Tommy Wisseau and Greg Sestero – Best F(r)iends: Volume One

By starrymag | September 24, 2018

By: Kelly Kearney

 

 

Q) Can you talk a little but about your new film Best F(r)iends – its themes and the characters you both play?

 

Greg: It’s sort of a variation on a true experience we had together. Obviously, not that Tommy is a mortician in real life and I’m not homeless of as of now, but it was inspired by a road trip we took years ago up the California coast. Tommy assumed something was going on and there wasn’t really but one of the things that I always remember from early on in our friendship was that Tommy thought I was homeless when we first met in the acting class. I don’t know why he thought that, but he thought I was homeless so I kind of played a little bit with that idea of me being homeless and Tommy being a lonely, misunderstood mortician who takes him under his wing. Obviously, things get a little strange but its sort of a play on different experiences we’ve had.

 

Q) This dark and funny, necrophiliac mortician is maybe the most well-rounded character you’ve played. Is this the beginning of the end of your cult status? Can we expect you to explore other genres and characters with this level of depth?

 

Tommy: I think you’re right. [laughing] I’ll be attached to The Room for the rest of my life now that everybody knows about it, but I’ve been an actor for quite a few years and I think I like to share my talent with audiences as well and like to present different stuff. Maybe Best F(r)iends is an example of that maybe Tommy can do good work, what about that? [laughs]

 

Q) How did you come up with the film’s title Best F(r)iends?

 

Greg: Um…You know when I was writing The Disaster Artist I studied a few films and books and documentaries about kinda odd friendships, like Sunset Boulevard and Ed Wood and there was one documentary that I studied called My Best Fiend with Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski. And for some reason when I sat down to write the story, these were the first words I put down on the page and I didn’t really think about it too much. I didn’t even think, “This is the title,” it was just kinda what came to me and what I put on the page. So, it’s almost like the easiest thing to come up with and then come up with a story. But, yeah, it was kinda the first thing I put on the page and loosely inspired by Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski and their friendship working in showbusiness.

 

Q) It’s been said the Best F(r)iends script was about a hundred pages. So, explain the choice to end Volume One on a cliffhanger that leads into another two-hour sequel. Was there just too much story to tell or did you leave nothing on the editing room floor?

 

Greg: No, we surprisingly cut a lot out. I mean, there was so much material I did not plan two films. I had been trying to write a few TV show ideas so when I started working on this story maybe I was more in that mindset. I thought this one was a full-on story so if you were putting it together, it got to the half way point and I sort of showed it to a few friends and they thought that was it and that was the movie and there was a lot there to process. And I thought, “Oh, but there’s a good ninety minutes left to go,” and it takes place in a desert and all these other things happen. For me, I’m really passionate about the conclusion of the story. I felt it was a little bit much to put all of that into one film and thought it could work better to let it breathe and let each film have their own aesthetic and craft two different stories.

 

Q) Both of you were catapulted into the limelight after The Disaster Artist. Tommy, how has your life changed with the success of your work and your cult following?

 

Tommy: Oh yeah, well, I am the same person. Ask Greg, he’s right here. But I think I am an artist and try to develop my craft and if Greg asks me to do to it, I’ll do more movies and hopefully Hollywood understands that the rebel’s right here. So yeah, definitely did change somewhat to a certain degree. [laughs] But ya know, The Room has been popular before and now maybe to the max, but I don’t think we’ve accomplished much yet. I’ve said this, I don’t know if you reviewed the Entertainment Weekly Magazine, but I said we want to hit millions of people – I believe I said hundreds of millions and the guy was laughing at me and I said, “Well, you can laugh but we see what happens.” Keep in mind, Greg, that was what ten years ago, wasn’t it? The first one?

 

Greg: Uh…It was, I think eight years ago.

 

Tommy: So, eight years ago and you know I always committed to my projects and I’m very happy the media, you guys, give us support so I say thank you to you as well as others. And again, my views about critics, media, etc., I want to say you don’t have to like The Room. It’s ok with me, as long as you say it in a sincere way. If you start laughing at the acting, and sometimes they do the lines wrong, it doesn’t help you. With critics, the construction is very important and I’m very happy that you actually embraced Best F(r)iends because I think they will be releasing it September 25^th and I think the audience will see this as a work of art. I did a few events with Greg and Best F(r)iends.” Actually, it’s supposed to be Best Fiends, now everyone will understand the Best F(r)iends. The audience really embraced it. I think, to me, it’s like black and white. When I was in film school, because actually I attended film school, I did a project very quickly, black and white and color. People asked me in the class, “Why did you choose black and white?” I said, Wwhy? Because otherwise you would not ask.” In here, it’s funny because that reminded me of what Greg did with this movie and the choices Greg, you made with your producer. So, it is something unique that the audience spends a reasonable amount of time analyzing, which I like! That’s the kicker, people actually analyze what you create. This is the joy that I have. I enjoy when you guys, you as well as others, who maybe like movies like The Room or not. That’s not important. What’s important is that people analyze it. Especially the past two years I noticed that, definitely with the right audience…I’m ready for Hollywood. If you have any good projects, you let me know. [laughs]

 

Q) Your character is sort of an artisanal mortician who makes masks of famous people for the dead while also stealing their gold teeth for profit. If you had a choice, whose mask would you want to wear into the grave?

 

Tommy: I want to have my own mask! To be honest with you, I wear too many masks already. I said, “Greg, I don’t know if you remember, if I go different places I want people to celebrate The Room and hopefully we will get a screening, free of charge, to celebrate.” But definitely what is behind the art of film is that it is very important that we create a better society. If I can put a smile on people’s face, I will be a happy camper. You are actually correct, it did change, maybe a little more than expected because I did not expect too much from The Disaster Artist, but I think they did a very good job as well as the work Greg did on Best F(r)iends. I mean, I don’t want to thank you Greg, too much, ok, because then you will get big head. I think I was completely shocked when he called me, and he said, “Hey uhh…I want to have this movie developed,” and I said to write the script, grab the camera and create something. Just think about The Room and get obsessed, people get obsessed. I don’t know if you noticed that, but some people go to extremes. Why spend energy on something that’s not yours? You can enjoy it but spend energy on something you actually like to do.

 

Q) Greg, I had no idea there was a market for corpse’s gold teeth. Was this something you discovered while writing Best F(r)iends or had you known about this black-market commodity prior to the film?

 

Greg: …

 

Tommy: Wait a minute, I want to respond. I’m sorry Greg, I don’t mean to speak out of order, but I wanted to respond to this.  Sorry to interrupt…

 

Greg: Yeah, my brother is a dentist and gave me the lowdown on the whole business because he had gotten involved with some things and with the price of silver and gold going up, dentists were making a lot of money doing this and he was receiving, ya know, bags of gold teeth from Greece and talking to these people in New York. And it’s a real thing! A few months ago, I saw a dental office door that said “Dental Gold” and I was like, “Ok, this is really weird,” and then someone was arrested a few months ago for doing exactly what happened in the movie. A couple of years ago when I came up with this, I had no idea it would flourish as it has, but it was inspired by the story my brother told me.

 

Tommy: I just wanted to say about the teeth, I don’t know if you know, but in World War II Hitler did this. That’s a shocker that a lot of people don’t know about. I did some research based on the Greg’s story and my story to understand the situation but that was an eerie thing. I did enjoy the work and I hope people who watch the movie learn something about the subject.

 

Q) Besides Volume One and Two of Best F(r)iends are you working on any other projects the fans can look out for?

 

Greg: Yes, we’re working on this thing, this horror film.

 

Tommy: Yeah, the horror movie. We are working on that.