Going Deep with Chad and JT - Ep. 96 - Eli Roth Joins

Episode Date: October 9, 2019

What up dudes, in this fire episode we're joined by director, actor, writer and producer, Eli Roth. We discuss his recent movies, The Green Inferno, Knock Knock, and Hostel I and II. We also talk about his work with Quentin Tarantino and much more. Dive on in!  

oh put me in the oven and say what up this is chad kroger coming in with the going deep with chad and jt podcast where were we so yeah you're you know we're talking pubes and chest hair i gave up shaving there was a there was like when cw exploded because i'm just like 100 years older than you guys yeah and there was like some chest everyone was waxing their chest yes and i was like i'm gonna be the dude that just says enough and we're not there was like there's no way and it was in glorious bastards i was like i'm putting a stop to this now and i'm gonna bring back chest hair it was like a total conscious decision and once that happened then it's like girls don't want you you know they're like okay

he's oh natural it's fine i appreciate you dog yeah i actually remember in glorious bastards i like was in awe of your chest hair through the wife beater you know when you first come out it was like one of the first things i noticed yeah well i'm a big fan of teen wolf and teen wolf 2 yeah so i wanted to do sort of have my own i mean look there was a lot we can get into this but there had always been kind of like the the three s's like sandler sandler stiller seinfeld were like the holy trinity of like right jewish movie but there was like funny nebbishy schlubby guys yeah or like kind of badass and i was like person of that ilk it didn't exist so quentin wrote this character and i was like i'm gonna get up at 4 a.m and go to the gym for like an hour and a half before like

i get picked up at six in the morning before shooting and like lift two hours at night and eat every 90 minutes i put on like 40 or 50 pounds of muscle. What kind of lifting were you doing? I was doing like heavy. I was doing squats. I would do whatever I could, but I would do like two hours in the morning or two hours in the morning, an hour at night. I was eating every 90 minutes. Like I don't have the body that's going to hold muscle. I have to eat like a machine. I would, I'd go to like lunch and eat four pieces. It was awesome. But I got up to like 205. Oh, nice. So what do you normally walk around at? Like 160?

Well, I went from 160 to 205. Now I'm at about 185. So you went from like film director size to like... Well, film director size when I grew up was like they had parkas and beards. Like they were heavy. And then so I was like, I first wanted to change the image of film directors. I was like, what if we're like in shape? And because I know that the behind the scenes on dvds were like a big thing and i was like what if i could because you know

when you're like a movie nerd it's hard to meet girls it was like what if i look good on the behind the scenes and then people see what you look like then you can actually it was like total vanity but i went and i was like i was like i'm gonna be in shape and so then a friend of mine from college was writing for like men's fitness magazine and was like dude I gotta do this article on like most fit professionals can I just put you as most fit director I'm like sure so I said I'm like so you don't even know to this day Tarantino's like I'm taking your title like people just like all these people are like I'm gonna win your most fit director title and I remember on the set of my first movie Cabin Fever I went in the makeup trailer and i started like i had i was getting makeup on and the actors are like what the fuck

are you doing i was like well i don't know i feel like i have a pimple in my eyes and they're like they're like yeah but you're not in front of the camera i'm like yeah but there's behind the scenes and i want to look good for the behind the scenes right and then i remember like one of the saw directors was like dude i watched the cabin fever behind these i was so fucking mad at you i'm like god damn. He's like, the guy doesn't look tired. He looks in shape. Yeah.

And he's like, and my girlfriend was like, why can't you look like he, like, it totally works. Right. Razzing. So it's like, if your movie isn't as good or doesn't make as much money, at least you have that on them. Yeah. I like that.

Yeah. I would like to direct a movie and they'd be like, you know, best part about it was the director's bronze. Yes, exactly. Like, if you got, like, if there was an Oscar for best bronze. bronze yeah and you won that like that's that's sort of all i want i wanted like i want to do like a woody allen movie although it's probably a little controversial and just get him yoked you know what i mean yeah because you never no one's seen woody with no one's even like roided out real girth on him yeah they haven't thrown around kettlebells yeah

get him on the kettlebell regime and then do some Muay Thai with him. Yeah, he just walks through a doorway. He can't get through it. All the physical comedy that you could do with Woody Allen if he was ripped. He might be less afraid of everything, too, if he had more size on him. Probably. But I think people might be more afraid of him. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah. I wonder how he would have turned out if he had thrown kettlebells. We could have Roman Polanski as the bad guy we'd get Roman all jacked up and then Woody the name of the movie would be called Problematic exactly it's pretty much the name of every movie ever made

before 2015 I was actually I watched Knock Knock and it was kind of like prescient about a lot of what came to pass afterwards yeah we made that movie like five years ago. It's crazy. And that movie felt very personal to me.

