Why it’s essential
At its core, The Disaster Artist is a memoir of a spectacular blunder. The subject of this book, The Room, is widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made, and its status as such has made it a household name, seen frequently on indie theater marquees to this day. While most behind-the-scenes media seeks to supplement the legacy of or add crucial details to important cultural touchstones, author Greg Sestero’s laugh-out-loud personal account demystifies one of the strangest films of all time.
Featured in The Top 100 Screen Adaptations of All Time
What is The Disaster Artist about?
The Disaster Artist follows the true story of Greg Sestero, a young actor with big dreams of making it in Hollywood. On a fated day, Sestero met with Tommy Wiseau—an enigmatic man with a strange accent and a fat wallet—who was hellbent on bankrolling his own big Hollywood movie. Through this book, Sestero documents every step of his downright bizarre experience with the creator of one of the greatest "bad" movies of all time.
Editor’s review
Seth listens in order to find immersive, emotionally resonant storytelling that steeps him in other points of view. Anything is fair game so long as it sparks the imagination, be it dark fantasy, memoir, historical fiction, or popular psychology.
During my first college semester, I was relentlessly diligent in my pursuit of a social life. Through the endless array of dorm parties, club signups, and free cupcakes, I came across a fellow freshman who pitched me a club idea of his own— "The Z Movie Society." Basically, the vision was that we would meet weekly and watch movies with infamously bad critical receptions. Through the deluge of shark-infested weather patterns and Nazi militias on the moon, one film shined through, a film with a surprisingly straightforward plot.
The film in question was The Room, the story of a man who slowly realizes that his wife is cheating on him with his best friend. The star and creator of the movie, Tommy Wiseau provides one of the most baffling film experiences I’ve ever enjoyed. Wiseau had never acted let alone created a movie before, and so relied on his instincts when it came to script, direction, and performance. He is both serious and silly, reading his lines (which he wrote himself) either with robotic swiftness or completely over-the-top emotional gusto. Yes, the plot makes no sense and the instances of green screen usage were egregious, but I was mostly interested in Tommy Wiseau, the ringleader of this exceptionally weird experience. Where did he come from? What accent does he have? And, above all else, why the hell did he feel compelled to make this movie?
Luckily for me, I did not need to wait to find any of this information out. In 2013, 10 years after The Room’s release, Greg Sestero (Tommy’s costar in the film) came out with The Disaster Artist, a memoir recounting his strange experience meeting, working with, and eventually being creatively tied to Tommy Wiseau. By this point, the original film was enjoying cult status in pop culture, and it quickly became apparent that there were tons of curious people out there like me. Greg narrates the audiobook, too, steeping the listener in his experience.
Throughout The Disaster Artist, Sestero does his best to pay tribute to a creative with a singular vision and the drive to make it happen, logic be damned. Despite countless roadblocks, questions, and concerns along the way, this man, for better or for worse, threw caution to the wind and made his dream a reality. To this day, The Room remains a cult hit, and The Disaster Artist even got its own feature film.
The long-lasting success of this objectively terrible film and the book that followed fill me with so much joy. It is strangely empowering to know that a single person can fight against the current like Wiseau did and somehow land on his feet. While I don’t see anything like The Room winning an Oscar any time soon, I sincerely hope that more works like The Disaster Artist come along to shine a light on more Z movies.
Did you know?
Despite his apparent Eastern European accent, Tommy Wiseau insisted that he was from New Orleans for the duration of the shoot.
During production meetings for the 2017 film adaptation of The Disaster Artist, Wiseau stipulated that the only actors who could play him were either Johnny Depp or James Franco, who accepted the role.
What Listeners Said
"Definitely, definitely worth your money. It doesn't matter if you've seen The Room or heard of Tommy Wiseau before. If you haven't. you'll want to, and if you have, it will be that much better knowing what went on behind the scenes of the best bad movie ever made." —Henry, Audible listener
"If you have seen The Room—that horrid thing that has the audacity to be called a movie—and want to know what Tommy Wiseau is and how this horrible thing was made, this is a must read. And you get so much more than that. It's genuine, hilarious, and intriguing. It's the polar opposite of The Room. And it also lends credence to the phrase 'truth is stranger than fiction.'" —Graham, Audible listener
"I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks. This book is 1 in 100. Greg Sestero's performance is incredible and his voice in the text is so strong. Combined with Bissell's unique strength in narrative, this audiobook is a force. Do not even think of trying to read this when you get so much more from the reading of the audiobook." —Alexander, Audible listener
Quotes from The Disaster Artist
"The Room is a drama that is also a comedy that is also an existential cry for help that is finally a testament to human endurance."
"If art is expression, can it fail? Is success simply a matter of what one does with failure?"
"That's the thing with Tommy: Even before he was famous, he acted like he was famous. Maybe that's what, in the end, best explains him. Maybe that's what explains the whole thing."
About Greg Sestero
Greg Sestero is an actor, producer, and writer. He was born in Walnut Creek, California, and raised between the San Francisco Bay Area and Europe. He went onto pursue acting and appeared in several films and television shows before co-starring in the international cult phenomenon, The Room. Sestero is currently developing a horror film about a mysterious cult set in the Arizona desert.
