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What Happens in The Room Stays in The Room
Interview with director Tommy Wiseau
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Brought to a midnight screening of The Room, prefaced with the warning that in cinematic circles the dramedy is considered to be “the Citizen Kane of bad movies,” a friend and veteran audience member insisted it had to be seen. The melodramatic indie flick, twelve years in the making, was written, directed, and produced by the determinedly dodgy, heavily accented Tommy Wiseau, who also stars in The Room as disturbingly doting fiancé Johnny, about to loose his love Lisa to his best friend, Mark. There are some subplots and support characters too, but neither sticks around long.
The Room’s 2003 Los Angeles premiere was broadly panned, with critics citing random decor, plot discrepancies, shoddy blue screen, stunted dialogue, underdeveloped characters, and faulty casting as pitfalls of the film. However, these shortcomings have only made The Room more popular with fans, including celebrities Paul Rudd and Kristen Bell; dedicated to interactive midnight screenings, where rowdy audience members, drunk on Scotchka—a mix of Scotch and vodka, Johnny’s preferred poison—dissect the delayed dialogue, fill the awkward silences, and throw plastic spoons in the air whenever one appears onscreen.
This is all fine with Wiseau, “I’m happy with my fans, and if some people don’t understand my creativity that is not my issue.” Wiseau insists, “All elements in The Room were used to provoke the audiences. I’m a very detail orientated person, and I decided what I’d like to see on the pictures, like for example plastic utensils, the football, what characters should wear, etc. The Room is my creation.” Wiseau clarifies that, “Nothing happened by accident…before any shooting I knew what I wanted to accomplish in reference to The Room. Anything I did was meticulously planned, and I spent many hours creating every detail in The Room.”
Despite it’s humble beginnings, Wiseau’s dark comedy has had the last laugh. In addition to more U.S. screenings, including one proposed at L.A.’s Staples Center, and international screenings in the UK, Australia, France and Germany, there’s talk about The Room being brought to Broadway, rewritten as a musical.
Wiseau dismisses his critics; “They don’t know what they are talking about. My suggestion is that maybe these negative individuals should see The Room at least ten times or more in a theater environment to discover the symbolisms within The Room. I created The Room for people to see, and I want the public to have a good time with it. You can laugh, you can cry, you can express yourself.”—especially on the big screen, with a ragtag audience of drunken jocks, film geeks, and awkward first dates throwing spoons, mocking the dialogue, and yelling at the screen.
The Room will play Jan 29, 12am at Village East Cinema. For more information, please visit http://www.villageeastcinema.com/ or http://www.theroommovie.com/.