It would appear laughable on a creative level for anyone to want to desperately claim credit for directing 2003's The Room, but such has been the cult following of the 'worst movie ever' that Sandy Schklair is seeking to set the record straight. Penning a new book that is supposed to shed light on the events of the film behind the scenes courtesy of Yes, I Directed The Room, the man who is credited with script supervision roles across various feature and television projects has put his side of the story across to THR.
What would open a lid on these developments would be the 2017 James Franco biopic The Disaster Artist, giving a Golden Globe-winning performance as Tommy Wiseau on a picture that he also ironically directed. Schklair is adamant that Wiseau did not direct The Room, having only taken control of a love scene that he did not agree to participating in privately.
Schklair: We All Knew The Room Was a Comedy Except For Tommy
Schklair did not want to leave the reader with any ambiguity over who controlled this title. Credited as Wiseau's work, he outlined that the actor had about as much capacity to helm the film as he did performing for it.
"I directed this entire movie, except for the love scenes and the second unit stuff in San Francisco," he argues. "He had no idea what the directing process was, no idea how you shoot... Anything in The Disaster Artist that actually shows Tommy directing, this never happened, ever."
Given the absurd nature of the presentation, surely a filmmaker with genuine credentials would have made something that was far more polished than The Room? For Schklair, the parody was embraced - except for the man fronting the film.
"Don't think any of this happened by accident. The idea was to keep the insanity, but push it as far over the top as I can and preserve the fact that everybody there knows I'm making a comedy — except one person."
Wiseau would categorically deny the accusation that he did not direct the feature, making a case to say that those moments in San Francisco were at the heart of the movie.
"I would say you cannot give (Schklair) any credit, because he quit," Wiseau asserted. "If you take out the San Francisco scenes, and you take away the love scenes, if you take away all that material, you do not have The Room. The Room would not exist, because all these elements are very important."
Franco Questioned About Misconduct Allegations
Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert following his Golden Globe victory for The Disaster Artist, Franco would be put on the spot regarding allegations of sexual harassment. As a number of female Hollywood identities took to social media during the broadcast to allege serious cases of misconduct, the actor would flat out deny that any such behavior took place.
"First of all, I have no idea what I did to Ally Sheedy," Franco told Colbert. "I directed her in a play Off Broadway, I had nothing but a great time with her, total respect for her. I have no idea why she was upset... The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice."
Source: THR, New York Times
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