When people think of the worst movie ever made, their opinion is usually clouded by personal preference.
So how do you define the worst?
Bad dialogue, wooden acting, mismatched storyline, poor camera work, shoddy editing, etc.
One movie has them all: “The Room”.
Since it’s early-2000s debut, it has developed a Rocky Horror-style following, with late night screens and overzealous fans. Originally a drama, it has since been recast as a “black comedy” to capitalize on its strange success.
Juliette Danielle is the female lead, and like other cast members, now has a strange relationship with the film:
At the heart of the phenomenon is Juliette. As the devious Lisa, Juliette lies, cheats and sleeps around with impunity, with no internal motivation other than, as she explains to one of the other characters, to “make it more interesting.” An apple-cheeked blonde with spray-tanned legs and the build of a wanton farmer’s daughter, Lisa is the ultimate early-aughts bitch goddess, a schemer in a Spandex shell tank and miniskirt.
The Room’s director/creator/main actor Tommy Wiseau cast Danielle as a friend, but she eventually was a hasty fill-in for the top role. As a struggling actress in LA, Juliette was thrilled…until the premiere:
Juliette sat in the front row with her mother. At the lengthy love scenes between her and Wiseau, “my jaw dropped,” she said. “I thought it was gonna be this beautiful fifteen-second montage, but they went on and on and on,” she said. “That was the hardest part for me at that premiere: just trying to speak with everyone afterwards as if everything was fine.”
That began the painful process of just hoping that movie would go away. You would too if your performance came across the way it did in The Room.
But as the film slowly and steadily gained steam, more people took notice. Celebrities started watching it and relaying their appreciation. Alec Baldwin namedropped it in an interview. Danielle started to slowly embrace her newfound stardom:
Eventually, Juliette set up a Facebook profile. There she wasn’t heckled. Fans started posting photos on her wall of themselves dressed as Lisa; they told her how much joy the film brought them, how much fun they had at screenings; they quoted The Room to her and Juliette, to her surprise, found herself quoting it right back. She started watching cult movies like Troll 2 and Birdemic, and found that they gave her a renewed appreciation of The Room. She started attending Q&As after screenings. She started to entertain the notion of returning to acting.
Now, Danielle has become a bona fide cult movie actress, appearing in other small films and making a full return to acting.
It’s definitely the road less traveled to fame, but it looks like it was worth it.
