre, very few people would show up. Not many people knew about it, so we’d tell stories. People were always intrigued, they always wanted more. So I felt like when the film took off—it started showing on the east coast, started showing around the country, and then internationally in 2010—I put together the story of this experience of what was now a cult phenomenon.

Do you still have contact with Tommy? Does he approve of The Disaster Artist?
You know what, I first started interviewing him in the very beginning, and he was into it I think. I think he was, he has a lot to share. People have always kind of made up stories about him and this and that, I feel like he was very secretive, he won’t give away much. The most he ever gave away his past was to me about when I interviewed him. I talked to him for several years while I was writing it and I knew there were things in there that were better off kept a mystery. He’s read it, he calls it the Red Bible! And he says he supports it for the most part, around 50 per cent. At the end of the day, it’s my account, my experience of starting out, wanting to be an actor, my journey in LA, but for him it’s a different perspective. I think reading about yourself through somebody else’s eyes you’re always going to have your own story. So far he’s been really supportive.

In a way, actors have very little control over their legacy, what they’re known for, what they’re remembered for. You’ve obviously embraced being known as “The Room Guy”, but is it bittersweet that the film is such a huge part of your life?
No, it’s always been Tommy’s movie. I was always there to help him make this dream project he wanted to make. For me more than anything I never expected anyone to see it, so in that regard I can’t really complain that it’s brought me all these great experiences and the opportunity to write this book. Like you said, you don’t really have control over your legacy—well, the book was finally a project that I did have control over. And if you ever have creative control over a project, to work on something you’re passionate about, it’s just this gift, and I would have never had that if it weren’t for The Room.

Like I said: at the end of the day it’s Tommy’s movie, it’s Tommy’s legacy, I was 24 I didn’t expect much, so really I can’t complain about it. It gives me a chance to go forward and be creative and do projects that I’m passionate about, and gives me the chance to prove myself. I think that from here on out it’s about showing that this is something you were part of ten years ago, and you have more to offer. I was just kind of a reluctant passenger to the whole thing, as you can probably tell when you watch the film.

There’s a wave of films that are attempting to cash in on the phenomenon of “awful movies”. They’re making them deliberately bad—I’m talking about films like Birdemic or Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus—what’s your view on those?
I haven’t seen any of those films that are considered to be the best bad movies, I didn’t know there was really a market for them until The Room. I think my initial view of it is that The Room has succeeded in being the best bad movie because it’s the most earnest. I feel like it’s a film that comes from the heart, and somebody’s really trying to send a message about their life and their view on the human experience. It was done so honestly that even though it failed in such a big way, I still think people marvel at it and enjoy it in a different way. Making a film with special effects or trolls or flying birds, it takes money to make that look realistic. What’s interesting about The Room is that people walking in and out of doors saying dialogue, I mean how hard is that really to mess up? It’s so unique because Tommy sees the world in such a different way that nobody would have ever greenlit had it not been funded by that person. And that’s what kind of makes it fun: you’re seeing something that should never really seen the light of day.

How involved are you in the film that James Franco will be making? Can you tell us a bit about it?
He’s optioned the book and he’s going to be directing it and starring in it, and his brother [Dave Franco] is going to be playing me. I’ve had a few talks with him and he’s great, he’s really sharp, really gets the story and the movie that he wants to make is really ideal for what the story is. It’s not just a spoof or whatever. It’s an oddly touching look at an unlikely friendship and this man who wanted to make the next Streetcar Named Desire and ended up making The Room. It’s a great character story, and I feel like he’ll do a really fantastic job.

Catch Greg Sestero when he’s in Australia:

10 July at the Haydn Orpheum in Sydney

11 July at Cinema Nova in Melbourne

13 July at Leederville in Perth