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 claims to have amassed a fortune through entrepreneurship and real estate development in Los Angeles and San Francisco, a story Sestero finds impossible to believe. Although many of the people involved with the project feared the film was part of a money laundering scheme for organized crime, Sestero also finds this explanation unlikely. Wiseau spent the entire 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.