Acetonic

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Sunday, June 15, 2014

"The alley scene's major players were Johnny, Chris-R, Mark, and Denny, whom Sandy referred to as "the weirdest character I've ever encountered in 25 years of filmmaking." During the making of The Room, Tommy demanded that Philip Haldiman, who was playing Denny, enter some scenes singing his lines, asked him to "cry hysterically" while Juliette yelled "What kind of drugs?", and made him lingeringly eat an apple early in the film because, Tommy explained, this was "very sexual symbol." Given the nature of the character Philip was asked to play - a man-child Peeping Tom neighbour who has no purpose in the story other than to ambiguously propose a threesome and be saved from a drug dealer - he did about as well as any young actor could have.

Philip was 26 at the time - older than I, Scott, Brianna, or Juliette - but Tommy still cast him as the youngest character in the film. Tommy wasn't clear in the script about Denny's age (or anything else), but we all assumed Tommy wanted Denny to be between 15 and 18. Philip looked young, but not that young, which makes every scene he's in that much more uncomfortable. In an attempt to make Philip appear more youthful, Safowa had fit him in a tunic-length Charlie Brown-goes-to-prep-school rugby shirt. I felt for Philip. Everyone did."

("The Disaster Artist", pp. 32-33)