Just finished the audiobook for The Disaster Artist.

[Glitch]

My goodness, it gets even more interesting the more you find out about Tommy Wiseau. He's like a fictional character come to life.

Spoiler tag since I think it's better if you first encounter this info through the book and/or the amazing narration of Greg Sestero. His impression of Tommy Wiseau is extremely spot on.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Wiseau is so overbearing and self righteous with everybody. It's amazing Greg put up with him in his personal life for as long as he did. Tommy just seemed to not leave him alone.

Of course the book kind of sheds light on Wiseau's motivations as a person. He seems to have a chip on his shoulder about being seen as an American and having friends.

[Blindkarevik]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}One thing I really like about the book is how balanced it is. You go into it wanting to know how f***ing weird Tommy is and how terrible the filming of The Room was... and you totally get that. I even got the sense that, at times, Tommy/Greg was less of a friendship and more of an abusive relationship. However, all that is balanced out in a way that makes you feel for Tommy as well. It was a book where you come for the character assassination, but stay because you start to actually care about him and see his motivations as well.

[Powerline]

Dec 25, 2017 22:14:09 GMT -5 Blindkarevik said:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}One thing I really like about the book is how balanced it is. You go into it wanting to know how f***ing weird Tommy is and how terrible the filming of The Room was... and you totally get that. I even got the sense that, at times, Tommy/Greg was less of a friendship and more of an abusive relationship. However, all that is balanced out in a way that makes you feel for Tommy as well. It was a book where you come for the character assassination, but stay because you start to actually care about him and see his motivations as well.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}That's one thing I thought was missing from the movie. Even though the book does make you care about the character, it does kinda leave it up to the reader to decide if the end justified the means, and if this guy accomplishing his dream is worth the shady shit he's up to (the book is a LOT less forgiving on how shady Tommy would get). The film totally painted him as a hero that didn't listen or care about his critics and naysayers. He had the means to make the film he wanted to make, and obviously had a love for the art of it, so he's a hero for that. But the book is definitely more descriptive about how shady and sometimes how straight-up dickish he got, to the point that by the end Sestero is essentially posing the question "Is this guy a hero for getting his version of his vision out there to the world, or is this guy some shady prick that legit thinks he's entitled to a piece of Hollywood?". The film though, definitely paints Tommy as being more relatable and only hits a few of the points from the book where his demeanor was morally questionable.

[G✇JI☈A]

Wish they would put this on Audible

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

I literally just finished the book. Greg & Tommy almost had a textbook abusive relationship but it's tragic how obvious it is that Greg is the only person that Tommy has and how rough Tommy had it before having a shot at his dreams.

[Powerline]

Dec 26, 2017 1:44:32 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

Wish they would put this on Audible

It should be, unless they took it down recently.  It's been awhile since I listened to it but I heard it from Audible.

[G✇JI☈A]

Dec 26, 2017 8:42:38 GMT -5 Powerline said:

Dec 26, 2017 1:44:32 GMT -5 G✇JI☈A said:

Wish they would put this on Audible

It should be, unless they took it down recently.  It's been awhile since I listened to it but I heard it from Audible.

I think it has been taken off. Search results in some short summary book.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Aside from that weird semi-fictionalised history of Tommy near the end, this book is pretty much pure entertainment from beginning to end.

[lucas_lee]

One of the best audiobooks I've listened Sestero knocks it out the park as Tommy

[Alexander The So-so]

I love this audiobook so much, and can listen to it over and over and never get bored. It's "Ed Wood" meets "The Great Gatsby."

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}It was hard to know what to think of Tommy by the end. There were so many stories of him being an emotionally manipulative, oblivious ass that it was hard to know why Greg put up with them. But Greg always says that there's also a likable and kind side to Tommy as well. We got glimpses of that (him offering his LA apartment to Greg without asking, his willingness to try new things, his encouraging Greg not to give up on his dreams of being an actor when no one else would), but I really think that if this good side of Tommy was there, we needed to see more of it.

Also, in addition to the mysteries surrounding Tommy, there's one thing I think doesn't get discussed enough: his issues with women. Seriously, what the hell? We've got him chuckling at Mark's story in "The Room" about domestic violence even after being told it was inappropriate. We've got his bitchy and hostile attitude toward the girls trying to flirt with him and Greg in the first chapter. We have his appalling and creepy treatment of Juliette Danielle and the way he chewed out female extras for petty reasons. Where the hell did this come from, and is anyone ever going to call him on it?