It's clear that there's a lot of love for The Room all over Hollywood, which likely explains why director James Franco was able to get so many people to cameo in The Disaster Artist. The film about the story behind the worst movie ever made has enlisted an insanely deep cast of performers to bring the tale to life, but the project wasn't able to get everyone that it set out to cast. Specifically, it turns out that the film almost landed Britney Spears to play Juliette Danielle a.k.a Lisa, before Ari Graynor won the role. Graynor recently addressed the casting process for The Disaster Artist and explained:
Well, it's funny --- they apparently went down a short road with Britney Spears, which I think is hilarious.
For those of you that have never seen The Room, Juliette Danielle portrayed Lisa -- the "future wife" of Johnny (Tommy Wiseau) and arguably the villain of the original film. Behind the scenes, the story of The Disaster Artist shines a light into how Wiseau allegedly mistreated Danielle during the filming of the movie, particularly during The Room's often-graphic sex scenes. Ari Graynor ultimately won the role, but she also made sure to note that it could've easily gone to pop icon Britney Spears early in the film's development.
Check out a side-by-side of Britney Spears and Juliette Danielle in The Room below.
In the end, there's a strong case to be made that The Disaster Artist lucked out with the casting of Ari Graynor as Ms. Danielle. The actress (much like the movie itself) has garnered praise from critics for her performance as Danielle and Lisa, and beyond that, adding Britney Spears to the already-stacked ensemble of performers could've potentially tipped the scale a bit too far into the realm of stunt casting. As Ari Graynor noted in her remarks to Yahoo Entertainment, the possibility of stepping into the role of Lisa definitely seems hilarious, but we will likely never know if it would've been the right call.
The cast list for The Disaster Artist is already pretty impressive from top to bottom. In addition to James and Dave Franco anchoring the film as Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero, respectively, the film also includes Seth Rogen, Allison Brie, Zac Efron, Paul Scheer, and Josh Hutcherson -- and that doesn't even scratch the surface of cameos by Hollywood heavy-hitters like Judd Apatow and Bryan Cranston.
The Disaster Artist hits theaters today, so make sure to check it out and see the bizarre story behind The Room for yourself. Beyond James Franco's love letter to Tommy Wiseau's insane movie, you can also take a glance at our 2017 movie premiere guide and our 2018 movie premiere guide to see what else is on the horizon over the next year.
