Seth Rogen Wasn't Kidding About the Phone Number on 'The Room' Billboard
(323) 654-6192
The Room, perhaps the most famous “so-bad-it’s-good” movie ever made, did not win any awards after its release in 2003, but the movie about the making of The Room, 2017’s The Disaster Artist, was up for one of the top awards at the Golden Globes. While introducing the film during the awards on Sunday, producer Seth Rogen mentioned first learning about The Room when he saw a strange billboard for the movie in 2004. And, he recounted calling a phone number that was on the billboard. As with pretty much everything surrounding the making of The Room, the strange, unbelievable story is very much true.
“The Room; it had this strange billboard, and there was no studio, there was no distributor; there was just like this guy’s head on it and he kind of looked like if a vampire went to a costume party and dressed as Johnny Depp,” Rogen recalled from the Golden Globes stage. “And for some weird reason, his phone number was on the billboard — which you don’t see on a lot of billboards. And if you called the number, it was him; the writer/director/star/producer, of the movie answered the phone.”
When Tommy Wiseau, the eclectic outsider behind The Room, attempted to promote his strange movie, he put up a billboard in Los Angeles that wasn’t like normal billboards. It just had his face, as Rogen explained, and that phone number you could call to RSVP to see the movie. That number, (323) 654-6192, was Wiseau’s personal line. This is not how movie premieres normally work.
During Rogen’s recollection at the Golden Globes, he said if you called there was a chance you’d actually get through to Wiseau, which must’ve made for quite a conversation.
The billboard stayed up for five years after the movie’s release, becoming a minor LA landmark/eyesore. Complex once worked out that renting the billboard for that long must’ve cost Wiseau $300,000.
The original billboard for 'The Room.' The version in 'The Disaster Artist' can be seen at the top of this post. Both have the same number.
The Disaster Artist remade the billboard for the movie, complete with that same phone number. However, if you called (323) 654-6192 around the time that The Disaster Artist was hitting theaters, you’d be greeted with a voicemail from Wiseau inviting callers to come to a screening of The Room. The number appears to have since been disconnected.
Now Read: Is ‘The Disaster Artist’ a Good Movie If You Haven’t Seen ‘The Room’?
