History Trivia / TheRoom2003

* TroubledProduction: To say The Room had a troubled production is an understatement on the level of suggesting the Pacific Ocean is a bit damp. The experience is described in detail in ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'', a dual "making of ''The Room''" and "My bizarre friendship with Tommy Wiseau" book by Greg Sestero, who played Mark. Some of the more notable things out of Sestero's book:

** Wiseau made the film because [[StartMyOwn he was tired of waiting to be cast as an actor, and decided to make his own film,]] despite having never made a film before and having little discernible talent for acting or writing. As his heavy accent makes clear, English is not Wiseau's first language, hence the script's many bizarre turns of phrase (such as Mark's "Leave your stupid comments in your pocket!"). Sestero recalls that the original script rarely specified whether scenes were taking place by day or at night, indoors or outdoors, or in which room, and one scene began with Lisa answering a phone call from her mother and ended with them walking to the door. Wiseau [[PrimaDonnaDirector refused to take any advice from the cast or crew]], dismissing concerns about characters' motivations changing within scenes or [[AbortedArc subplots abruptly coming and going]] and insisting that they deliver their lines exactly as written, which were apparently ''even more nonsensical'' than they were in the finished film.

* DoingItForTheArt: Wiseau. The man spent years raising $6 million to write, produce, direct and advertise his dream project with absolutely no studio support. The amount of time and effort he poured into making it a reality is nothing short of astonishing -- perhaps even inspiring.

* AmateurCast: The cast of the film had very little acting experience beforehand.

* TroubledProduction: Described in detail in ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'', a dual "making of ''The Room''" and "My bizarre friendship with Tommy Wiseau" book by Greg Sestero, who played Mark. Some of the more notable things out of Sestero's book:

* TheDanza: ''Subverted'' with Mike Holmes as Mike. Believe it or not: according to ''The Disaster Artist'', the actor's name is ''Scott'' Holmes and Wiseau credited him as "Mike Holmes" because ''he had forgotten Holmes' real name''.
* DawsonCasting: Played straight with Philip Haldiman, who was one of the oldest members of the cast (being 26) and played the youngest character, Denny. One side effect is that it makes Denny's PrecociousCrush on Lisa unconvincing since Haldiman was actually several years older than Juliette Danielle.

* NoBudget: Shockingly averted, as $6 million was spent on the film despite its MadeForTV production values. Greg Sestero wrote in ''The Disaster Artist'' that Tommy Wiseau simply had no idea how to budget a movie.
** Wiseau was dead set on shooting the film on soundstages rather than at real and cheaper locations because he worried that property owners [[ExecutiveMeddling would try to meddle in the production]]. He also spent a twelfth of the budget on his own private bathroom at the studio so he could avoid sharing one with the cast and crew.
** Many scenes were either written on the spot or had to be reshot multiple times due to Wiseau's unfocused direction and inability to memorize his lines, the latter of which resulted in production having to spend more money by dubbing him in post. He also shot the movie on 35mm film despite having already purchased a digital cimema camera, and also spent the marketing budget on an additional poster (that was never used) along with a billboard ad that remained up for several years after the movie had already left theatres.

* DeliberateFlawRetcon: In addition to using the ParodyRetcon excuse liberally in defending the film, Wiseau also claimed that Denny's strange, abnormal behavior was deliberately written to indicate that Denny was mentally disabled (even though none of the other characters seems to find his behavior particularly out of the ordinary).

** Sestero's venomous delivery of "Leave your ''stupid'' comments in your pocket" is due to him channeling all the frustrations of the shoot and imagining he was actually saying to Wiseau, "Why are you doing this to me?"

* FilkSong: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAFYymrO420 Leave]]" by Music/AllieGoertz. She even got Greg Sestero for the music video.