Some goofy shit in THE ROOM
So in this week’s post, I’m gonna discuss my involvement in a charity production of a very special movie. A movie that’s changed lives and opened hearts around the world. This post is gonna blow your fucking mind and make you want to quit your job and move to sunny Hollywood, California. I swear on my fucking life.
I’m trying to be on social media less, so maybe Substack will be a good outlet for the fact that I can’t keep my fucking mouth shut about anything. But it takes longer to write one of these than a tweet, so I have to think harder before putting my opinion out in the world. Wow, maybe this could be a positive thing!
Oh, and the image above me is from a web series I’m putting out this year. Don’t worry about that. Those are my friends Rivkah Reyes and Dr. Jerry. Good people.
To kick off this new mission in posting, I figured I would talk about THE ROOM Returns, coming hopefully this June, starring Bob Odenkirk as “Johnny,” originally portrayed by writer/actor/director Tommy Wiseau.
The Room Returns! A 20th Anniversary Celebration (for charity)
Oh, hi…
So if you follow me on any of my social media pages, you’re probably so fucking sick of me talking about this. I haven’t shut up about it. Sue me! What a joy, what a fun thing. This January, I was presented with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring one of fiction’s most complicated and nuanced characters, “Denny,” to life in a brand new celebration of THE ROOM (2003). This would be in a taped re-enactment, directed by Brando Crawford, in honor of the famous film directed by and starring Tommy Wiseau.
This production, which I think is currently called “The Room Returns,” was put on to benefit AMFAR, an AIDS research foundation, in partnership with Acting For A Cause. It’s directed by Brando and produced by a shitload of people, including but not limited to my friend Dr. Jarad Schwartz, pictured towards the top of this article in his unrelated role of “Dr. Jerry.” It was undoubtedly the most fun day of my life, and if I get married and/or have kids, I’m sure that will not affect my ranking. This is number one. And it always will be. It’s THE ROOM for fuck’s sake!
Odenkirk was 100% bought in from the get go. There was no period of time in which we were stagnant or trying to find the way to make a scene work. Bob, Brando, Jarad, and several others had the process down to a machine, and it would not take us very long to get the material shot. Some scenes were even complete in one or two takes. Some scenes also took over 20/30 takes to complete because somebody laughed, but that’s a different variable. Point is, it was an entire day of every reason that we love comedy and acting. And I think that’ll be clear when you see it. There’s something so magnetic to me about projects where you can absolutely tell without a shred of doubt that the performers and crew were having a BLAST and loving our jobs.
“If a lot of people love each other, the world would be a better place to live”
-Johnny, as portrayed by Tommy Wiseau
Brando, Dr. Jarad (like I said, the vaping doctor from the first picture on this post, long story), and the rest of the gang teamed up with Greg Sestero, the original actor who played the role of “Mark.” We set our sights on one thing: performing the material from Tommy Wiseau’s THE ROOM to the very best of our ability. A lot of people think this performance is a parody or a remake- an attempt to recreate the iconic performances. An attempt at pure goofball comedy. An unoriginal ploy trying to recapture the intense feeling of watching a broken, dejected Johnny (Tommy Wiseau) declare: “I did not hit her! It’s not true! It’s bullshit! I did not hit her, I did not. Oh, hi, Mark.” A lot of people think they’re gonna watch Bob Odenkirk attempt a bizarre Eastern-European accent and recreate this. They couldn’t be more wrong.
Bob has said this in interviews recently, but I’ll get clearer with you about it: this is Tommy Wiseau’s THE ROOM performed completely straightforward as a Drama film as it was always intended to be. Bob was always focused on honesty, and that seems to be the center of how he performs across the board if you watch Better Call Saul, Fargo, or any of his other great projects. Every scene, every take, he was helping us figure out what honest feeling our character needs to bring out in order to elevate the material as effectively as possible.
It’s funny- working with Odenkirk and watching how his performance evolved as we’d do different takes changed the way I watch him in everything else. I watched him in Fargo recently, and I saw him make decisions onscreen that I watched him make between takes on THE ROOM Returns. All of this to say, that’s how he’s approaching this, ladies and germs. This is an HONEST and dramatic performance, and we want nothing but to help supplement the legacy and lineage of Tommy Wiseau’s timeless magnum opus.
If you know me, you know I’m the Better Call Saul fan to end all Better Call Saul fans, and basically live my life as a walking/talking advertisement for the show. Odenkirk had been a hero of mine for over a decade, with his expansive career in comedy serving as a north star not only for young comedy fans my age but also… fucking everybody out there.
This guy is the man!!! He was an early backer of Tim and Eric, the two of whom proceeded to define the next decade+ of comedy. And if everything I’m saying right now seems a little Inside Baseball, it is, but shut up and stop reading if you’re gonna complain about it. If you fancy yourself a funny person or an aspiring funny person, Odenkirk is Santa Claus. And working with him was fuckin jolly.
You won’t find one soul on set who has anything other than his highest praises to sing. He’s one of the most compelling actors on the planet and nobody on set was as down-to-earth and easy to talk to. My background in politics taught me to never meet your heroes, but… I guess S’all relative.
I don’t know what day it’s premiering, but hopefully it’ll be in June. The guys who are producing it are extremely clever and creative, so some crazy shit will certainly go down and it will be a ton of fun. Until then, I want to thank them, thank you all for reading, thank the amazing cast and crew, and thank Denny.
Denny (my character), for those of you who don’t know, is a brave young man. The world is new to him, and every time he experiences an emotion, it seems like it’s the first time he’s ever really experienced it. He’s excited about the world, he’s afraid of it, he’s grateful for Johnny because Johnny’s got his back because Johnny is a good American guy. Denny is a lover- not only falling for Lisa (portrayed by the amazing Bella Heathcote in our production), but also declaring that he plans to marry his girlfriend who is only mentioned one time. I learned a lot about me from Denny, and I hope you can learn a little something about you, too.
Some goofy shit in THE ROOM
Are you saying... that I, a lowly resident of the United Kingdom... will be able to watch this?