<Li> Greg Ellery as Steven, a friend of Johnny and Lisa </Li> <P> Tommy Wiseau originally wrote The Room as a play in 2001 . He then adapted the play into a 500 - page book, which he was unable to get published . Frustrated, Wiseau decided to adapt the work into a film, producing it himself to maintain creative control . </P> <P> Wiseau has been secretive about how he obtained funding for the project, but told Entertainment Weekly that he made some of the money by importing leather jackets from Korea . According to The Disaster Artist (Greg Sestero's book based on the making of The Room), Wiseau was already independently wealthy at the time production began . Over several years, he had amassed a fortune through entrepreneurship and real estate development in Los Angeles and San Francisco . Wiseau spent the entire US $6,000,000 (equivalent to about $8,000,000 in 2017) budget for The Room on production and marketing . Wiseau stated that the film was relatively expensive because many members of the cast and crew had to be replaced . According to Sestero, Wiseau made numerous poor decisions during filming that unnecessarily inflated the film's budget--Wiseau built sets for sequences that could have been filmed on location, purchased unnecessary equipment, and filmed scenes multiple times using different sets . Wiseau also forgot his lines and place on camera, resulting in minutes - long dialogue sequences taking hours or days to shoot . Wiseau's actions further caused the film's cost to skyrocket, according to Sestero . </P> <P> According to Sestero and Greg Ellery, Wiseau rented a studio at the Birns and Sawyer film lot and bought a "complete Beginning Director package", which included two film and HD cameras . Wiseau was confused about the differences between 35 mm film and high - definition video . He wanted to be the first director to film an entire movie simultaneously in two formats . He achieved this by using a custom - built apparatus that housed both cameras side - by - side and required two crews to operate . Only the 35 mm footage was used in the final edit . </P>

Where did the money from the room come from
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