Tommy Wiseau breaks down his bizarre approach to acting
Tommy Wiseau is, of course, best known for writing, producing, directing and starring in 2003’s The Room, widely considered to be one of the worst films ever made. One thing that made the movie particularly awful is the way in which Wiseau performs on screen, despite his claims that he went to several acting schools.
Discussing his acting inspirations with A24, Wiseau said: “I like Citizen Kane. Orson Welles. At the same time, I admire James Dean as well and Marlon Brando. I associate with them because we’re on the same page. And I would say more extra for James. Maybe he would disagree, but we have same background. I don’t know. Maybe you ask him. It’s destiny or something. I have no clue.”
We’re unsure (as with many things when it comes to Wiseau) exactly what he means when he says he is “on the same page” as the likes of legendary actors James Dean and Marlon Brando. Wiseau has always been difficult to interpret at the best of times.
The strangeness continued when Wiseau responded to a question about what he thinks makes a compelling scene. “Oh, yeah, I can tell you that,” he said. “You know, my background is actually in – I don’t know if you’re familiar with Jean Shelton, actually, Stella Adler acting? Jean Shelton, she was my teacher. She actually opened to me acting.”
He added: “What I mean ‘open’, like, I only understood because of her. I attend many different classes, schools, you name it. I just thought you just say the words or whatever. That’s what actor thinks. But that’s not it! You have to be someone else.”
Jean Shelton was a titan of acting school, having influenced just about every actor who came out of the Bay Area, including Danny Glover, and apparently, Wiseau also studied under her. Meanwhile, Stella Adler was another acting teacher who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in 1949 and helped bring up Marlon Brando. Sadly, though, it must be said that both Adler nor Shelton’s methods did not help Wiseau become a great actor.
When asked what his biggest challenge is in terms of acting, Wiseau replied in typical Wiseau fashion, “People ask me all the time about the ‘Hi, Mark’ [scene] I battled with. And the thing is, you have tendency to forget the words. And you may say whatever you want. You can be Marlon Brando. You can be James Dean. You can be James Franco.”
He added: “You can be somebody else. And I bet you there was one scene, one instance, they did the same thing. But in the case of Tommy, supposedly 76 takes, in which case movie would have never been completed.” Strange, to say the least.
