Tommy Wiseau

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Tommy Wiseau (2010)

Tommy Wiseau [ ˈtɔmi wɪˈzoʊ ] is a United States -based director , screenwriter , producer, and actor . He became known through the film The Room (2003), which is described by many critics as one of the worst films of all time and has thus achieved cult film status. He also directed the documentary Homeless in America (2004) and the sitcom The Neighbors (2015).

Private life

Wiseau, whose real name is Thomas Pierre Wiseau , reveals little about his own youth. In various interviews, however, he revealed that he was “originally from Europe”, that he lived in France “a long time ago” and that he grew up in New Orleans . He also stated that he had “a whole family” in Chalmette . Statements about his own age allow conclusions to be drawn about 1968 or 1969 as possible years of birth.

Greg Sestero , one of the leading actors in Wiseau's film The Room , writes in his book The Disaster Artist (2013), however, that Wiseau was born in an Eastern Bloc state in the 1950s, according to his immigration papers . Wiseau's former companion Rick Harper becomes clearer and claims in the documentary Room Full of Spoons (2016) to have found his true identity after years of research. According to this, Wiseau was born in 1955 in Poznan, Poland, as Tomasz Wieczorkiewicz . This is also supported by the fact that, according to Sestero, Wiseau's first stop in the west was Berlin , only 270 km away from Poznan . His linguistic mannerisms , the first names of the relatives he has publicly mentioned so far, and his Roman Catholic upbringing also imply that he could come from Poland. Another possible maiden name is Tomasz Piotr Wieczór .

According to Sestero, Wiseau finally moved to Strasbourg in France as a young adult , where he took the name Pierre and worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Wiseau also told him that he was illegally arrested in a drug raid. This experience led him to move to the United States to live in Chalmette with his aunt Kathleen and uncle Stanley. After another move to San Francisco , he sold bird toys to tourists on the street, thanks to which he came to the nickname Birdman , whereupon he officially changed his name to Thomas Pierre Wiseau . He took the French word for bird oiseau and replaced the O with the W of his actual birth name. Wiseau is also said to have worked in San Francisco as an assistant in a restaurant, as an employee in a hospital and as the managing director of a company called Street Fashions USA , which sold damaged jeans at reduced prices. One day he is said to have bought and rented large retail space on San Francisco Bay , which made him amassed a large fortune. However, Sestero mentions in his book that he has a hard time believing Wiseau's stories about his path to fame.

Sestero goes on to say that one day as an adult, Wiseau was involved in a car accident that resulted in an almost fatal outcome for him after another driver ran over a red light and rammed Wiseau's vehicle. Wiseau was then taken to a hospital and had to spend several weeks there. Sestero suggests that this incident may have sparked an inner change in Wiseau that prompted him to pursue his dreams of becoming an actor and director. Wiseau's cinematic role models include James Dean , Marlon Brando , Tennessee Williams , Orson Welles , Elizabeth Taylor and Alfred Hitchcock .

Career

Movie

Wiseau's most famous work is the film The Room , which was released in 2003. The budget for the film was $ 6 million, with no clear answer to the question of where the money came from. It is based on a 540-page novel that Wiseau wrote himself but never published. The film was quickly gripped by critics, but ultimately became a cult film with late-night cinemas around the world. The Love-is-Blind tour took place from 2010 to 2011 , during which the film was shown in a large number of different countries. At events of this kind, Wiseau himself can often be found, who interacts with the fans and often addresses the audience before the performance begins.

In 2004 Wiseau produced the short documentary Homeless in America , in which he also served as director, screenwriter and actor. In 2010, Wiseau starred in a short film called The House That Drips Blood on Alex , a horror film parody written and produced by the sketch comedy group Studio8 .

Wiseau named the films The Guns of Navarone and Citizen Kane , and in particular the actors James Dean and Marlon Brando as his influences. According to Sestero, Wiseau's obsession with James Dean was expressed, among other things, in the fact that various lines of dialogue from The Room are based on dialogues from ... because they don't know what they are doing .

In the 2017 film adaptation of Sestero's book The Disaster Artist of the same name , James Franco , who played James Dean in 2001 and won a Golden Globe Award for it , took on the role of Wiseau and also directed it. Wiseau was pleased with this selection, as well as with the decision to select Dave Franco as actor for the role of Greg Sestero .

In a March 2015 ask me anything thread on reddit , Wiseau mentioned that he was working on a new project called The Foreclosure .

watch TV

In 2009, Wiseau made a guest appearance on an episode of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! , in which he directed a segment called Pigman . The following year, Wiseau starred in an episode of Marc Wooton's television series La La Land .

Wiseau's new series The Neighbors has been broadcast on Hulu since March 2015 . As with The Room , he works as a producer, director, screenwriter and actor. The AV Club website tested the series and gave it the worst rating , criticizing in particular the low production costs and poor acting performance, while lacking the inadvertent entertainment value of The Room .

Internet

In 2011 Wiseau appeared on YouTube in a series of videos called Tommy Explains It All . Over nine episodes, Wiseau shared his views on a variety of topics, from Citizen Kane to acting and the art of kissing. Wiseau was also seen on Machinima.com's Tommy Wi show , where he played and commented on various video games and talked to a supposed alien.

