Seth Rogen talks James Franco’s personal connection to Tommy Wiseau

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

James Franco’s THE DISASTER ARTIST is one of the most-talked-about movies of the year, as it’s being hailed as a riotous and sweet tale about a man who put his “art” out there for the world to see. What audiences may see as a hilarious movie about the making of a hilariously bad movie was actually a very personal film for Franco to make, and his friend and the film’s producer/cast member, Seth Rogen, explained why Franco and Wiseau have quite a bit in common.

While speaking on a producer roundtable for THR with the likes of Ridley Scott, Judd Apatow, Jason Blum and Amy Pascal, Rogen talked about how the practice of putting art out there, thinking it’s going to be loved, only to have it rejected, is something Franco very much related to:

One of the most interesting ideas about the movie to us was someone makes a piece of art hoping it's received one way, it is actually received for the exact opposite reasons that you hoped it would, but the result is actually the same: You become famous, people like you, you have movie stars making movies about you, you're in profit, you're getting paid.  Franco, as someone who has done a lot of weird art shit, constantly being misunderstood, misinterpreted, people thinking that the shit he thought was great was stupid, and vice versa, it was incredibly personal to him in a weird way.

This is easily the most mainstream movie Franco has directed, but Franco certainly made the movie in a somewhat avant-garde fashion, staying in character and makeup the whole time, directing the movie as Wiseau, creating an INCEPTION-like environment, with Rogen recalling how, “There are scenes in the movie where he's directing a movie, so that was really weird because he's directing a movie where he's directing a movie, in character, directing a movie."

Based on what the reviews and reactions to the movie are like, Franco has created what may go down as his masterpiece, and in a lot of ways, that's thanks to having that kinship with Wiseau. He was able to connect with it on a more intimate level than someone simply making a comedy about a bad movie. He found a way to make a sweet story, while not forgetting the utter ridiculousness underneath. 

THE DISASTER ARTIST hits theaters December 8.