Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room” is considered the worst film in history
In 2003, the film The Room was released, written, produced, directed and starred by the then-unknown Tommy Wiseauwhich would become after this project one of the most controversial figures in Hollywood history.
The film tells the story of Johnny and Linda, a seemingly ideal couple who are about to get married. Everything changes when Linda decides to be unfaithful to Johnny and his best friend, and things get complicated for everyone from now on. “The Room” was badly panned by critics and the few people who saw it in theaters The impact it had on popular culture was very different than other bad films. It is until today is considered the worst film in historyfull of plot holes, terrible editing and acting that, despite being a drama, elicits nothing but laughter.
What makes The Room so special? How was something? Tommy Wiseau I decided to create this work that still has so much to talk about 20 years later? Under what circumstances did the team have to work on the film and what is the legacy of this film?
To talk about how the idea for the film came about, it’s important to start with the brain behind it: Tommy Wiseau, a figure as controversial and mysterious as his work. To date, his age is unknown, but it is speculated that he must be around 50 years old; His origins are also a mystery, with some media speculating he is French, others Poles, and still others American, but nothing is settled. What is known, and only from the statements of his co-star in The Room, Greg Sesterois that he took film lessons Los Angeles Community College from the actor Vincent Chasewith whom Wiseau apparently had a very bad relationship.
For this class, Tommy created a short called Robbery Doesn’t Pay, which didn’t do much better than The Room and actually referenced the quirky way the self-proclaimed filmmaker viewed cinema.
Shortly thereafter, Wiseau wrote a novel of sorts that he was eager to adapt for an audiovisual medium. At first he tried the theater, but due to the low popularity of the genre and constant refusal to publish his novel, he finally chose the cinema.
Even independent and low-budget films require a decent sum, around a million dollars.. Tommy spent $6 million making this movieand to this day The origin of this household is a source of all possible theories. According to Sestero, Tommy had told him he’d made his fortune buying and selling commercial space in San Francisco and Los Angeles, which the “The Room” co-star didn’t particularly understand.
Tommy Wiseau directed, produced, wrote and starred in The Room on a budget of $6 million, the origin of which is still unknown
Another theory was that the film was just an excuse to launder money for a criminal organization, but that was as far-fetched as what came out of Wiseau’s mouth.
The mystery surrounding Tommy’s fortune was just the tip of the iceberg, and that means films that ended up being critically acclaimed, like Lost in Tokyo, The Blair Witch Project, and Mad Max, had an equal or even had a smaller budget? What was that? Did The Room cost (relatively) that much money? The secret lies in the disastrous filming.
The film’s shooting was just a disaster, thanks largely to the fact that Wiseau made endless decisions that not only gave everyone involved a headache, but one production costs increased significantly. These decisions include usage Green screen in scenes that could have been shot outdoors, firing the entire film crew and hiring a new one during filming, and constantly changing actors. In fact, Sestero joined the project as a production assistant, but the original actor was thrown out by Tommy on the first day of recording, to name just one of the cases in which the director, producer, protagonist and screenwriter abused his power.
Tommy Wiseau made disastrous decisions while filming, such as using green screens for shots that could have taken place outdoors
However, it was perhaps the mistake that cost Tommy the most money Buy two cameras for recording, one in 35mm format and another in high definition, which were so expensive that even major production companies decided to rent them. Worst of all, Wiseau had no idea how to make them work together since both cameras produced a completely different image, so he decided to shoot with both at the same time, which was a complete waste of money.
And if everything was a disaster behind the scenes, things were no better in front of them.
The script around 500 pages by Wiseau was virtually illegible, with phrases used by the actors “They weren’t able to say it out loud.”It’s also unbearably long and monotonous with subplots that go nowhere. Added to this is the stubbornness of Tommy, who refused to change a single comma on the project that had so much “love and dedication” infused into it. Oddly enough, Wiseau agreed to remove a scene from the film in which his character flies in his car, implying that he was actually a vampire.
Tommy Wiseau was unable to remember his lines, which made the recordings even longer.
There were many reasons for abandoning this idea, but the production team chose the least offensive: There was no budget to record something like that.
The team of actors got to work with all these situations, although for many, as in the case of Sestero, it was their first experience in front of the camera. Wiseau wasn’t nearly the best actor in the room, for even with a script he wrote He kept forgetting his character’s lines, which unnecessarily protracted the shooting.
The acting and script meshed so poorly that the cameramen couldn’t help but laugh, which resulted in the camera constantly shaking, as did the anger of Wiseau, who found nothing funny in his dramatic story.
After six months of lethargic shooting, the film hit theaters and the outcome was far from what one would expect.
After filming was completed, Wiseau sent the film to Paramount for distribution. Generally the response takes between two weeks to a month, but due to the specific project Tommy had delivered, it took less than 24 hours for the production house to send the tape back to the person in charge with a resounding “NO”.
Against all odds, the film was released in major Los Angeles theaters and was ultimately panned by critics and audiences, who in many cases demanded a refund at the box office just minutes after the film opened.
Despite disastrous reviews, “The Room” became a cult film
After a few weeks on the billboard, evoked a surreal wonder Michael Rousselet appeared at the scene. Michael was mesmerized by the film’s poster, which featured Wiseau looking directly at the camera in a disturbing gesture. He asked the man at the box office for his ticket, who warned him that this film was practically a crime against humanity. This only increased Michael’s interest, and when he entered the room and saw Tommy Wiseau perform, he realized that the man at the box office had a point, but that was true such catastrophes that you just can not see anymore.
Rousselet enjoyed this 100 minutes of unintentional comedy so much that he called on all his friends to experience it before it was removed from the billboards. Suddenly the cinemas showing The Room were full for several days, although it wasn’t long enough to recoup the investment as they were hard to come by $4.9 million.
The money was enough for Wiseau to release the film on DVD and rent a theater to show it, allowing it to play for several months. The space had become a cultural phenomenon far from what the creator himself had dreamed of.
“The Room” has become part of popular culture not because it is simply bad, but because all the elements came together to create a masterpiece of absurdity and bad taste. Such was the case that in 2017 the film The Disaster Artist was released, in which the actor James Franco He attempted to recreate the Wiseau formula, playing the “disastrous artist” in his effort to bring The Room to life and direct the project.
“The Room” created such a cultural impact that James Franco starred in and directed a film based on the story of how the film was made.
As for why he wanted to bring this story back to screens, Franco shared the following in an interview:
I have to give credit to Tommy because it was his strange story, behavior and uniqueness that drove all of this. But we must also thank Tom Bissell (a journalist who wrote a book about The Room case) and Greg Sestero for approaching this subject in a way that reflects the universality of the story of Tommy and Greg , about the efforts to achieve their dreams. Dreams in the face of rejection, receiving no support from the outside world, depending on each other to make something come trueeither. Underneath this completely bizarre, crazy and ridiculous story about the making of this film lies something very moving because of this friendship“.