Tommy Wiseau And Greg Sestero Interview: Best F(r)iends, Dead Bodies And Imagine Dragons

JB: When you were writing the script you mentioned it was over a brief period of four days. What cinematic influences were you looking for to make this feel so dreamlike. It's even Lynchian in parts, was that intentional?

GS: Yeah, you know I didn't really ever study David Lynch. I mean, I had seen Mulholland Drive years ago, but he wasn't really a filmmaker that I gravitated towards. Some of my favourite movies recently were, like, Nightcrawler, Drive, It Follows, and I love the aesthetic of those films, but I also love kind of the old noir, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity-type films.

So I thought, if Tommy and I are going to make another film together, I would love for the aesthetic to be very different and kind of capture, you know, a neo-noir with Tommy in a role, and shoot it in a certain way, with that style of something you would see in a Fincher film. I thought kind of flipping the tables and being ambitious and going for that type of look would be cool and maybe unexpected. So those were sort of the films and the filmmakers that inspired me on this project.

JB: How did you prepare for your role, Tommy? Were there any specific performances you were inspired by, or was it a very personal thing this time round?

TW: Yeah well you know [it was] based on the script and, as Greg mentioned, our trip, so I was aware of what he put in the script and, you know, I'm trying to pitch in my view about it. But definitely I was preparing, you know, firstly in the morgue. And I was aware - I didn't realise that we were actually on a real morgue, which was spectacular, because one look at the trailer will tell you that while we were filming we had dead body arrive on the set/real facility.

So I was like, on the one hand I was happy because I always think realism in movie or any performance is much more important than anything else. All the special effects is hunky dory but at the end of the day people maybe relate to more realism than just a fantasy. So I was like [laughs] I was in this situation - and Greg, do you remember, the dead body arrive at the set?

GS: Yeah, it was in the middle of the scene [Tommy laughs] and the gate opens and the van comes in and we're all watching this body being taken out.

TW: And it's real story, that's what I enjoy. So to respond to your question, definitely, I was preparing, I was suggesting the costume from me, you know the wardrobe, which Greg approve, and there was a lot of, some of the staff on the setting, on the scene, I say "is it ok to do this way?". So it was really enjoyable, I enjoy everybody on that set and it was a good project to be part of. And I appreciate that people embraced that.

JB: I can't believe there was an actual dead body on set! Was that not just really ridiculously eerie?

TW: [Laughs] Yeah! It was real thing. Yeah, real, real thing!

GS: Yeah, because, we had found off the site that they also did real autopsies and so they were explaining to us, you know, all the different ways of doing an autopsy and I guess they had worked on, like, NFL players. And it was really fascinating and humbling in a lot of ways because you're really - you know, you're stressed and you're trying to get this scene right and then these bodies are coming in and it really gave you a lot of perspective on... on life.

JB: I bet it did!

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