Tommy Wiseau: Conversing With the Bizarre, Mysterious and Extraordinary Neighbor From The Room
Weird opportunities fall your way when you work anywhere close to the entertainment industry, as I sometimes pretend I do by writing about it. Still, you never quite expect to out of the blue, get an offer to speak with someone you’ve genuinely mythologized, but I had that opportunity on June 24th when I received a phone call from Tommy Wiseau. Wiseau wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the 2003 film The Room, the making of which is being documented in James Franco’s upcoming The Masterpiece. Wiseau also created, writes, and stars in the Hulu TV series The Neighbors, which recently announced its second season, and he has several other projects in the works, including a film about the housing crisis and at least one other film with Franco, which is apparently a bit of a secret. I spoke with him about his unique take on comedy and filmmaking, his growing presence in the entertainment industry, and what fans can look forward to in the near future.
Wiseau is a mysterious and unique person, and many interviews with him attempt to make sense of his films or figure him out, so to speak. As a fan of his earnest attempts at art, I know the real joy of Wiseau is simply letting him talk and give his bizarre and extraordinary answers to the most inoffensive and ordinary questions. For some reason I was worried I might upset him, and although we did hit on two subjects he wasn’t too happy to talk about, we quickly moved past it, and I left the conversation feeling that Wiseau was one of the most sincere and enthusiastic people I’ve ever spoken with. Your take on his work may vary from unabashed appreciation to thinking he’s the worst director of all time, but there’s no denying Tommy loves talking to his fans and loves talking about the art he believes he’s made.
To admit one of my faults as an interviewer, I strayed away from follow-up questions, because he usually just repeated himself the times I tried asking them. Perhaps I should’ve probed the bizarre and semi-racist statement he made when asked about TV as an experimental medium, but I fully believe it was just his unique brand of narcissism saying something odd. So, with that in mind, I’ll just let Tommy speak for himself.
What is your relationship with RiffTrax (who helped set up this interview)?
Well, we’ve been working on the past. They actually did a screening of The Room and an interaction last year; they’ve done it a few times. I may not agree 100% with the activity, but I think it’s something different, entertainment. So, I approved the license and I think they are very nice people, let’s put it this way.
What is your relationship with Greg Sestero like these days? I know you weren’t entirely happy with the book.
Not happy? I don’t know “not happy.” But I approve only 40%. We’re still working, I mean, not working, but we’re still talking. We may even work together, you know, we’re still talking. He’s nice guy, but I’m not here to talk about Greg, so move on. Next question.
Sorry. Well, I’d like to ask about one other person before we move on to discussing your own work. How do you feel about James Franco and his upcoming film about you?
Lucas, you can ask whatever you want, haha. About James Franco, we’ll see. They’ll release probably this year or beginning of next year. I’m part of it; they gave me a little part. You know, a cameo. So, I’ll be there. The production I think is pretty well done, but I don’t know, you know. We’ll see what happens. It’s hard to say. I’m not here to criticize anyone. I think James Franco is a pretty good guy and he knows what he’s doing. He’s a great actor, as you probably know.
What’s the status with The Neighbors now? I know Season 2 is on the way, is it coming back to Hulu, and what can fans look forward to?
Yeah, we been working on it, and I’m working also on The Foreclosure, that’s what I want to release as a movie this year. The Neighbors will probably be, as well, this year, too. Work-in-progress.
Do you know anything about distribution?
Yeah, we may be on Hulu, but I’m not sure yet. We’ll see what happens.
I recent watched The Neighbors and enjoyed it, and wanted to ask…
Which version did you watch, if I may ask?
The six episodes on Hulu.
Yeah, well, we have DVD that I’d like to tell your audience is at least 30% better. We used animation. What they have on Hulu isn’t the same as what’s on the DVD. There’s other stuff that’s different. You can actually see The Best of The Neighbors because I travel. I travel once a month, we have a special tour this year, 2016, and the next tour will be in Philadelphia. That will be next month [July] 29 or 23rd, I believe.
Some of the acting in The Neighbors made it almost feel like improv, or at least like it wasn’t very tightly scripted. How close to your original scripts was the final product?
It’s all my script, you know. That’s the story. Story ended, haha.
I understand you wrote everything, but did you for example give the actors a little leeway?
Well, again, it’s just when you start with…With The Room, people ask me, script did not exist? But, the script actually exist, so let me tell you. In Hollywood, any production you have to have certain format. If you have a format, you may have a little improv, it’s up to the director and how the director directs. For everyone, whoever’s talking to you, you have to be organized, you know? I want to stress that.
