You've heard ofThe Room, directed by Tommy Wiseau, right? So you know that he conceived, scripted, directed, produced AND starred in it, which was entirely self-funded (the figure that gets tossed around is upwards of six million). We wanted to get in touch with him about the sketch he recently filmed forThe Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, but he was as vague and evasive about that as he is about his past (it's been speculated that "Wiseau" isn't his birth name but rather the one he chose himself because he thought it was French for "bird"). So our conversation quickly shifted back toThe Room. The film itself is old news, but after several years of monthly screenings in L.A it's built up a sizable nerdbase of dedicated obsessives that includes college favorites like Paul Rudd and David Cross. At the screenings, fans yell, throw spoons, jog, and toss footballs around while actors onscreen inexplicably walk in and out of rooms to greet each other and name their best friends. Originally sold as a drama with the passion of Tennessee Williams, it was later rebranded as a black comedy.Vice: The Room is an independent film that you self financed. If someone is skeptical of seeing it for the first time because independent movies are boring and low budget, what would you say to try to encourage them to give it a chance?Tommy Wiseau: You know what, I would say The Room was made for people. It is a unique experience that you won't forget. Everybody should see it, that's basically what I would say. You may like it, you may not like it. It's up to you! I'm just saying: you can interact with it and you can yell if you want! And you can play football! If you want to play football, be my guest!So you have people playing football while watching the movie?Oh yeah, sometimes they do, sometimes they jogging. I don't know if you're familiar about the screenings in Los Angeles? We have people seeing the movie 15 to 20 times. The Room was made based on and for American people. I never think that people from other countries would like it, because we have a lot of American elements.American elements like what?Like football, you know, and other stuff.Ok. Well, you've mentioned that if you could re-shoot The Room, you wouldn't change anything except that you would get more famous actors.Yeah, I said that. But people misquote me. A lot of people think that The Room is just accidents. It's not accidents. I agree that certain elements may be because of environment, but accidents? It's too fetch, you know what I'm saying?Not really, but it sounds great. So let's say you had an unlimited budget, which Hollywood actors would you recast in the films?Well why not, if there are famous actors, you know, I don't mind. Sure.No but specifically, are there any famous actors you might cast? Who would make a good Mark for example, or Lisa?Let's put it this way without dropping the names: I know a lot of very famous actors, because I talk to them, I go to parties, etcetera. And let me tell you that some of these actors, they cannot give me what I wanted for The Room. Emotion is very important to me. I don't like to work with actors who are monotone. I don't know if you know this word "monotone"?Yes.That's a good word. Now keep in mind, with our casting - you've probably heard about it, we had dozens, actually not dozens, hundreds, even I would saying THOUSANDS. Some of these actors could not deliver what I wanted to accomplish. Acting is not people saying "You can memorize the lines and just say it" - it's a much more complex process.It requires a lot of emotional depth.Exactly! The emotions for me is extremely important because I am an emotional actor, as far as I'm concerned, and I like the emotion. And it doesn't matter what emotion you do as far as I'm concerned. Emotion is related to human behavior.Yes. Yes it is. So what is your favorite emotion to act?Oh, I like drama. At the same time, you see, emotion is also reaction. To me definition of emotion is much more deeper. You can feel electricity, you know? Between the actor, audience, or the screen. And for me, if I see this electricity through emotion of the actors, I don't care what kind of monologue they do. It could be one word, one sentence. I am on the same page with Tennessee Williams because we both work with emotion.Just to clarify, when you say an "electricity" between the actors, is that like a literal electricity, or is it more of a metaphor?It's a metaphor, but you can feel it. We in acting call it "The Zone".Has The Room always been marketed as a black comedy or is that something that started to happen after you started showing it in theaters?We use the words "black comedy" based on the reaction of the people but at the same time, comedy always was in The Room. So basically we used the terms "drama comedy" and later on we were using "black comedy" because black comedy is, as you know, not melodrama! And people get confused with that! Because a lot of people think that black comedy is just comedy done intentionally but its linked to melodrama but it's NOT melodrama! That's the point! But you see how people get confused.EVAN MILLAR
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