Oh, all my movies are personal in a way. Everything starts with a thought. Like Cabin Fever, I had gotten this infection in my face. And I was like, what if I shaved? And I started shaving. I started shaving chunks of my face off. And it just became this obsession of like you can be totally healthy, go to the gym, I don't smoke, like nothing. And this thing gets in your face and your face is falling off yeah so

then uh hostile I was like I had read this thing about what where you could go and pay ten thousand dollars to walk into a room put a bullet in someone's head to know what it felt like to kill somebody and I was like I can't tell if this is real or not but that seems real like someone would do that if you were super rich and you were bored of like drugs and hookers and everything lost its thrill, like, ooh, what's it like to kill someone? Like I could fully see guys doing that. My friends told me I looked like the actor who did that monologue in that movie. Well, Rick Hoffman from Suits.

A little bit more hair. Rick would love that. Rick would be very happy to hear that. I heard, was that a real thing in like Asia somewhere? Because like my buddies and I were fans of the hostels in college and we're like, yeah, this actually happened. We found a website that was in the Philippines where you could pay and a person, apparently the person like volunteered for it.

Like, I'm really poor. I want to get money for my family. Like, just come hunt me. Now, of course, obviously you'd walk in and be like, you agreed to this, right? No, no. So I thought, what if I do a documentary about this? That was my first instinct was to do a doc. And then I thought, well, anybody who really does this, there's no way they're going to actually let me get close. And then if they do, then what if they just want to kill me? So I based it on that. I never found out if it was real. But then I started looking at history and looking at what people do

when they're pretty certain that no one's looking, they won't get caught. And you look at what people, like then I looked at the photos of Lindy, England, and all the stuff that was going on in Abu Ghraib prison and the US soldiers like piling up bodies and throwing up gang signs and photos. And you're like, wow.

Having a good time. Having a good old time. Like look what you do when you can do that to someone with absolutely no repercussions. And you're certain you won't get caught um i thought yeah there are people that that would for sure do that do you think they were even worried about getting caught or do you think they even thought like oh even if we get caught people won't mind because the people were doing a tour you know beneath us from their vantage point i don't know i think so i mean i've talked

to people who were like i was like are snuff films still real like how do snuff films work and like do people still do that and someone had told me that they talked to someone who like did it and did snuff films and took me through the whole process and i was like yeah for sure and they're just like they they're like okay if you go from london to amsterdam you have to take the ferry not the train because they don't have cameras you bring your own camera you pay someone and there's a lot of algerian immigrants and they'll just kidnap one the gangsters will just kidnap one have them in a warehouse you show up you set up the camera you like film yourself doing whatever the fuck you want to them you take the camera you leave the body there and you go it's like people

and now i've i can't prove that but it sounds pretty pretty real that's terrifying so all that and then like green inferno i just saw a lot of kids. I remember when I was at NYU, there were these girls that were starving themselves at Columbia University. We used to go up to Columbia to meet girls at Barnard because everyone was like a freak at NYU and shaving their head and piercing their nose, which at the time was controversial. And I remember going. My friend went to Columbia. And I was like, wow, this is like real college. I go to like a freaky art school.

You were at NYU? I was at NYU in Tisch in the film school. Did you have any heavy hitters in your class with you? Right ahead of me was like half a year or a year ahead of me was Todd Phillips and Brett Ratner. So I remember hearing stories, Todd Phillips was- Or Gigi Allen, Doc? I heard stories.

Kids were coming out of the class throwing up. Kids were like, this kid filmed someone eating their own shit and throwing shit in the audience yeah and i was like what is it and it was it was christine choi's documentary class with todd out with todd phillips doing hated and i remember seeing that movie and i remember kids like who were in the class of todd being like this is insane um so yeah then like from my class was like andres hines or a black swan a few other people but the big ones like two years ahead of me was M. Night. And then Brett Ratner did Money Talks at 26. And then Todd Phillips, obviously, with Road Trip.

He's had the craziest career. So you would go up to Barnard to... So we'd go up to Barnard to meet girls. And I remember there were these girls that were starving on the front of the lawn. And I was like, what are they doing? And it's like, well, they're starving because the janitors don't have health insurance. And I was like, I don't understand that. Oh, that's nice of them.

And they're like, well, there's no war, so they just kind of need a cause. And they're like, the theory was that the girls were bulimic. So no one wants to be like, these girls have eating disorders. They're like, oh, they're heroes. Did they get the guys covered? I don't know. They looked really cold and hungry.

I have no idea what they're doing. That's true. It'd be a hard thing to do in the winter in New York. But then when I was writing Green Inferno, which always starts with another thought, which was stone cannibals get the munchies. Right. I'd wanted to do a cannibal movie, like an old school Italian cannibal movie and follow the conventions.

