When Alison showed up for her first day of work on The Disaster Artist set, she was met with something she could have never expected: James Franco's bare bottom. As Brie told People, her very nude brother-in-law was shooting a scene for the film, which he also directed. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds, but Brie is willing to laugh about it now.
“I was there for a fitting and James was totally nude filming a scene,” she said. “[He was wearing] this long black wig, crazy facial prosthetics and a sock on his penis. I was like, ‘OK this is going to be an interesting project.'”
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Brie couldn't have been more right. Franco plays Tommy Wiseau, the star and director of The Room, which is believed by many to be the worst movie ever made. Franco's film looks at the making of the 2003 movie and the friendship between Wiseau and Greg Sestero – who is played by Brie's husband, Dave Franco – which ended up fueling it. The Disaster Artist is actually based on the 2013 book of the same name written by Sestero, which doesn't hold back from exploring the behind the scenes weirdness that gave us "Oh hi, Mark."
While seeing Franco nude was certainly a bizarre experience for Brie, it was par for the course when it came to working with him. Brie told People that Franco often stayed in character after the cameras stopped rolling.
“It actually made a lot of sense for him to be directing in character,” she told People. “The whole movie is so meta in a lot ways and so it just sort of felt right to look at James and have him essentially be Tommy directing us in this ode to Tommy Wiseau.”
When it comes to Brie's biggest regret about The Disaster Artist, though, it's not wishing she hadn't seen Franco nude. As she told IMDb, it's actually that she didn't get to play a character from The Room. Instead, Brie plays Greg's girlfriend Amber in the movie.
"There's nothing more you would love than just being able to do bad acting," Franco joked in the same interview. When Brie wondered if that was a compliment, Franco corrected himself, "I mean there's nothing better than a great actress doing bad acting."
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Maybe this means Brie and her brother-in-law will be in another film together. Hopefully, one where Franco keeps all his clothes on.