Tommy Wiseau
Tommy Wiseau is a European–American actor, writer, director and filmmaker. He produced, directed, and starred in the 2003 cult 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 the 2015 sitcom The Neighbors.
Skill set
Education
Filmmaking
English literature
Movies
The Room
The House That Drips Blood on Alex
Bump
Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance
Some facts
Tommy really did spend $6m on The Room
“The Room cost $6 million to make . . . and it looks like it cost about $6,” said James Franco at Toronto Film Festival this year. “There was an insane billboard in L.A. for like five years that [Wiseau] must have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars alone, and it is the scariest thing you’ve ever seen, with his lazy eye, like, staring at you. It looks like an ad for a cult… But [the advertising] paid off, because [The Room] plays in almost every major city at least once a year. I think we worked it out that he must make half a million or a million dollars a year, or something like that.”
No one really knows where Tommy’s fortune came from
Before The Room finally became an earner, it’s not known exactly where Wiseau’s fortune came from, but Sestero believes Wiseau is a self-made man. After moving to Chalmette, it’s believed he travelled to San Francisco, California, and worked selling novelties and in sundry manual jobs before setting up a company called Street Fashions USA, acquiring premises, and amassing his fortune flipping property in the Bay Area.
A near-death experience led Tommy to pursue his dream
If you’ve seen the room, you might think that scriptwriting and acting aren’t necessarily the best career choices for Wiseau. According to Sestero, Wiseau was involved in a car accident in California in which a driver behind him ran a red light and rear-ended his vehicle. The experience apparently minded him to quit working in business and pursue his true dream.