To understand the cult classic The Room in all its wonderful, terrible glory, one must examine the crackpot who created it, director, writer, producer, and star, Tommy Wiseau.
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| This guy. |
Tommy's origins are a bit murky. Wiseau is famously tight-lipped about his past, so most of what is known about the man comes from his best friend and costar, Greg Sestero. (Who has, incidentally, written a book about him.) According to Sestero, Wiseau was born sometime in the 1950s, somewhere in the Eastern Bloc of communist Europe. Maybe Poland, but it's rather unclear. Wiseau later moved to France, then to Louisiana to live with his aunt and uncle. After his stay in Louisiana, he moved to San Francisco, California, which would become the setting of The Room. (Trust me, that was necessary. Tommy's accent sounds like Jean-Claude Van Damme with a stroke, doing a poor impersonation of Christopher Walken.)
Wiseau claims to be heavily influenced by James Dean and Marlon Brando. He also derives inspiration from Orson Welles, which is only appropriate for the man who has created what Entertainment Weekly has called the "the Citizen Kane of bad movies."
But enough of that. Let's take our stupid comments out of our pockets and talk about The Room!
