Tommy Wiseau

Thomas Pierre Wiseau is a European-American actor and filmmaker. He wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the 2003 film The Room, which has been described by many critics as one of the worst movies ever made and has gained cult film status. He also directed the 2004 documentary Homeless in America and created the 2015 sitcom The Neighbors.
Many details about Wiseau's personal life (including his age and background) remain unverified, and as such have been the subject of intense fan speculation and various conflicting reports. The 2013 non-fiction book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made by Greg Sestero, as well as its 2017 film adaptation, chronicle the making of The Room and Wiseau's life behind the scenes.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Wiseau is very secretive about his early life. In various interviews, he has claimed to have lived in France "a long time ago"; claimed he grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana; and described having "an entire family" in Chalmette, Louisiana. In interviews following the release of The Room in 2003, Wiseau gave an age which would indicate he was born in 1968 or 1969, but friend Greg Sestero claims in his 2013 memoir The Disaster Artist that his brother's girlfriend obtained copies of Wiseau's U.S. immigration papers and found that Wiseau was born "much earlier" than he claimed, in an Eastern Bloc country in the mid to late 1950s.
In his 2016 documentary, Room Full of Spoons, Rick Harper claims to have researched Wiseau's background and concluded that he is Polish and originally from the city of Poznań.[14] Wiseau confirmed publicly for the first time in November 2017 that he is originally from Europe: "Long story short, I grew up in Europe a long time ago, but I'm American and very proud of it." In a December 2017 interview with Howard Stern, he claimed to speak fluent French and said he is a Catholic.
In The Disaster Artist, Sestero asserts that Wiseau revealed to him—through "fantastical, sad, self-contradictory stories"—that as a young adult he moved to Strasbourg, where he adopted the name "Pierre" and worked as a restaurant dishwasher. According to Sestero, Wiseau described being wrongfully arrested following a drug raid at a hostel and being traumatised by his mistreatment by the French police, which led him to emigrate to the U.S. to purportedly live with an aunt and uncle in Chalmette.
===Life in America===
Sestero asserts that after Wiseau had lived in Louisiana for some amount of time, he subsequently moved to San Francisco, California, where he worked as a street vendor selling toys to tourists near Fisherman's Wharf. Wiseau supposedly gained the nickname "The Birdman" for his bird toys, which were only popular in Europe at the time; this led him to legally change his name when he became a U.S. citizen to Thomas Pierre Wiseau, taking the French word for "bird" (oiseau) and replacing the O with the W of his birth name.
Around this time, Wiseau also claims to have obtained a degree in psychology from Laney Community College in Oakland, asserting that he had graduated on the honor roll.
According to Sestero, Wiseau worked a variety of jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area, including restaurant busboy and hospital worker, and ran a business called Street Fashions USA that sold irregular blue jeans at discounted prices. He eventually purchased and rented out large retail spaces in and around San Francisco and Los Angeles, making him independently wealthy. In the same book, however, Sestero admits that the idea of Wiseau becoming wealthy so quickly via the jobs he claims to have had is so unlikely that he himself finds it impossible to believe. Sestero suggests on several occasions that many people involved with the creation of The Room believed the film to be part of some money-laundering scheme for organized crime, but Sestero himself considers this unlikely.
Wiseau claims to have been involved in a near-fatal car crash in California after another driver ran a red light and struck Wiseau's vehicle; as a result, Wiseau was hospitalized for several weeks. Sestero suggests that this incident was the turning point in Wiseau's life that led him to pursue his dreams of becoming an actor and director, ambitions that he had long neglected while pursuing financial security.
==Career==
===Film===
====Influences and early work====
Wiseau has stated that he has been influenced by the films The Guns of Navarone and Citizen Kane, and specifically the actors James Dean and Marlon Brando. According to Sestero, Wiseau's obsession with James Dean was so intense that he often visited a Los Angeles restaurant owned by a former acquaintance of Dean, and that several lines of dialogue in The Room (including the infamous cry "You are tearing me apart, Lisa!") were based on lines from Rebel Without a Cause. Wiseau also cites his cinematic influences as including Tennessee Williams, Orson Welles, Elizabeth Taylor, and Alfred Hitchcock.
