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Greg writes a screenplay
When Greg was 12, he saw Home Alone and decided to write a script to a sequel. He placed himself in the movie and titled it Home Alone 2: Lost in Disney World. Greg sent it to John Hughes and within a month, he received a personal letter of encouragement from Hughes. Greg said about the letter ¨at the time it meant a lot to me. It still does... After reading Hughes letter, I knew I´d found my calling.¨(Sestero 15). This small letter help inspire Greg to eventually try to become an actor. -
Greg chooses acting over school
In his junior year of high school, Greg started to take actions to start becoming an actor. He applied to a talent agency in San Francisco, and soon got an offer to model in Milan. However, for Greg to go, he would have to miss part of his senior year of high school. His mother did not want him skipping school to follow a dream and always said "'Most people have nothing to lose...Gregory, you have a lot to lose" (Sestero 16). Nonetheless, Greg ended up modeling throughout Europe for six months. -
Greg and the pirate
As advised by an agent, Greg started going to a respected acting school. One class, Greg saw a man who he described as having "a rather piratical face and presence, with a sour expression and long, messy black hair." Greg also said "he seemed half comic book character, half hair-metal icon" (Sestero 23). This fellow actor was named Tommy Wiseau, and Greg would soon become great friends with him. -
Greg moves in with Tommy
Tommy offered Greg his L.A. apartment after only knowing him for four months. Wary of Tommy, Greg decided he would visit it before he moved in. The apartment had some oddities, such as "a striking lack of furniture...There was a bed in the bedroom, and a glass desk in the living room, but no kitchen table, no couch, and no chairs." Greg saw the room as "the rarely visited apartment of a strange and lonely man" (Sestero 89). However, Greg liked the place and it was cheap, so he moved in. -
Greg signs with an agent
Within a week of moving to Los Angeles, Greg started to receive phone calls from agents, including the famous Iris Burton. Greg said "I probably replayed that message twenty times before I convinced myself it wasn't some sort of joke" (Sestero 106). After a few failed interviews with other agents, Greg interviewed with Iris Burton. The interview went surprisingly smoothly and Greg signed a letter of representation that day. Greg thought "what had just happened was impossible" (Sestero 109). -
Greg becomes a puppet master
After sending out over 300 resumes, Greg got many auditions for leading roles in small movies. One such audition was for a movie called Retro Puppet Master. At the audition, the casting directors asked Greg to speak in a British accent, but Greg decided to improvise and speak with a French accent. The casting directors were instantly impressed, as "they all looked like they'd just seen the puppets come alive" (Sestero 116). Greg was offered the lead role and he instantly accepted. -
Tommy evicts Greg
After knowing Tommy for two years, Greg started to realize how unstable he was. When Greg's acting career started progressing quicker than Tommy's, Tommy started to threaten to take his apartment back. One time when Tommy was in town, Greg went to see a play with a friend. Seeing that Greg had another friend enraged Tommy. He started yelling at Greg "'Why do you do this? Why do you do this?" (Sestero 150). He alerted Greg he would be taking his apartment back and Greg would have to find another. -
Tommy throws Greg a bone
Greg´s career didn´t progress much until Tommy decided to make his own movie, The Room. Greg was originally asked to just be an assistant, but the day before filming began, Tommy asked Greg to act as the character Mark in his movie. Another actor, Don, had already been cast for the part but Tommy "'always intended that Greg play the Mark" (Sestero 9). Tommy said they would film both actors, but delete Don's film in secret. Knowing Don would get fired anyway, Greg took the role. -
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Tommy´s Antics
Tommy was a horrid director to work with. Throughout the course of filming, two camera crews and many other members of the crew quit. On the fifth day of production, "When Tommy threw a water bottle at the original Michelle, the whole cast walked out" (Sestero 121). As Tommy´s assistant, Greg had to constantly help find new cast and crew. Also, he had to film many retakes of previously finished scenes because the actors that were playing the supporting character kept changing. -
Don sees through the plan...on day 2
With how many retakes Greg was doing and how little Don was, it became clear to everyone that Tommy intended Greg to play Mark by the second day of production. When Don asked Tommy what was going on, Tommy just said "'don't worry...We pay you. Come back tomorrow and I give you check" (Sestero 62). This was Tommy's way of firing somebody. He also decided to fire Don's girlfriend, even though he was well aware they did not have another actress to replace her with. -
The masterpiece is previewed
Once The Room´s production crawled to the finish line, Tommy gave Greg a rough cut of The Room. Greg later showed it to his family, and it was met with much laughter. ¨Within in the first few minutes, everyone was laughing so hard that they could barely breathe" (Sestero 258). Greg´s sister asked him for copies so she could show the movie to her friends. It took them four hours to watch the 2 hour movie because they kept pausing it to laugh. -
The Room´s premiere
Anyone who saw the movie, besides Tommy, thought it would never be released, surely not be shown in any theaters. However, Tommy found a way to get the movie into some theaters and even got a premiere in downtown Los Angeles. Tommy thought The Room was a masterpiece that could be remembered forever as one of the greatest movies ever. As the movie started, and the lights dimmed in the theater, ¨Tommy removed his sunglasses and glanced back at [Greg]. He had tears in his eyes¨ (Sestero 268).