James Franco took the Citizen Kane of bad movies and turned it into a genuine Oscar contender

THE 2003 movie The Room is widely considered one of the worst films ever made, but thanks to James Franco’s affectionate take on its bizarre creation, it may yet end up at the Academy Awards

Dave Franco, Greg Sestero, James Franco, and Tommy Wiseau at a Hollywood screening of The Disaster Artist. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for AFI

THERE’S an irony in the fact that James Franco’s new film The Disaster Artist — about the making of a movie once dubbed “the Citizen Kane of bad movies” — is attracting some of the hottest buzz of the 39-year-old’s career.

Franco produced, directed and stars as the off-kilter Tommy Wiseau, the man who wrote, funded, directed and starred in the sub-par film in question, 2003’s The Room.

Wiseau’s shot at matching Tennessee Williams in the drama stakes, monumentally bad acting, an inept script and even worse direction instead saw The Room carve a unique place as a so-bad-it’s-hilarious cult classic. All these years later, it remains a staple of midnight screenings around the world.

“I was always ready for Hollywood,” says the real Wiseau. “Hollywood wasn’t always ready for me.”

The Disaster Artist is based on the book in which Greg Sestero — who met Wiseau in a San Francisco acting class, became his friend, “translator” and co-starred in The Room — reflected on the surreal experience of making Wiseau’s film.

Franco’s younger brother, Dave, plays Sestero in The Disaster Artist.

Actor/producer Seth Rogen, actor/director James Franco, and actor Dave Franco at the premiere of The Disaster Artist at the SXSW Conference and Festivals in Austin, Texas in March. Picture: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for SXSW

“The movie is a bizarre story, unlike any Hollywood story, and Tommy is unlike anybody in Hollywood history,” the elder Franco explains. “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, it’s the upside down of La La Land.”

Franco is all but unrecognisable as Wiseau — a man Sestero describes as “a pirate crossed with a vampire”.

Says Franco: “I knew it would require a lot of prosthetics — cheeks and nose and chin, not only to look like Tommy, but I had to look different enough from Davy so that we wouldn’t seem like brothers.”

Replicating Wiseau’s unpeaceable accent — he claims he’s from New Orleans — was the next challenge.

“He looks like Michael Jackson crossed with a vampire and he sounds as though he’s from Eastern Europe,” says Franco. “I listened to tapes to get it right and I stayed in character when I directed the film. People could still talk to me as James but I’d sound like Tommy the whole day,” he laughs.

When Wiseau first came to Hollywood, “he was auditioning for all the James Dean roles,” Franco explains. “So, Tommy faced a lot of rejection. But then finally, he realised the only way he’d get work was to finance his own film, and he wrote roles for himself and Greg.”

When Sestero was writing the book about the making of The Room, he always envisioned it too would become a film. His dream casting? “Javier Bardem to play Tommy and for me, Ryan Gosling.” He laughs. “I saw it as a darker film, but when James came about, I realised he’s the only one who could have done The Disaster Artist.

Brothers Dave (left) and James Franco as Greg Sestero and Tommy Wiseau in a scene from The Disaster Artist.

“The thing with James, not only is he a great actor, he identified with Tommy. James was at that place Tommy was in — he’d made a bunch of films that no one had seen and people had judged him. This was a perfect storm for him to really deliver.”

Meanwhile, Wiseau was adamant only Johnny Depp could play him. But when he found out Franco had played James Dean (in a 2001 TV movie), Wiseau relented.

“We both had the same hero,” Franco says, “and although I sort of look like James Dean, Tommy has what I call reverse body dysmorphia — in that he looks the way he does but he still thinks he looks like James Dean.”

And what does the man himself make of Franco’s portrayal? “James did a very good job,” Wiseau says. “I liked the way he go overboard with the character. Actually, he go extra miles.”

Wiseau does make an appearance at the very end of The Disaster Artist — this was the one condition Wiseau put on the production.

Though still very much a man of mystery, the internet has whittled his age down to 62 and his origins to Poland.

Of course Wiseau refuses to confirm. “Well, who cares about this? I’m very private person, and very emotional.”

Where Wiseau sourced the money for The Room remains known only to him. The self-styled auteur spent $6 million to make a movie that Franco quips “looks like $60”.

Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero in a scene from The Room, dubbed the Citizen Kane of bad movies.

Coming to terms with how The Room was received by audiences has been quite a journey for both Wiseau and Sestero.

“When The Room came out I looked at it as a success,” Wiseau says. “I knew my vision would never be produced by a studio and I went on the rollercoaster ride to make the film myself. As I’ve said many times: you can laugh, you can cry, but please don’t hurt the children.”

Sestero’s first instinct was to run as far away from it as possible. Because, he points out, “as an actor your goal is to be in good films”. But in finally embracing it — “taking something that’s considered terrible and try to make something fascinating about it” — he’s found his groove as a writer.

The Francos, too, are taking only positives away from The Disaster Artist. James and Dave, 32, so enjoyed the process they’re now partners in a production company.

The Disaster Artist opens in limited release tomorrow, and wide release on December 7.