Another layer to the meta-ness is that the film, about a brotherhood of sorts, features the Franco siblings as co-stars for the first time. Dave had been resisting a collaboration for years. So it seems somewhat poetic that, when the brothers finally teamed up, the partnership yielded the best reviews either brother has ever received.

“From the beginning of my career, I made a conscious decision to separate myself from him work-wise because I didn’t want to be referred to as James Franco’s little brother for the rest of my life,” explains Dave, who is seven years younger than James. (They are also separated by another brother, Tom who has a secret cameo in The Disaster Artist). Though James approached Dave over the years offering him parts, Dave consistently turned down the roles, mostly over text message. With The Disaster Artist, though, Dave says, “it was the right time, the right project, and the right character. We both really relate to these guys, as weird as they may seem. They kind of represent all actors coming to L.A.”

Like Greg, Dave says that he spent his first few years as an actor in Hollywood under the impression that each project he booked would be a success.

“I’ve been on sets where we thought everything was going smoothly to the point where people were talking about awards for the movie,” Dave explains. “I bought into the hype and then the movie came out and not only was it not good, it was a full-on piece of shit.”

As Dave adjusted to the regular heartbreaks of the industry, his naïveté wore off.

“As an actor, I read probably 100 scripts a year, and there’s maybe two or three that I really responded to, and I wanted to fight for, but every other actor in town was also responding to those two or three scripts,” says Dave. One of those roles was the part in Little Miss Sunshine that ultimately went to Paul Dano—as it rightfully should have, adds Dave, who says that Dano was “way better than I would have ever been.”