Getting the last laugh, we think

Of all the entertainers I’ve interviewed for WEEKEND, Tommy Wiseau was the strangest.

Wiseau’s film “The Room” is as close to a personal project as one can get. Wiseau starred, directed and wrote the movie that became a cult phenomenon after entertainers like Paul Rudd and comedic duo Tim and Eric helped establish regular viewings in Los Angeles.

Traditions soon started: wait for any shot of a particular framed photo of a spoon and that utensil will start flying from the seats. IU got its own screening when Union Board Comedy brought Wiseau to the Whittenberger Auditorium earlier this month.

Getting in contact with Wiseau for a pre-show interview was an adventure. I was given explicit instructions by Wiseau’s manager, Adam (who I suspect could have been the man himself since they both speak in  broken English), on how to send questions ahead of time, and the responses I got back were your standard fare. It’s obvious every previous interviewer has tried to get the creator of “The Room” to address outright how his movie’s success is entirely dependant on people mocking it. (It’s now billed by Wiseau as a dark comedy.)

The man had his responses down like a politician, and it seemed worthless to try and get him to admit, “Yes, my film was a failure-turned-accidental success.” That didn’t stop the many fans at the screening’s question-and-answer session from trying to corner their unlikely hero into talking about this.

We all wanted to hear that, the same way we want a magician to admit the tricks he performs aren’t real even though succeeding in doing so would shatter the fun instantly.

Despite the friendly nature of our interview, there were a few times Wiseau would slip and laugh about the verbal dance we were doing. After instructing me early on to rephrase a question, he said, “You may try to do whatever you want. Like I said, we don’t have no rules for this interview, but you’ll get the same answer.” Bizarrely, there were seemingly innocent topics he’d refuse to comment on, such as where else around the Midwest he was showing the film and what his reaction was when he found out Adult Swim aired his film on last year’s April Fools’ Day.

This isn’t an old-time medicine man trying to sell you drugs in a bottle; Wiseau at some point believed in this project. And there’s something admirable and tragic about that, depending on how you think he views the film.

Wiseau went through 12 years of his life, four production crews and more than $6 million to make it. And don’t even think about trying to find out how he financed the film without studio assistance. “I never submitted to any studio system because I knew they would not produce this project,” Wiseau said. “You probably already grasp this, that ‘The Room’ is different from cookie-cutter Hollywood.”

Talking with Wiseau was pleasant, and I feel guilty for speaking badly about the guy’s work since he certainly cares about it. Each of my questions prompted a long-winded answer that often went off topic but constantly drove this fact home.

Even if Wiseau views his film as a triumph, he’s still attending regular screenings with crowds that laugh at scenes and dialogue he intended to be dramatic. During one of the many sex scenes, the Whittenberger audience laughed and cheered at the sight of Wiseau’s naked ass. What does that experience do to a man’s confidence, especially when it must have happened hundreds of times at this point?

But even if he knows inside the film is bad, Wiseau has won. When I asked him what the title referred to, he said, “‘The Room’ is a special place where you and me and others, we can be safe in an environment.”

As I looked around at the packed theater that night and saw people laughing and bonding over a collective inside joke, I realized that Wiseau inadvertently succeeded in creating exactly that.