What starts in New York goes to the jungle, back to New York at the end. That's like the trope of all these old, because they're kind of considered the bottom of the barrel, sleaziest, like least respected horror movies. And I love them. Oh, yeah. What's the hierarchy? Oh, you love Italian horror, right? Love it. My favorite. Yeah. narrow sleaziest like least respected horror movies and i love them really oh yeah people the hierarchy well oh you love italian horror right love it my favorite yeah i'm obsessed so i used to watch cannibal holocaust and kind of before the internet i was like is this real did

they really kill people there's a girl that's impaled with a spike that's going up her that like comes out her mouth and i was like how did they do that and the director had been brought up on murder charges and had to like bring in the actors and prove that it was makeup effects. That's how controversial the movie was. So I was like, I need to do a movie like that. And I actually thought, you can't do that today because there's nothing left. The Amazon's gone.

I was like, oh, that's it. But I started seeing kids. It was really Coney 2012. I wrote the script, and Coney 2012 happened. Everyone was like, Coney 2012, Coney 2012. And you just saw Justin Bieber, Rihanna like everyone on the planet tweeting about this thing and the government was like you know we're we know joseph coney like we've been tracking him for years everyone's like joseph coney is child slaves and he rapes them i get it like but it's the laziest form of it's

like how fashion yeah it's like it's like it gets fashionable to like believe in this cause right it's also they don't even give, they care, but they don't care enough to do anything more than push a button on their phone just to show everyone that they're like a selfish asshole before they go back to like flaunting their money or whatever they're doing, which is fine. I'm not criticizing that. But I just remember thinking like this is like a new thing.

It was sort of before the term social justice warrior came on. I was like, this is like slacktivism. This is the laziest form of activism and virtue signaling. And everyone just, no one cares about the cause. They care about being recognized for it. So I was like, I want to write a movie about kids like that who go in the Amazon to like save a tribe, even though they don't really care about it. They just care about trending on Twitter. They care about, so that's why every time they're arrested, they're like, all of them are like posing for photos.

Just so excited that they're going to get their photo taken being arrested uh and then of course they crash in the jungle that they save and they're cannibals and they're just like oh food yeah like but we're your saviors no like fuck you and they just eat them and put them in an oven right and then i thought well if one of them had weed that had like they've been doing ayahuasca and got like crazy like laced weed then what if they what if, I was just sitting there thinking, it was probably Stone when I did it, like what if your friend died, like if you gave the cannibals weed, then they would get the munchies,

and that would make it even worse. So that was, basically the entire movie was an excuse to do that scene with Stone cannibals getting munchies. And then knock, knock, I was engaged to Lorenza, and I was just like, and there was a movie called Death Game that my friend Colleen Camp, who I produced it with, was in, and I i was like this could be an awesome after going to green in front where we shot in

the amazon we shot with the tribe that these people had never seen cameras we we took conceptually explained to this village what a movie was no electricity i mean it was four hours of traveling you drive by like land rover get in the boat two hours in the boat in the village and we had to show i showed them iphones for the first time did you have like a locations manager go out there we did and the village speaks two languages to be quechua and spanish you had someone who speaks quechua and someone who speaks spanish like the older people speak spanish the kids the older people speak quechua the kids want to speak spanish they didn't want to learn quechua because they want to be like in touch with the modern world but they're so isolated and they're like farmers they're not they don't look like they're

doing the movie but we went and we were like and we had to basically go to the village elders and say, can we shoot here? And so I had the Peruvian producer, you do it with the Peruvians. And the Peruvian producer's like, well, look,

we're going to have to explain to these people what a movie is. And I go, how do we do that? They're like, we've come out here with a generator and a television and we show them a movie for the first time.

So like three weeks later, he's like, I'll do it. What movie do they show? Well, he called me three weeks later. He like we got we got permission from the village they said yes and i was like that's amazing what did you show him like et wizard of oz and he goes no cannibal holocaust and i was like what and he has a photo of him like and there's i was like

the kids saw it he's like no no they thought it was a comedy i go why would you show children like their only conception of what a movie is is like slicing dicks off and like ripping a fetus out with a hand abortion and stabbing a stone. I was like, that's their idea of what a movie is. What movie would you show them? I mean, I would have started with Wizard of Oz and worked my way to Cannibal Holocaust. Jingle all the way. Caddyshack 2. Yeah.

