The gifted actress is the female lead twice over in James Francos The Disaster Artist.
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Ari Graynor:I mean Id heard aboutThe Roomfor years.
Just sort of in passing.
People that I had worked with sort of talking about.
So I heard about it, but Id never seen it.
Maybe I had seen a couple bits online.
But it wasnt until James reached out to me aboutThe Disaster Artistand said, Do you knowThe Room?
And I knew that people loved it.
I always had had a kind of curiosity about it.
And wanted to be a part immediately.
Is the real Juliette around and did you track her down?
Yeah, I spoke with her a little bit before we started shooting.
She is the kindest, sweetest, really lovely, wonderful person.
She now I think is living in Texas.
She sells paintings of spoons or something, and will sometimes go to the screenings.
So I think shes supportive of what its all become but has moved past it herself.
Did you ever have that moment early in your career where you wonder, Should I keep doing this?
Should I go home?
Should I give it up?
Does everyone have that kind of moment where you wonder if its going to work out?
Well I think to an extent you wonder that all the time.
Maybe not everyone gets their dreams.
Maybe this is far as I could take it and thats that and maybe Ill never work again.
Theres some thrill in the unknown and the terror.
Even the worst things.
Everyone is approaching it with a hope that it could be great.
And I think we fall in to that every time you go to work.
You want to believe its going to be something good and something you could be proud of.
A lot of times things do not turn out the way you think theyre going to turn out.
Did you ever have a guilty pleasure bad movie that you like to watch?
Well I just see them as good movies.
I dont know if theyre bad movies, but they were good to me at the time.
But I was thinking aboutShes Out of Control, with Tony Danza, do you remember that movie?
I loved that one, and looking back on it now it feels like not a great movie.
I also love this movie,Hello Again, with Shelley Long.
She chokes on a chicken bone and then comes back to life.
Her sister Zelda does a spell and she comes back.
I loved that movie.
But they were not potentially as bad asThe Room.
Do you remember the first time James came on set as Tommy?
Did he stay in character when he wasnt directing?
I think basically the entire time that I worked onThe Disaster Artist, I only saw him as Tommy.
We really just dove right in on that first day.
And Id just stop for a second and say, Is that James or is it Tommy?
And then youd just see him crack a James smile and say, No, its James.
How rewarding was that first season ofIm Dying Up Herefor you?
That was a real dream come true.
I had been wanting and aching to do different kind of work for a long time.
Something that felt more expressive and real.
Im just so happy that theyre giving us a second season, Im so excited to go back.
Any inkling of what theyre planning?
We start shooting in January.
Some people get success and money.
But the stuff that Ive heard is really exciting.
Why do you think we have this fascination with that era?
Its easy for me to look at it with a kind of nostalgia because I wasnt there.
So much was new, so much was changing post-Vietnam.
And everything was going on with music and culture.
There was a pulse there that felt vital, that anything was possible.
There was a lot of fight against things, people were really elbowing their way in the world.
And I think it was gritty, it was tough, but there was a freedom.
And I think were just living in a very different time now.
Everyone nowadays is watching each other and watching themselves.
There was a presence in that experience then that is different from right now, for better or worse.
Were also going to see you inThe Front Runnernext year.
Yes, I play Ann Devroy who at the time was the political editor of theWashington Postin 1987.
And after Woodward and Bernstein, journalists were also becoming stars in their own right.
And so it was this moment of a great change between journalism and politics.
Your life for the next little while will be all aboutIm Dying Up Here, right?
Yeah, thatll be the next five months, and then hopefully therell be another big gig after that.
The Disaster Artistis out now and continues to expand to more theaters around the country.