Sestero notes that the actor had been "trying to bust in" to Hollywood since the late 1980s, and recounts being shown an undated VHS tape of Wiseau in Vincent Chase's acting class (with whom Wiseau had a contentious relationship). He was apparently enrolled in Chase's program around 1994. Wiseau also allegedly attended film classes at Los Angeles Community College.
During this time, Wiseau directed a student film, Robbery Doesn't Pay, shot with a super 8 camera in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. The film, which does not star Wiseau, has been described by Sestero as "just a dude walking around looking at cars to 'Blue Monday' by Orgy."
====The Room==== 
Wiseau's film The Room was released in 2003. Its budget was $6 million, the financing of which has remained a source of intrigue. The film was based on an unpublished 540-page novel written by Wiseau himself. The movie was immediately lambasted by critics, but ultimately became a "cult classic" with late-night showings at theaters around the world.
Audience members typically arrive wearing wigs resembling their favorite characters, interact with the dialogue on screen, and throw plastic cutlery and footballs around the theater in reference to on-screen events. This attention grew into what was dubbed The Room's 2010–2011 "Love is Blind" International Tour, with the movie being screened in the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Australia and India, among other locations. Wiseau appears at many of these events, posing for photographs with fans and often addressing the audience before screenings.
In the 2017 film adaptation of Greg Sestero's autobiography The Disaster Artist, James Franco portrays Wiseau, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Wiseau approved of the choice, as well as that of Dave Franco as Sestero. Tommy Wiseau makes a cameo appearance in a post-credits scene as Henry.
====Later film projects: 2004-2017====
In 2004, Wiseau produced and appeared in a short documentary, Homeless in America. In 2010 he starred in a 15-minute parody horror film entitled The House That Drips Blood on Alex.
In March 2015, Wiseau stated in a Reddit "ask me anything" thread that he had commenced work on a new project named The Foreclosure.
He was featured as the villain Linton Kitano in Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance, the sequel to the cult classic Samurai Cop. In October 2016, it was announced that Wiseau and Sestero would star in a movie called Best F(r)iends. The movie was written by Sestero and was shot in secret in Los Angeles.
===Television===
In 2008, Wiseau produced and appeared in the pilot episode of a television series called The Neighbors. A trailer for The Neighbors showed a series of clips set in an office. The show's website, accompanied by trailers and announcements at The Room showings in 2015, stated that the show is coming to various media distribution outlets in March 2015.
In 2009, Wiseau guest-starred in an episode of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! titled "Tommy", wherein Wiseau guest-directed a segment titled "Pigman". After Wiseau expressed a desire to work with the duo again, Tim and Eric announced in 2009 that they were developing two series for him.
In 2010, Wiseau appeared in Marc Wootton's 2010 comedy TV series La La Land. In a mockumentary format, Wootton's character, Gary Garner, accepted a role in Wiseau's present production at the time. Wiseau kicked Wootton off the set after Wootton jokingly alluded to using production funds to buy instant lotto tickets.
===Internet===
In 2011, Wiseau starred in a YouTube web series, Tommy Explains it All, in which he explained his views on various topics ranging from Citizen Kane to the art of kissing.
Wiseau starred in segments on Machinima.com called The Tommy Wi-Show. The segments show Wiseau playing various video games, such as Mortal Kombat and Driver: San Francisco, and offering commentary.
==Personal life==
Wiseau remains private about the details of his personal and family life. In 2017, he told Entertainment Weekly, "I think private life should be private life, the professional life should be the professional life, and that's where I stand, and I have right to do that." During a 2016 interview with James Franco, Wiseau referred to Greg Sestero as his "best friend".