But the kids, they got it and they all wanted to be part of it and they all wanted like the kids like they would the kids it was so fun shooting this village like the kids were so fun and they would come up to me and like my translator my assistant director would be like boss that the kids they have a snake they they caught a snake a python they wanted and i was like and they come up the kids holding a python they're like it's a baby so there's like a baby python this five-year-old kid's holding it and i go well what were they thinking they're like well the kids think it'd be funny if they throw it in the cage where the americans are and i was like that's actually a really good idea yeah so i knew that some of the girls were fighting and i was like i was like hey i was like how am i gonna get them

to take a python to the face and i went up to to one girl. I go, I have the best scene in the movie. And they were like, what? And they were like, she's like, what? I'm like, what if we take this python? It's like, it's going to be like, this will be the scene everyone talks about. She's like, what? I'm like, what if we take a real python and we drop it on this other girl? And she goes, no, no, no.

I want to do it. I want to do it. I'm like, oh, that's a good idea. That could work. But then both girls were like, I want i want to everyone started fighting for the python so we basically like we're dangling the python we're about to shoot it and the girls go can that thing bite and and we're like yeah but it's a baby it's not really gonna hurt like but it could it could actually bite you though we're like yeah so we're like okay so if the camera's here like we tell the

kids like just drop the python behind their head so So it'll look like on camera, like it's right on top of them. And the kid's like, yeah, okay, okay. And I go, action. The kid just goes, whap. Slaps, like, slaps them in the face with a python. One take. And if you freeze frame it, the things, like, the fangs are out. This thing's, like, this far from one of the girls' eyeball.

That's what the shoot was like. Yeah. It was amazing. It was, like, our production designer had to go to, the village looked a lot like it does in the movie. Yeah. But there was some corrugated metal that we had to build a cage, like a little bit of art direction had to be done.

So our production designer, Marichi, she goes to the village, and she just lives there because it's like going back and forth with the boat. There's no way it's going to happen. And all the village worked on the movie. A lot of them are farmers. They, like, were out of work. They were old. They were so happy that they were getting... We're paying them more in three weeks than they would make in a year. So the whole village is like super

into the movie. And they're building the cage. They're doing all this stuff. And then when she gets it ready for us to shoot and then we show up and then she's gonna go to Santiago, Chile where we're doing the New York interiors. And the whole village is like, we have a gift for you. And so everyone's like her last night. They gather around and like, we've got you something. She's like, you didn't have to do that. They're like, no, you're one of us.

We love you. We have a gift for you. And they brought her a baby. Whoa. And she's like, what? To keep? Like a two-year-old. Not just a half. And she's like, yeah.

Very generous of the mother. Yeah, yeah. I mean, she was like, I have a boyfriend in an apartment in santiago like i can't refuse i'm not refusing your baby but let's just say it's my baby but it's gonna live here with it's like his village mommy and daddy and then i can come and visit it yeah so that was the that was the vibe of green inferno it was it was crazy like their first i mean i'm rambling but like shut me up if i'm talking too much but like our first our first day of shooting i was like we got to get the big scene where they're like the kids are all all the americans are kidnapped and they're like they've been darted they're playing his craft the blow

darts they wake up and it starts on lorenza's face and she's just likes up like she's like a little thing over the trees and another one and all all of a sudden, like an army, they just come over the hill like screaming and just pulling at their hair. It's just total chaos. So I have 120 villagers in like war paint. I have the kids tied up. I mean, shooting in Peru, it's like thankfully we have like 20 minutes of sun because it would be like pouring rain and then sun.

100 degrees, 110 degrees. We're in the jungle and I'm like, I got like the machete. I'm like ready to go. And I'm like, ready? And we just see, like we hear this noise. And I'm like, what's going on? And these two pontoon boats pull up. And they're like Christian missionaries.

And they're from a super church in Texas. And they've been going like down the river, village to village, converting them to Christianity. And they pull up to our village. And they see it's like Kurtz's village. I put, like, spikes with heads on it. And all the villagers and the Americans tied up, and the dead bodies everywhere, and, like, the Americans screaming, and all the kids, like, all the people in, like, this kind of sad, like, war paint. And they're just, like, they start screaming.

They're just, like, they start singing songs about Jesus. They're like, this is it. We found it. We found Satan's village. They're like, the devil is here, and we and we're like the whole trip was worth it and and of course i'm like so excited i'm like we gotta film this we gotta film this confrontation with the missionaries and they like they like pull out of their boat and this guy from texas starts stomping around and then someone's like oh it's not the devil it It's Eli Roth making a horror movie. And they were so fucking angry.

They're like, well, we're going to fuck up your shooting. So they sit in the river blocking our shot. Oh, really? And after five minutes, it was like 110 degrees. They're like, screw this. Do you have a PA trying to block? We had, they're like, everyone heads off. I had five people holding me back going, please let me film this.

