REEL FACE: | REAL FACE: |
James Franco
Born: April 19, 1978 Birthplace: Palo Alto, California, USA | Tommy Wiseau
Born: October 3, 1955 Birthplace: PoznaĆ, Poland |
Dave Franco
Born: June 12, 1985 Birthplace: Palo Alto, California, USA | Greg Sestero
Born: July 15, 1978 Birthplace: Walnut Creek, California, USA |
Seth Rogen
Born: April 15, 1982 Birthplace: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | Sandy Schklair
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Josh Hutcherson
Born: October 12, 1992 Birthplace: Union, Kentucky, USA | Philip Haldiman
Born: September 25, 1977 Birthplace: Phoenix, Arizona, USA |
Zac Efron
Born: October 18, 1987 Birthplace: San Luis Obispo, California, USA | Dan Janjigian
Born: April 30, 1972 Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA |
Ari Graynor
Born: April 27, 1983 Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, USA | Juliette Danielle
Born: December 8, 1980 Birthplace: Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA |
Jacki Weaver
Born: May 25, 1947 Birthplace: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | Carolyn Minnott
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Nathan Fielder
Born: May 12, 1983 Birthplace: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | Kyle Vogt
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June Diane Raphael
Born: January 4, 1980 Birthplace: Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York, USA | Robyn Paris
Birthplace: Greensboro, North Carolina, USA |
Sharon Stone
Born: March 10, 1958 Birthplace: Meadville, Pennsylvania, USA | Iris Burton
Born: September 4, 1930 Birthplace: Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA Death: April 5, 2008, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia) |
In the 2016 Room documentary titled Room Full of Spoons, Rick Harper claims that he investigated Wiseau's origins and believes him to be Polish, born in the city of Poznań. Our own investigation into Wiseau's birth yielded the same conclusion. We obtained his Petition for Naturalization, dated September 5, 1984. It states that Thomas Pierre Wiseau was born in Poland on October 3, 1955. At the time of the petition, he was living in an apartment in San Francisco.
Tommy himself long claimed that he was an All-American guy from New Orleans. However, in a 2017 interview with The New York Times, he finally revealed the true story, sort of. "It's not important, and No. 2, it's a personal question," he said. "Long story short, I grew up in Europe a long time ago, but I'm American and very proud of it."
Yes. The scene where Greg's mom approaches the car is based in fact. In answering how accurate is The Disaster Artist, we learned that she asked Tommy his age, what he did for work, and what his interest was in her son. She told him to please not hurt her son and to not have sex with him. -FACT Liverpool
Still to this day, it is not known exactly how Wiseau came up with The Room's $6 million budget. After coming to the U.S., he worked a variety of jobs, including restaurant busboy, hospital employee, and operator of retail stores called Street Fashions USA, where he claims to have designed leather jackets and sold defective blue jeans at marked-down prices. He stated that Street Fashions was connected with Levis. A search for the company on Google simply takes you to his own website where he sells t-shirts and merchandise almost entirely related to The Room. Eventually, Wiseau is said to have gotten into real estate, purchasing and renting large retail spaces in the vicinity of San Franciso and Los Angeles.
In friend Greg Sestero's book The Disaster Artist, the author finds it impossible to believe that Wiseau amassed such a large amount of money that quickly from the various jobs he had worked. He writes that numerous people involved in the making of The Room believed that the $6 million production was linked to a money-laundering scheme for the mob. Sestero himself doesn't believe the money-laundering theory to be true.
Yes. "My brother was pretty much in character the entire movie," said Dave Franco at an SXSW Q&A with the actors. "He also directed me as Tommy Wiseau."
"So there were scenes where you were playing Tommy directing the movie as Tommy, directing the movie as Tommy," adds Seth Rogen, who plays Sandy Schklair in the film.
Yes. In researching The Disaster Artist true story, we learned that Tommy Wiseau paid to have The Room come out in theaters for two weeks so that he could qualify for the Academy Awards.
Yes. As we investigated to answer how accurate is The Disaster Artist, we discovered that, like in the movie, Wiseau paid for a billboard with his face on it and his phone number. If passersby called the number, Wiseau would answer and encourage them to go see his movie. -SAG Film Society
Yes. Released in 2003, The Room was trashed by critics, with some going as far as to call it the worst movie ever made. However, it gradually gained a cult following, and much like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, it has inspired midnight screenings where the audience is encouraged to wear wigs, interact with the dialogue, and throw plastic cutlery and footballs around the theater. Fans have also created The Room t-shirts, the most popular of which is displayed below.
Yes. James Franco wore extensive prosthetics to look more like the older Wiseau. "I've got a lot of prosthetics on," says Franco of his character. "I've got cheeks, nose, chin, lazy eyelid, wig, contacts." -TORYmax
Yes. During a Q&A, James Franco and Seth Rogen said that Tommy and Greg are still best friends and talk on the phone every day. James Franco actually had to change the ending of The Disaster Artist to reflect that, since it originally ended with Tommy and Greg on bad terms. With the release of The Disaster Artist, Greg Sestero was inspired to write another movie for himself and Tommy called Best F(r)iends. You can watch the Best F(r)iends trailer. -SAG Film Society
Expand on what you know about The Disaster Artist true story by watching the Tommy Wiseau interviews and The Disaster Artist cast Q&A below. Also be sure to check out the shot-by-shot comparison video of The Room vs. The Disaster Artist.