There are some things in life where no matter how far you have come along, you are reminded that certain moments will always be a part of you.
It was April 1, 2009. Young Noy Sauce was a naïve 20-year old college student who enjoyed playing Team Fortress 2, and watching the Lakers dominate basketball in his spare time. Every evening, my roommates and I watched Adult Swim on TV. But for some odd reason that evening, Cartoon Network pulled an April Fool’s Joke by airing a movie that would change my life. The movie was called “The Room”. It was directed, written, and produced by Tommy Wiseau.
Many articles have been written about The Room. It has been called the best worst movie ever. The Citizen Kane of Bad Movies. So bad that it is good. The movie tells the story of a banker, named Johnny, who lives with his girlfriend, Lisa, in San Francisco. Little did Johnny know that Lisa has been having an affair with his best friend, Mark. The affair drove Johnny to the point of madness, resulting in Johnny lazily trashing their apartment and vainly killing himself to show how important he is. The Room is full of plot holes, corny dialogue, and memorable quotes that make one wonder how this movie ever came into production.
My roommates and I knew that evening when watching The Room that the movie was terrible. But somehow, The Room captivated me. I wondered, “How can this movie be so bad that I love it?!” That summer, I found out that my childhood buddy was also in love with the movie. We spent the summer watching The Room numerous times trying to figure out what made it so great. My buddy and I wondered if either Tommy is oblivious to The Room’s ridiculousness due to his vanity and ego, or if Tommy is a genius and we are mere mortals unworthy of understanding him. I, myself, have watched The Room ten times. I was not just obsessed. In 2015 teen-speak, I was ob-SASS-ed.
The following school year, my obsession grew to the point I annoyed my roommates because I could not stop talking about The Room. I even let my classmates watch The Room, but was told to stop because they could not bear to see Tommy Wiseau’s ass after enduring a 4-minute love scene in the first 10 minutes of the movie. The movie had developed a cult following and showed monthly midnight screenings at the Laemmle Theatre in Hollywood. I told my buddy that we have to see this movie in the theaters with like-minded people who shared the odd obsession we had. He agreed. My buddy, my cousin, and I made the trek to Hollywood to attend the midnight screening.
It was a late Saturday evening, and we were waiting in line to purchase a ticket. Lo and behold, we see Tommy Wiseau—the man, the legend—enter the plaza. We cheered, giving him handshakes, as he made his way to the theater. When we got inside the theater, we saw Tommy taking pictures with fans. He shook my hand and he was accommodating in taking a picture with us. It felt like I met the second-coming of Jesus Christ, and my life was made complete at that moment.
We threw plastic spoons at the screen, tossed footballs and beachballs across the theater room, and jeered at the corny dialogue during the hour and a half. Following the movie, my buddy, my cousin, and I were in a state of euphoria, as if we obtained an achievement similar to those in video games. Over the next year and a half, my obsession towards The Room began to wane as interests shifted and changes in my life happened. Or so I thought.
It was a Thursday evening in 2015. Noy Sauce just celebrated his birthday, reflecting on grown-up stuff, like planning for the next day, paying bills, and aimlessly worrying about relationships. In the middle of my reflection, I browsed through Google News when an article caught my eye: James Franco and Seth Rogen plan on making a movie about The Room.
No. Fucking. Way.
The memories from six years ago came rushing back, as I was reminded of a pleasant time in my life. My face looked like this:
The Disaster Artist is a movie to be produced that is based on a book of the same name by Greg Sestero, the actor who played Mark in The Room. I borrowed the book from the library to gain additional perspective on Greg and Tommy when The Room was made. The Disaster Artist tells Greg Sestero’s story as an aspiring actor, and his friendship with Tommy Wiseau. The Room was nothing but a vanity project to put Tommy at the center of it all—the directing, the producing, and the acting—in order to be recognized and adored by many. While reading The Disaster Artist, I kept asking myself, “Why was I obsessed with The Room and why am I interested in writing about it today?”
I later found what drew me to The Room: Tommy Wiseau is not afraid to find success in his own terms, for better or for worse, despite what people thought of him. That blind faith and determination is admirable, if you ask me.
At the apex of my obsession six years ago, what interested me were the cult following of the movie, and the desire of attending a screening. Those two reasons, in a sense, gave me a sense of belonging where I did not fear being judged, because the people attending the screenings were as crazy as me to throw spoons, toss footballs and beachballs, and jeer at the screen for an hour and a half. How many times in a day do we wear masks that hide our true feelings because saying how we actually feel can have negative repercussions? It was nice for one evening to let loose and not have to wear a mask that hides a part of me.
When writing this post, what draws me to The Room are reminders of a happy time and relating to the journey of finding success—professionally, personally, and spiritually—in my own terms. I was reminded of meeting Tommy and laughing to the point of crying in the theater. I related to the challenges living on my own, appreciating what I had once taken for granted. I related to taking the steps needed to reach certain goals and becoming a better version of myself, despite the risks and overcoming setbacks from failure. I related to the desire of making a positive impact to people around, constantly asking myself if what I am doing so far fulfills that desire.
While Tommy Wiseau was successful in making himself known, the way how he reached it was not what he intended. I am certain that Tommy did not intend The Room to be laughed upon by people, since it was originally written as a drama meant to be taken seriously. Yet, there are still screenings of The Room in theaters 12 years since it was released. People still talk about The Room to this day, which means that the movie has made an impact, for better or for worse, in people’s lives. A movie about the making of The Room is about to be made, which shows that the movie has made its mark in Hollywood.
This leads to the secret sauce lesson of The Room and The Disaster Artist: you can find success when you work towards your dreams, although the way you find that success may not be the way you had intended it to be.
I hope one day I can share a drink, preferably Scotch+Vodka, with Tommy Wiseau to talk about life, tell him how he influenced me to a happy place, and ask why he has his own designer underwear.