Tommy Wiseau, creator and star of The Room, took to Reddit today for an AMA and boy, was it great.
Wiseau has been something of a cult figure ever since his epic and perplexing 2003 film, The Room. Recently, Wiseau's comedic series The Neighbors was released on Hulu. The Neighbors is, you guessed it, about a group of people who live in the same building, and the AV Club called it terrible.
Today's AMA was clearly meant to promote the show, with Wiseau dictating evasive answers to whomever was typing on his behalf, then following several of those answers with a call to watch the show. However, we did learn some interesting things about the mysterious filmmaker and what he's up to next.
- Wiseau was asked if there will ever be a prequel or sequel to The Room: "Yes. We are doing sequel. And also 3-D, eventually." Can you imagine those football tossing scenes at the IMAX?
- The dog that Wiseau says hello to was the shop owner's actual pet: "And by the way, that was a real dog, from the owner of the flower shop! And I want to clarify this, the dog made $100. The dog was under contract." He also said that the reason he carries the roses upside-down in that scene is because "that's a typical situation."
- One of Wiseau's upcoming films will be The Vampire from Alcatraz: King of Vampires. He summed up the plot: "The king of the vampires will control entire woooorld, and he is good vampire, he helps like Superman. People. Is opposite with the myth about vampires." Other upcoming projecting include more of The Neighbors and a film called The Foreclosure.
- He also noted he believes in vampires, but only "to a certain degree."
- The Room is based an unpublished 800-page novel Wiseau wrote.
- Clint Eastwood is a personal hero of Wiseau's, and he thinks Eastwood would probably make a good neighbor.
- Tommy loves wearing multiple belts and encourages men to wear two—or three!
- When asked why he reused shots from Lisa and Johnny's many sex scenes, he denied: "We have variation [in the four scenes]. It's not the same shot, at all."
- Wiseau was asked if any characters in The Room are based on real people: "Many Dennys, many Johnnys, many Marks, because everything is coming from life, real life. The Room is a red flag for society, for people to do better, to be better to each other basically. I've been doing this for 12 years, saying that."
- Wiseau on whether or not he is an alien: "No, I'm American."
- Wiseau explains why The Room is called The Room: "Oh, that's because it's a special place. It's a place where thing happen. It could be a basement, it could be a forest. It could be anyplace. We all have it. It could be your apartment. It could be your car. You don't get a ticket, you just do whatever you want."
- If Tommy Wiseau were an animal, he would be a tiger because sometimes, he is "very vicious" too.
- Tommy was also asked what kind of dinosaur he'd like to be: "Move on, next question."
- He can do 100 push-ups. "At least."
- Tommy Wiseau makes his own brand of underwear that comes with a special pocket that fits your wallet. Or: "$20, a key, tools, whatever you want."
- A personal favorite moment in the AMA was when Redditor SurfingElectrode asked him why The Neighbors was such a bad show.
- Wiseau's response: "Okay, first of all…you have douchebag. You are douchebag, number one. Number two, it's a great success and if you don't like to enjoy yourself, then why do you talk about The Neighbors? You don't know what you talk about first of all. Think positive. But I still love you, you're a person. I encourage you to go to school, learn about American culture, maybe you can change your mind."
Bravo, Tommy. You do you.