One of the prevailing themes in both The Room and The Neighbors is drug use, particularly by bad or villainous characters. How do you feel about drugs in today’s society, especially now that marijuana is being decriminalized around the country?
Well, you know what? It’s a free country. I think, I personally think, I don’t use any drugs, but the fact is people should be free, you know? And we have, especially in America, we have a lot, you know, in the past 20 years, good and bad at the same time, let’s put it this way. And I think that with a new generation of people who, they use drugs different, I think the views of way back, I would say 100 years ago, is that we have a free country. And I think revolution and stuff leads to Communism, etc., and I don’t think that, way before that, people realize there’s something better than that and they wanna be free, you know? You should do whatever you want as long as you hug each other.
You know, from The Room, there’s a line that if you love each other, the world would be a better place to live. Haha, right? It’s pursuit of happiness, you know, and happiness comes with expression, and freedom, and you as an individual deciding what you want to do in your life. Not the government, no me, not you; you as an individual. You have the choices. America has always been that way, you know? I think that some people contend our choices, and I don’t think that’s right.
When I created The Room, as you probably know, people don’t give me enough credit, still today. People think, oh, everything happened by accident, hahaha. Camera run by itself, I didn’t do anything, script didn’t exist, etc. etc. I’m writing a book about it, so we’ll see what happens, haha.
I was going to ask you later, have you considered writing a book to tell the true story, so to speak?
I am considering it. Absolutely. Because you see a lot of people are online assuming something. I’m American and very proud of it, you know. That’s a fact. And some people are assuming some stuff…and also, I noticed in the past 5 years, especially now, there’s a lot of energy from a lot of different groups of people who relate to the success of The Room. Even The Neighbors, I think was pretty successful, it’s just hopefully one day TV people come to me or I come to them or vice versa and [someone says], hey, let’s work together, you know.
That’s why I emphasize to you, Lucas, that The Neighbors on DVD is much better, because we actually used animation to transition from scene to scene. Sometimes I screen The Neighbors for online special events, and people actually enjoy it. We improve. Everything you can improve, I always say, you know. I don’t care who you are, you can always improve your performance, or outset of your life, haha.
Do you use The Neighbors and the TV format as a form of experimentation medium, to try new things and spread new ideas?
Absolutely. That’s the idea behind it. That’s why I mention the animation, because we improved The Neighbors I would say 34%. When you see Season 2, I think should at least be improved 30-40%, as well. People will be very surprised what the pace of the neighbors are, and I think people enjoy it. We got really great response from the public over the screens. For example, New York, we had 12 screens sold out, but of course the mainstream media can’t say that. They prefer to talk about Africa and black people than talk about The Room or The Neighbors. They talk about things that it doesn’t connect to American culture, which is sad sometimes. When you read a newspaper and they talk about this and that, but they can’t even mention my project, or whatever.
There’s lots of singing and what I imagine are original songs on The Neighbors. The Room also had an original soundtrack. How does music influence your creative process?
I think this is one of the things we did in The Neighbors, because the music is very important. We think it’s something that people really enjoyed, and they didn’t expect that. Because the music and the singing for example in a sitcom is not as much welcome because of a lot of technical issues, as well as it’s hard to create something, you know what I’m saying? You will actually have much more singing in the episodes of Season 2, because I want to present…we’ll see what the reaction will be, you know? But you are absolutely correct that the music and soundtrack are extremely important to any project that relates to entertainment. Even politicians right now are using music, as you probably know about. It affects people directly, indirectly, positive and negative, you know? It goes both ways.
I’ve heard Tennessee Williams and James Dean were the main influences for The Room. Is that fair to say?
Well, I mean…I’ve always said and I always will say that to influence me is very hard. I have my own vision. An actor or producer or director without vision isn’t an actor or director. That’s my view. Now, if influence is based on liking someone or something, they didn’t really influence you, but maybe they affect your decision-making. So yes, I admire James Dean, I admire also Orson Welles, Brando, and others who did a very great job as an actor and a producer in their projects. Because it’s very complex. Entertainment is very complex. For example, I had a conversation with a producer in Hollywood who said, ‘Oh yeah, put an iPhone in and do this’, and I said ‘Wait a minute.’ If it was that simple, everybody would be doing it, right? It’s not that simple. The techniques of making movies or sitcoms hasn’t changed since the beginning of entertainment, technology changed. So, we use a slightly different approach, but you still have to think about the fact you need a vision. That’s why I disagree with certain people in Hollywood and entertainment. It’s not just me, but others, who want to be a part of it and who have a vision, but they don’t have a platform because of politics, etc, etc. To be positive, I would say if you have a vision, original material, you may succeed. I say you may, that doesn’t mean you will, but maybe you will if you have an optimistic approach to your creative process.