==Filmography==
===Film===
Year	Title 	Roles 	Roles 	Roles 	Roles	Roles 	Notes
Year	Title 	Director	Producer	Writer	Actor	Actor 	Notes
2003	The Room 	 	 	 	 	Johnny 	
2010	The House That Drips Blood on Alex	 	 	 	 	Alex 	Short film
2011	
Bump 	 	 	 	 	Rick 	Short film
2015	Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance 	 	 	 	 	Linton Kitano 	
2016	Cold Moon 	 	 	 	 	Rodeo Official	Cameo
2017	The Disaster Artist 	 	 	 	 	Henry 	Uncredited cameo
2018	
Best F(r)iends 	 	 	 	 	Harvey Lewis 	
2018	Scary Love 	 	 	 	 	TBA 	Music Video
===Documentary===
Year	Title 	Roles 	Roles 	Roles 	Roles	Roles 	Notes
Year	Title 	Director	Producer	Writer	Actor	Actor 	Notes
2004	Homeless in America	 	 	 	 	Himself	Interviewer
2016	Enter the Samurai 	 	 	 	 	Himself	
===TV, web shows, and commercials===
Year 	Title 	Roles 	Roles 	Roles 	Roles	Roles 	Notes
Year 	Title 	Director	Producer	Writer	Actor	Actor 	Notes
2009 	Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! 	 	 	 	 	Himself / Pig Man 	Episode: "Tommy"
2010 	La La Land 	 	 	 	 	Himself 	Episode 1.6
2011–12 	The Tommy Wi-Show 	 	 	 	 	Himself 	
2011 	Tommy Explains it All 	 	 	 	 	Himself 	
2013 	Tommy Wiseau Wishes YOU a Happy Memorial Day	 	 	 	 	Himself 	Urban Outfitters commercial
2014–present	The Neighbors 	 	 	 	 	Charlie / Ricky Rick	
2018 	75th Golden Globe Awards 	 	 	 	 	Himself 	
2018 	Nerdist Presents 	 	 	 	 	Himself / Joker 	Videos: Tommy Wiseau’s The Dark Knight and Tommy Wiseau's Joker Audition Tape
==Awards and nominations==
Year	Work 	Award 	Category 	Result
2004	Homeless in America	New York International Independent Film and Video Festival 	Best Social Documentary (L.A. Festival) 	
2004	The Room 	New York International Independent Film and Video Festival 	Audience Award – Feature (Miami Festival)	
2010	Himself 	Harvard's Ivory Tower (Harvard Undergraduate Television) Filmmaker of the Year	Filmmaker of the Year 	
==Gallery==
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==Trivia ==
* Is independently wealthy and does not rely on filmmaking to live.
*Often drinks red bull while filming.
*While Wiseau said that he got the funding for The Room by importing and selling leather jackets from South Korea, some crew members of The Room said that the money came from an organized crime money-laundering scheme, though Wiseau said that is highly unlikely.
*Got his SAG (Screen Actors Guild) card by writing, producing, directing, and starring in a commercial for a company he owns. He became a naturalized United States citizen on May 28, 1985, in San Francisco, California.
*Supposedly gained the nickname "The Birdman" for his unique bird toys.
*Neil Breen, another independent filmmaker, is sometimes compared to Wiseau because the two are both known for low-budget films.
==External links==
Official website
TOMMY WISEAU on YouTube
Tommy Wiseau on IMDb
Category:1950s births
Category:Living people
Category:American male film actors
Category:American film directors
Category:American film producers
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:American male television actors
Category:American people of Polish descent
Category:People from Louisiana
Category:Polish expatriates in the United States
Category:Polish emigrants to the United States
Category:Polish male film actors
Category:Polish film directors
Category:Polish film producers
Category:Polish screenwriters
Category:Actors
Category:American actors
Category:Directors
Category:American directors
Category:American producers
Category:Producers
Category:American screenwriters
Category:Screenwriters
Category:1968 births
Category:European-American actors
Category:European-American male actors