And they're like, Eli, this is a cultural thing. You've got to let the village handle it. And the village went out and said, please back oh nice yeah how long were you on location we were five weeks in Peru wow it was like shooting out of LA I love it I love it you know I did Cabin Fever in the Woods in North Carolina at a great time Hostel One I did in Prague which was the most fun yeah it was life imitating art I mean we would like I feel like it'd be easier to focus too if you don't have like all the distractions of you don't have any distractions also like there wasn't social media no people aren't texting but the time difference is great because it's like

when you're in prague you're like nine hours ahead right so everyone's kind of asleep and then maybe at like seven o'clock seven p.m your phone starts ringing and then you're it's like there's there's like a window of one hour where people can get you on the phone. And the nice thing about shooting, and that's why I like shooting in Chile. I shot in Chile, Iceland. I did a movie in China with RZA for Wu-Tang, a movie called Man with the Iron Fist.

I saw it, yeah. It was so fun. Russell Crowe. Russell Crowe. We had the best time doing that with Batista. Like, RZA was amazing. Yeah. RZA's like.

Well, he's like a genius, too. He really is. He's like a genius too he really is he's like and i love and i did it just because to be around him because i love him we spent like a year together writing it and it was just so funny because i was like the nerdy white jew from the suburbs and he's brisbane but it's like but he's so funny and he loves movies and he's so knowledgeable you're from boston yeah newton mass okay is that like boston boston it's not like fucking masshole kid it's not like i don't have like a fucking wicked accent or nothing kid, but like a lot of kids.

I was on a podcast years ago talking about like how you had buddies who had the little bats that they would give out at Red Sox games in their car. Dude, you have a fucking bat in your car, dude. So you're like, what's that, buddy? You got a fucking problem, kid? I remember going to the movies with my friend's dad and there was some guy in the parking lot who wouldn't move and he like honked a little and the guy took out a tire and he's like what's that buddy you want to get fucking wrapped in the head with a tie and he's like no sir i'm wearing the back so we're

like oh you're you're he's like your friends your dad's gonna get beaten to death over parking at the movies seeing superman 2 or something this guy took my parking spot at tony roma's one time he had two kids like little kids and i rolled down the window i was like yeah dude you took my parking spot he goes yeah so what you want to fight about it i was like dude good modeling for your children right there yeah that's boston man that's why i'm 3 000 miles away yeah i do love my assholes but yeah it's nice to live here yeah um but so yeah so prague it's fun shooting shooting in chile was amazing so we did knock knock in chile it's great oh you shot knock knock in chile yeah the opening you have the Hollywood sign.

Yeah, we did some photography here, but we shot most of it. We found it really doubles for California, for Calabasas and LA. It's crazy how well Santiago and Chile does. Same coastline. A lot of the architecture is similar. That movie felt personal to me in the way that it's hard to be a dude. And then it felt like it felt like an affair condensed down into like one night or something like that. Cause those girls are crazy.

So they go through all like the permutations of how like a relationship can go bad. And then, you know, it goes to hyper extremes, but I related to it. Cause I was like, man,

I kind of see where this dude's coming from. I wanted to be like every guy's. Thank you. I wanted it to be like every guy's you know your fantasy and every worst nightmare my roommate came in and i know uh you know your uh wife was your ex-wife yeah lorenza yeah i don't mean this to be disrespectful but uh my roommate came and i explained the story to him then he goes but did keanu sleep with the women i go he did he goes nice yeah that's exactly what you want no i mean we want it to be like it's you know that's that's the whole idea of free pizza right no dude if a pizza shows up at 3 a.m someone's like did you

order pizza no wrong okay we'll hear it yeah no guy will say that's what it is and that's when it's it made me wonder i was like is there any guy who would say no because i'd like to think i would say no but then you know yeah if you can get away with it no and that's the point is that these girls are almost looking for the guy that will say no they're looking it's their point it would make them happy to find that person that's their whole game is that these girls are almost looking for the guy that will say no. They're looking. It's their point. It would make them happy to find that person. That's their whole game is that these girls would just like to find the one guy that will say no because they believe that all men are absolute pieces of shit from whatever abuse they've suffered in their life. And that even Keanu, with all the photos and all the family, it's all just a mask. And that that was the fun with Keanu.

And I think he's so great and so underrated in his performance in the movie. It's taking him as being like the nice, sweet dad and just basically reducing him to a feral creature but also they they play into all the things that aren't cool it's also how like when he's a dad he's sort of third like the kids it's father's day and the wife's just taking them away the wife's art dominates the house and he's just like yes dear he's kind of like relegated to the corner everyone's like that's you know you, all the things that you think are cool, like you were a DJ in the 90s and you're like relegated.

That DJ scene, the scene where he DJs was probably my favorite scene in the movie because you really do, you're like, oh, he is cool. Yes. And he's good at DJing. Yes. And then he starts to believe that he's cool again while he's DJing.

