-You had your brother on stage, which is great, and then,
of course, you also brought Tommy on stage,
which was one of the great moments of the Globes.
He very clearly wanted to speak.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I'm surprised he didn't go for the award.
-I -- Yeah, I'm surprised. Well, it's interesting.
This was -- You gave him an interesting choice.
If given a microphone or an award, what would he go for,
and he went for the thing that would amplify his voice.
-Yeah. -Were you not the least
surprised that he tried to speak?
-No, I'm not surprised.
But, look, it's a long time coming.
He kept saying to me -- 'Cause like with Tommy,
what he does, you know, if any other person did what he does,
it would just end in pure disaster.
But he somehow always turns disaster into something positive
and so here he is -- What I said,
there was, like, 19 years before he had been, you know,
stuck in limo traffic that was going to the Globes
and he was really upset and it was one of the nights
that he actually turned and was like, "You know what?
I'll show all them. I'll make my own movie."
You know, and there he is, 19 years later on the stage.
-That's really insane. -And, he kept saying to me
all night afterwards, "It's destiny, James.
It's destiny."
-It's really weird when things go right for crazy people
because then -- [ Laughter ]
Then they think they're like -- -Believe me.
Believe me. Well, and that's one of
the magical things I loved about this story is, it's an ironic
success slash tragedy where his movie is still being watched
today 15 years later. -Mm-hmm.
-On the other hand, as a creative person,
usually the way -- One of the ways you learn is,
you try to do -- You're aiming for something,
you make some mistakes, and you realize, "Oh, I didn't go where
I wanted to go, maybe I should change some things."
He did that.
He's trying to make a drama on the level of Tennessee Williams,
but he made a comedy, so that became a success
and then he flipped the switch and said I intend to do comedy,
so he'll never learn from the mistakes he made.
-Right. And I think it's probably not
a great sign that he hasn't -- Has he made a second film?
-Yeah, well, if you go the screening.
He made this show called "Neighbors,"
and he's trying to be funny.
We went and did a special screening of "The Room"
for our film to play during the credit.
It's supposed to start at midnight.
It started at 2:30 A.M. because he hocks his underwear,
it says Tommy Wiseau underwear, his T.W., as he call them.
-Uh-huh. -Right, he puts them on
people in the lobby and they come model them on stage.
And then he shows, not one, but every episode of "Neighbors."
-Oh, boy. -Yeah.
So I fell asleep in that screening of "The Room."
-You nailed "The Voice," and we were saying
when we were talking about the film earlier --
People, when you first -- If you haven't seen "The Room"
when you see this character, it's a very big swing from you,
but it is actually incredibly accurate.
And you tried very hard to get the voice right.
-Yeah. -You had recordings of him?
-Right. So, like I said, Tommy --
I have the recordings right here.
Okay, Tommy flipped the switch after he realized that people
were laughing at it and said, I intended to be comedy.
So, I couldn't really -- So he had rewritten history,
so I couldn't really go to him and ask him about
what he was like during "The Room" because he'd just
give me, "Oh, well, I intended this to be funny."
But he used to record himself all the time.
He would drive around in his car and talk to himself on
a mini tape recorder. -Uh-huh.
This is, like, five years before "The Room," 20 years ago.
His good friend Greg, as good friends do,
stole some of these tapes way back when.
And then, when I was going to get ready for it,
he had digitized them and he sent them to me
and they're incredible. It's Tommy, you know,
complaining about acting teachers
and you can see -- It was like I got his journal
but the audio book version and so here's a little thing.
-Okay. -This is him talking about
an acting teacher.
-[ Inaudible ]
That was okay, but again, I had an argument with him as usual.
-Again, as usual. As usual.
-This time was, he said, "Why don't you do the same thing
in French." It's so stupid.
[ Laughter ]
I don't know what his problem is.
I know what his problem is.
Because he knows I'm very powerful.
He can feel it. This power.
-You see that?
[ Applause ]
-He's been Tommy Wiseau the whole time.
-Oh, yeah. -He's been him the whole time.
Hey, congratulations on the film.
Thank you for talking with me about everything today
and I hope to see you soon. All right.
James Franco, everybody.