Tommy Wiseau's Accent

[Savonarola]

I had never heard of this guy until this thread.

After a quick google...isn't the simplest explanation for this guy's background that he had loaded parents, and a trust fund or some similar means financed the movie? That would also explain why he wants to keep the mystery about his past.

Not if he was from Eastern Europe (his friend seems to think he was); there weren't a lot of trust funds behind the Iron Curtain.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm guessing he made his money running drugs.

[Queequeg]

There's no way the man described in this book is capable of running and hiding a large scale criminal enterprise.

[Razgovory]

There's no way the man described in this book is capable of running and hiding a large scale criminal enterprise.

You'd be surprised how stupid people can be while running large scale criminal enterprises.

[Queequeg]

It's impossible.  He would have had to have gained enough money to own prime real estate in San Francisco in the 1990s, pay 6 million for a movie in 2002-03 and half-maintain his own eccentric film studio until now, all without either being out competed and murdered or found out by the government.  It's literally impossible for the man described to have been able to effectively hide and prosper at this, beyond the obvious fact that the rumors of drug-money and mob money money laundering that have circled The Room since its release mean that it would have been under scrutiny. 

[Queequeg]

I think it's possible that some uncle or relative made a great deal of money in the privatizations after the collapse of the Berlin wall, but Tommy appears to have been doing pretty well financially in the 80s, which really complicates the picture.  There's no story that really works.  The Disaster Artist is partially about just how implausible every detail about the man is. 

[Razgovory]

Bugsy Siegel never got through grade school and was mentally unstable and still rose high in the mob.  That sort of thing is not atypical in criminal circles.

[Queequeg]

Tommy's not a psychopath.  He's completely desperate for attention and human connection.  That doesn't bode well for success inside a criminal conspiracy. 

[Queequeg]

Also, American criminals that succeed in immigrant or minority communities tend to use the strength of these social connections as the backbone of their criminal enterprise.  Tommy is a wild ass of a man, with his hand raised against everyone.  He refuses to acknowledge that he speaks anything other than (poor) English and (worse) French, and once starts a fight against Greg when he suggested as such.  I don't know many people who would do well in the Mafia or vor v zakone while hating everything to do with his culture. 

[Razgovory]

Tommy's not a psychopath.  He's completely desperate for attention and human connection.  That doesn't bode well for success inside a criminal conspiracy.

If he's so mysterious, how do you know he's not a psychopath?  Besides the factors you mention are hardly deal breakers.

[Eddie Teach]

He's completely desperate for attention and human connection.

You're certainly giving it to him.

[Queequeg]

I'm find him extremely interesting, although obviously my defense of why I find him interesting is making me look more obsessed than I really am.  He's from "my" area of the world, so I'm frustrated that no one I know has any idea where he's from.  But I don't know if I have "affection" for him in the way I do for some other artists.  David Lynch may not be an extremely nice man but I love him, while Bryan Fuller of Hannibal and Pushing Daisies is both extremely talented and by all accounts funny, personable and loyal.  Tommy has real emotional and possibly neurological problems, and is frequently a rude, hostile ass.

[Queequeg]

Tommy's not a psychopath.  He's completely desperate for attention and human connection.  That doesn't bode well for success inside a criminal conspiracy.

If he's so mysterious, how do you know he's not a psychopath?  Besides the factors you mention are hardly deal breakers.

Okay.  I want you to imagine trying to explain to a Russian mobster why American Hollywood culture is a thousand % better than anything Russia will ever do, and actively refusing to speak the mother language.  It seems extremely unlikely to me. 

[Caliga]

On a vaguely related note, the long-lost star of Silent Night, Deadly Night 2, Eric Freeman, surfaced last week at a screening of the movie in LA.

[Ed Anger]

This thread makes me sad.