And these girls are like, no, you are cool. And they validate him. That's exactly it. That's the whole seduction is that they're like, oh my God, you're so smart. You're like, you're like a myth buster you know it's an iphone you know these and he's kind of like a dad and we kept saying the fun with the movie was like it was like this chess game where his mouth keeps saying no his feet keep saying yes so we did this kind of musical

chairs and we worked on a while with anna de armas who's doing amazing now she's in bond girl now oh really yeah anna's in Bond Girl and she's playing Marilyn Monroe in a movie for Netflix. Yeah, she's doing great. And Lorenzo's on Penny Dreadful. It was a great cast

and we really rehearsed on the girls. Like, just keep kind of going up to him and touching him and touching his hand and him moving to this chair and then moving there.

And they just keep having physical contact and he just keeps saying no. And he's being good but he likes it. He's being good but he loves it because these girls

are like tapping into that sexual part where it's also that thing in relationships where, you know, you start to take each other for granted. And I know couples that like, there's no, there's not, there's no sex anymore. It's like, they're there, they're a unit, they're best friends, they're partners, they have kids.

But like in the beginning, he's like trying to get the wife like to have sex. Then the kids come in, it's like, everything's, it's just all his frustrations just boil up. I also like the sort of meta idea that the girls almost never existed and that he just like just destroyed was like all that side of him that he just kept bearing and bearing and bearing just erupted and he just went crazy and just smashed everything in his house yeah the thing that you reference to the free pizza like I love the way you shot that

monologue because I think you only cut it once yeah but it's like it's just a single on him the whole time and he really is like sad and hilarious there's so many different components to what he's saying and he'd really do feel and i haven't seen keanu reeves do another scene like that thank you yeah well look i i think that you know we we were kind of bummed about the release that it didn't get kind of the proper treatment that we were all hoping for, but it's nice that people have watched it, and I think his performance is really, really... Keanu's great.

He's like, you fucked me. He's like, you fucked my cock, you fucking fucked my cock. What did you want? You fucking... And that's the crazy thing, and they're just looking at him. I started cracking up. I was dying laughing.

No, it's fun. It's fun to... I mean, you intended... That was like... Oh, yeah. I think all your movies have a lot of that in it right I love dark humor

I like when humor gets very very uncomfortable I mean like for me Green Inferno is like the stone cannibals

get the munchies they attack Daryl Spar from Spy Kids Daryl gets they do it and they're fucking fighting and fighting

they're all like eating and then like while the crowd is ripping apart a little girl runs away with a leg like she got the cookie from the cookie jar

throughout that whole movie I was like cause like I'd heard about it before, but I found myself like cracking up. I'm like, what does this say about me? No, it's great. Yeah, there's like so many funny parts in there. Yeah. I like humor. The activist too.

Yeah. It's just, I was dying. Well, that was like with the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Yeah. I love comical violence. I love that movie. I love that movie so much. I was like, Lea Lorenza played the wife in the end of the movie. She plays the comical violence. I love that movie. I love that movie so much. I was like,

Leah Lorenza played the wife in the end of the movie. She plays the Italian. Oh, really? Francesca Capucci. Oh, right. Is it hard directing your wife? Look,

Lorenza and I were kind of like partners. We made this movie together called Aftershock that our friend Nicholas directed and I wrote with him and I acted in and we cast Lorenza in it and we just had, it was seven weeks of nights and we had the best fucking just, and we cast Lorenzo in it. And we just had,

it was seven weeks of nights and we had the best fucking time shooting that movie. It was a party. Yeah. And Lorenzo and I really clicked and she, and her English was perfect. I was like, wait,

you're Chilean. I thought you're American, but she'd lived in America when she was like 12 and had been bullied so bad. She lost her accent. She watched blue crush every day. Oh, it's a great movie. And a good message too.

Yeah. I love blue crush. In fact, I remember when i was sound mixing cabin fever i was like we have to end early today and i went right to the grove and i watched blue crush good place to watch it too the grove's wonderful i love nothing bad has ever happened at the grove nothing nothing it's fountains it's manufactured happiness yeah it's the capital from like the hunger games exactly i'll go ahead no i was gonna say so yeah so working together there's like a shorthand. I mean, we trust each other. And there is a little bit like if we get in an argument, we try not to like fight in front of the kids, you know.

And look, we were engaged for Knock Knock. I mean, Green Inferno, we were like Aftershock, we were flirting. Green, and then we got kind of, she moved to LA. Then I talked to her in Hemlock Grove, my Netflix show, and I killed her off by a whirl from that. And then, which was fun. Really disgusting. And then Green Inferno.