In that same vein of perhaps indirect inspiration, what sitcoms did you watch before creating The Neighbors?
I like old sitcoms. When I was studying, for example, when I took some classes we studied different characters and different people, for example I Love Lucy. You know, black and white, it’s a very good sitcom to study, it’s technique and it’s approach to entertainment. Lucille Ball had the same situation like Tommy Wiseau, right? Actors, producers, sometimes we struggle until somebody says ‘Hey, let’s do something good.’ But in today’s entertainment you have much more competition than a long time ago because of technology, but I always say that original material survives. That’s my point, haha.
What can you tell us about your upcoming projects. You mentioned The Foreclosure, a law film, what’s the story with that?
Yeah, we wanna do Foreclosure first, and we may work with James Franco on another project. But Foreclosure will be first. I have the script almost ready, and we’ll see what happens. If you’re asking what the deal with it is like you’d like a summary, I’ll give you a little taste of it. It’s dealing with the crisis, you know, closing homes 20 years ago. You probably heard about it, everybody heard about it, and it still exists today. Consumers misleading banks, banks misleading consumers, vice versa. So, I want to present it in a way that it’s the fault of the bank, cause even today, just recently, I saw some of the procedures that they have in the city where they give you these tiny little instructions that you can hardly even see it, you know? It was hard to read. And this is the thing, all sorts of establishments do intentionally and people do not read because first of all they may not have the time, or it’s just much more difficult to figure out what’s in it because you can read, but you don’t understand what it says, you know?
Could there be any connection between this film and The Room, with the fact Johnny was a banker?
No. We’re actually trying to reach out. It’s nothing to do with The Room.
I read you’re working on a film titled The Car after that, is that correct?
Uh…no. The Foreclosure is the priority right now, then I’m working on a vampire movie. The other title I’m working on I cannot tell you about it.
What about the vampire film, is that what you can’t talk about?
The vampire movie, the script is down. We’re working on it.
You’ve also been starring in films made by other directors and doing things where you have less control, for example starring in Samurai Cop 2. How did that compare to a project where you’re in control?
I love to work as an actor. I did several other things, I did animation, through third parties I worked on a couple episodes of TV shows. It’s a different project. I like people to give me orders sometimes, hahaha.
Through that film, you’ll also be in the upcoming making of documentary Enter the Samurai. Would you ever consider a making of documentary for one of your films?
I don’t know yet. It all depends. Working with other people, I always enjoy it. It’s always a different experience when you have a page of script and you read it, you memorize it, you try to do your best.
This interview is for The Interrobang, which is a comedy web site, so I wanted to tell you I think you could have a pretty successful stand-up act, or one man show, too. Have you ever thought about that?
If someone invites me, yeah, sure. We’ll see what happens. What kind of show are you talking about?
You know, just you, a microphone, and an audience, telling your story, giving your thoughts.
It’s just the set up. It’s complicated. There’s the TV format, the bar format, or you have just the live action format. It all depends who organizes it and what the environment is. But, why not, sure, absolutely. If somebody called me up tomorrow and said ‘Hey, let’s try it, let’s see what happens’, why not, you know? I like to talk to people. I’m not sure what I say, hahahaha. Sometimes they hate me, who knows, haha.
I think anybody who went out to see you would be a fan at this point.
Haha, yeah, thanks. Yeah, definitely, though. I used to want to have a show, like a TV show, a talk show. People just didn’t pitch in. But yes, this is a thing that I have interest on it, absolutely.
Is there anything else you’d like to say or plug for our readers?
We have regular screenings of The Room. It’s the 13th anniversary of The Room. I’m very proud of it, as you can probably notice from my voice. And any person can go to theroommovie.com and see all the stuff, as well as tommywiseau.com. Tommy Wiseau actually was just trademarked, speaking about news. We got the trademark from DC. I design clothes, as you probably know.
Oh yeah, they’re all over The Neighbors.
Haha, yeah. So, if you wear TW underwear, you’ll improve 40% of your performance. How about that? I like to do something different.
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