How The Disaster Artist Differs From The Book

The film shows Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero moving to Los Angeles to pursue their dream of acting together, forming a supportive and collaborative duo. Tommy allows Greg to live in his LA apartment for free, and the two are never shown to squabble as roommates normally do — until Greg decides to move out to live with his girlfriend Amber (Alison Brie), a disappointment that Tommy tries to deflect and repress. In reality, Sestero was the first one to move to Los Angeles and paid $200 a month to reside in Wiseau’s LA apartment while Wiseau remained in San Francisco for a year. After seeing Sestero getting an agent and his first big acting gig, Wiseau started thinking of moving to Los Angeles too, a possibility that worried Sestero, as he knew that Wiseau was starting to feel competitive with him.

As several hurdles came along with Wiseau and Sestero’s long-distance friendship, Wiseau gradually increased the rent on his friend and eventually moved into the apartment. Their time together as roommates had been very emotional and mentally taxing for Sestero, who found himself having to bear the brunt of Wiseau’s unpredictable behavior, constant irritations over minuscule things, frustrations stemming from his Hollywood rejections, and struggles with writing “The Room.” Sestero only stayed in the apartment because the rent was significantly less than anywhere else, still keeping an eye out for any chance he could get to move out, though things got so bad that he started having “the most uncomfortably pleasurable fantasy of wrapping [his] hands around Tommy’s neck and squeezing.”