And in Green Inferno, I was like, once you guys have Diarrhea in the Jungle together, it's like, that's it. There's no more barriers. You're fused. Yeah. Like, you can handle that. And she's so cool and such a trooper and so fun

and has, like, just the most amazing energy. I was like, let's just keep making movies together. And so I wrote Knock Knock for her. And then we found Anna. Colleen Camp called me. She's like, I found this girl. She's incredible. She's literally just off the plane from Spain.

She might not speak English, but I think she's great for the movie. And I met her and I was like, oh, my God, this girl's going to be a star. So she came and then we were lucky enough to get Keanu. And then, you know after knock knock we're like okay let's take a break i didn't want to just like put her in death wish and then house the clock and its walls the part was right where i had her play the mom for that it was my kids movie that i did with jack black and kate blanchett um and so we had a great time like we we divorced we were like we kind of split up um while i was editing house of the clock but we're still friends

we're just like look we're not i mean she was young she was 22 when we met and we're like 28 20 you're a different person and i always sort of knew like we we kind of had the philosophy like if we feel the door is always open like we're in it together but neither of us are trapped and like if let's do this as friends so we also want to keep working together we're like if we ever want a future where we can like make movies together, which we would like to, then we have to like split before we have kids and before we part. So we did.

And it's cool. And then I was like, so happy. Like I went to the shit to set of once upon a time in Hollywood, when she was shooting her scene with the police and when they're fighting. And when, when Brad like kills the Manson gang, I was there on set with them.

It was awesome. And I was just so proud of her. I was like, I remember meeting you as like a girl from Chile who quit journalism school. And now you're like doing scenes with Brad Pitt. It was pretty awesome. I, um,

yeah. What's it like watching Tarantino direct or working with him too on Inglourious? I mean, Inglourious was one of the greatest opportunities in my life. It was just like, I directed three movies and then I thought like, what if I could go back to like grad school to really relearn directing via acting? Like, what is the opportunity

to sort of watch the master up close? And he'd been telling me about it. When he was writing the script, I was like his Jewish fact checker. He'd call me, he's like, okay, I got a question. He's like, but did you give a Nazi absolution if it meant you could end the war? And I was like, Quentin, I'm going to be honest with you.

I didn't know what the word absolution meant until I was 25. Because the Jews are moneylenders, and we collect interest on everything, including anger. And we're more pissed about shit from 2,000 years ago today than we were 2,000 years ago. I was like, if there was a Nazi, and you told me, and I'm not kidding, on the street, that person's a Nazi, I wouldn't hesitate to kill him. I would slit his throat. I would bash his head in with a baseball bat. It's like these people tried to eradicate us off the planet. The only reason I am here is because my grandfather got out of Poland.

That's it. And it was before the war. All of his relatives, gone. Once everyone in that side from Europe has been liquidated, that was it. There was no, it's not like, oh, I forgive them. It was a mistake. Anyone that did that, you're just programmed in that. These people are going to kill you.

They're going to put you in an oven. So he's like, okay, great. I got it. And I was like, if you really want a good insight, I was like, come to my Passover Seder. That'll be kind of a Jewish experience where we tell the story of Passover and when the Jews were slaves, when they left Egypt. But we always related to the Nazis. It's like all my parents experience. We tell the story of Passover and when the Jews were slaves, when they left Egypt, but we always related to the Nazis.

It's like all my parents did. We always, Nazi talk is like what every Jewish family talks about at dinner eventually. So he came and he's like, I think, okay, I got it. I know how I'm going to end the movie. And then I remember when we were shooting, he's like,

I was thinking maybe Donnie shoots Hitler. And I was like, cause he hadn't written the last chapter yet. It sort of roughly had it. He knew we were going to blow up the theater, he's like I was saying that maybe like Donnie Buston shoots Hitler and I was like I wouldn't shoot Hitler he's like you wouldn't I was like no I would stand over his head with a machine gun and like unload it and to like physically saw his head disintegrate and then I would stomp on it to make sure zombie Hitler didn't come back and he's like

that's what we're doing and then you know working know, working with Quentin was amazing. Like, I really relearned directing through him. Because I was used to, like, I sort of have shot lists. And I'll go on location and work with my DP. But what Quentin does is his time with his actors is the most valuable time. And the first day, there was, like, all 10 bastards. And Brad and Quentin. And he's like, so tell me about your character. And I had to talk in character for about like an hour

about my backstory, who my dad was. He's like, what did you think when you joined the Bastards? What did you think when Aldo said this? What did you think of that? What did you think when Stiglitz joined the Bastards? Like every single piece of backstory. And you had to talk. And there was one guy who was like,

oh, I thought it was just an extra. I didn't have any lines. And Quentin's like, what do you mean? Like you didn't think about any of this? He's like, no, I just thought, like, you know, you wanted me to just an extra. I didn't have any lines. And Quentin's like, what do you mean? Like, you didn't think about any of this? He's like, no, I just thought, like, you know, you wanted me to be an extra. And that guy wasn't there the next day. Wow.