Filmography (selection)

  • 2003: The Room (also director, producer and screenwriter)
  • 2004: Homeless in America (documentary, also director, producer, and screenwriter)
  • 2009: Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (TV series, an episode)
  • 2010: The House That Drips Blood on Alex (short film)
  • 2011: Bump (short film)
  • 2011: Tommy Explains It All (web series)
  • 2011: The Tommy Wi-Show (web series)
  • 2014–2016: The Neighbors (web series, also director, producer and screenwriter)
  • 2015: Shut Up and Talk (web series, episode, voice)
  • 2015: Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance
  • 2017: Best F (r) iends
  • 2017: The Disaster Artist
  • 2018: Best F (r) iends: Volume 2

Awards and nominations

year plant Award category Won
2004 Homeless in America New York International Independent Film and Video Festival Best Society Documentary (LA Festival) Yes
2004 The room New York International Independent Film and Video Festival Audience award Yes
2010 He himself Harvard's Ivory Tower (Harvard Undergraduate Television) Filmmaker of the year Yes

Web links

Commons : Tommy Wiseau  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to self-used pronunciation.
  2. ↑ Clark Collis: 'The Room': Worst movie ever? Don't tell that to its suddenly in-demand star. . popwatch.ew.com. December 30, 2008. Retrieved November 23, 2009.
  3. ↑ The StarPhoenix article: " Shlocking encounter: Notoriously bad cult film spawns curious collective contempt ( Memento from March 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive )."
  4. ↑ The Portland Mercury article: " Tommy Wiseau: The Complete Interview (s) "
  5. ^ Clark Collis: The Crazy Cult of 'The Room' . EW.com. December 12, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
  6. ^ Franco Brings Tommy Wiseau to Kimmel , YouTube November 30, 2017
  7. ↑ Seattle Post-Intelligencer article: “ Is 'The Room' the worst movie of all time? "
  8. ↑ Interview: Tommy Wiseau . Terminallaughter.wordpress.com. Archived from the original on April 22, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 18, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / terminallaughter.ca
  9. ↑ Maddux, Rachael: Trapped in The Room with Tommy Wiseau . CL Atlanta. May 8, 2012. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  10. ↑ Capone's wacky Windy City weekend with Wiseau, creator of THE ROOM !!! . Ain't It Cool News. April 12, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
  11. ↑ Interview with Tommy Wiseau, actor / writer / director / producer of The Room | Cinetology . Blogs.crikey.com.au. February 16, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  12. ^ Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, p. 258
  13. ^ Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, p. 129
  14. ↑ Irresistible Mystery Of Tommy Wiseau  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , The Huffington Post, January 29, 2016@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.huffingtonpost.com  
  15. ↑ Who is the mystery man behind The Room, the Citizen Kane of bad movies? , The Verge, October 1, 2013
  16. ^ The Room director Tommy Wiseau's nationality supposedly uncovered by Redditor , Death and Taxes, January 20, 2014
  17. ^ Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, pp. 192-194, 200-203
  18. ^ Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, pp. 200-203, 207-208
  19. ↑ a b Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, pp. 244–245
  20. ^ Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, pp. 246-250
  21. ^ Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, p. 246
  22. ^ Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, p. 59
  23. ^ Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, p. 179
  24. ↑ a b Josh Rubenoff: Interview of Tommy Wiseau . jrubenoff.com. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
  25. ↑ Will Sloan: The Varsity Interview: Tommy Wiseau . In: The Varsity . April 27, 2011. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  26. ↑ a b Peter Knegt: Tommy Wiseau Goes Legit . IndieWire. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
  27. ↑ Entertainment Weekly " The Crazy Cult That is the Room "
  28. ^ The Room Official Movie Site . Retrieved March 12, 2011.
  29. ↑ SD Comic-Con 2010: Teaser Trailer: Tommy Wiseau's The House that Dripped Blood on Alex. In: Dreadcentral.com. July 14, 2010, accessed September 15, 2010 .
  30. ↑ Get Ready For The Comic-Con Premiere Of Tommy Wiseau In The House That Drips Blood On Alex | The Atom Blog. (No longer available online.) In: Atom.com. June 23, 2010, formerly in the original ; Retrieved September 15, 2010 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.atom.com
  31. ↑ The AV Club article: " Interview: Tommy Wiseau "
  32. ^ Sestero & Bissel: The Disaster Artist. 2013, pp. 126, 129-130
  33. ^ Clark Collis: Dave Franco to star in James Franco's movie about 'The Room' . Entertainment Weekly . January 18, 2015.
  34. ↑ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2zdzik/tommy_wiseau_creator_of_the_room_and_the_new_tv/cpi0lf8
  35. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392881/
  36. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527574/
  37. ^ Watch The Neighbors (2015) .
  38. ↑ Tommy Wiseau's Neighbors immediately overstay their welcome
  39. ↑ Episode 2: How Do You Know When You're In Love . "TommyExplainsItAll". June 1, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
  40. ^ The Tommy Wi-Show Ep. 1: Mortal Kombat (Machinima) . "Machinima.com". September 24, 2011. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  41. ^ The Tommy Wi-Show is a video game show with Tommy Wiseau . "Joystiq". September 14, 2011. Archived from the original on October 27, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 25, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.joystiq.com
  42. ^ The Tommy Wi-Show Ep. 5: Driver: San Francisco (Machinima) . Machinima.com. September 24, 2011. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Wiseau, Tommy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wiseau, Thomas P.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Director, screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century