Down to nine. That was it. I heard the story about that one scene in the theater. So with the smoke, you can kind of see Shoshana's face or whatever, that they're trying to make, like like a devil face out of it. And they had like two chances to do it. And the first time it was like this special effect and they did it like perfectly.

And the camera op was like, I forgot to hit record. And then Tarantino was like, it happens. Is that true? Wow. I forgot about that. Did you know that? Yeah. Were you there for that? I was there, but I wasn't in the theater for that.

Because that was a separate stage we built to burn. And you could only do it like twice a day. And I was there. We almost died when we shot my scene. Because they had tested fire, but they had never tested it with the seats and the flags. So all of a sudden, they're like, oh, it won't get closer than 20 feet. And then while we're shooting, it got like right over our heads. And you can see in the shot this swastika drops that wasn't supposed to happen that was six steel cables it got up to 2 000 degrees and it just liquefied and

dropped so we were like covered in fire gel and there was a guy at my feet with a fire extinguisher but i was up on this metal structure and they're like another 30 seconds the whole thing would have crashed down there was no like you guys would have been done. So I remember, like, I came out of that. It was so much harder than I thought. The gun, I couldn't put gel on my hands because for the clip changes, and my hands were just, like, shaking and burning, and I had one little crack on my neck that missed, and it was, like, blistering.

And I came out, and Quentin just looks at me and goes, gives me the thumbs up. And I nod. I had my hands in ice buckets at zero degrees. I had an ice cloth on me, and I passed i was like from adrenaline i just went unconscious and then for like two days i couldn't use my hands because they were just so they're burning so does he shoot the script pretty much as he has it written or is there a lot of evolution during the filming process quentin is pretty quentin's very particular about his dialogue okay i know him well enough

that i could go off script if i had an idea but you gotta nail exactly like there's a rhythm to his dialogue and a pattern he doesn't want people going off it right anyone so what we'll do is like for the bat scene you know he'll like we'll run the scene and then and so we went out to like the location where i come out of the cave with the bat and it's like well where would you bring this guy if you got him okay he's gonna bring him and we just kind of rehearsed it we rehearse it and then we get it and then like the morning of you kind of come in before you get in your costumes and you run the scene he's like do it again do it again do it again so you're running it like a play and then you just act it like over

and over and over and then he takes a lens finder with Bob Richardson and he looks and he's just like and he just starts to find the shots it's like he's sort of got an idea but he's like what if we put this here okay I feel like Brad can we move you just a little bit this way and there but the cameras motivated by the actors who are motivated by the script and Quentin's like the script is the DNA oh so the actors kind of almost create the blocking yeah instincts yes of how the scene should go yes that's how it starts okay and then quentin will adjust from there um sometimes it's evident like okay they've got walk in and blow the shotgun but other scenes you're just figuring it out it's

it's not like okay you go here you go you're here you're there it's like nobody's there not not single person on the crew it's like fuck off go have a cigarette it's just you and the actors and so i started doing that and that's what i did on knock knocks on green in front of like just me and the actors figuring it out figuring it out then you bring the dp then you bring in the standards then you bring the rest of the crew and then you have your shots and you know how it's going to go um but that's how quentin operates he just like kind of gets a night you know he wants to see it real in the space first um and then like with a bat i said you know this guy's like if he's putting on a show for the guys then he's gonna brag and i want to rant i'd love to do kind of

like a boston themed rant and luckily our script supervisor from this was from springfield mass so i could be like when the fucking lands down the street he went yeah on that one i'm like speaking some alien tongue and marty's like nope i got it it's like all period correct i couldn't say like fucking dude you reference ted ted williams or yeah i want to say teddy fucking ball game but he said you got to say teddy williams teddy ball games too obscure i was like all right but so so that was my compromise in the scene but yeah no he let me fucking teddy went fucking williams went you know yeah on that all the way to fucking lansdowne street went yeah on that one kid the crowd's going fucking fanways going wow for fucking teddy fucking williams

so that all that kind of classic boston ranting that Quentin would let me do but I have a special relationship with him you know he's like he's like a brother was it kind of cathartic shooting those scenes it's amazing like with the bat with that like he kept me like a tiger in a cage for like five days he would be like okay we're getting your scene today and I was in the back and I had them set up a heavy bag for me and like weights and a pull-up bar right so i was just like hitting and just like trying not to burn myself out but trying to like stay like dirty and loose and fucking jacked up for it and also i knew that that was the scene i was in a tank top and the rest of the scene i was gonna have wardrobe on so it's like if i was gonna be ripped it had to be for that

scene so i would just like i was like i would tell the ad like give me like you got to give me like a two minute warning before we roll camera and they would run i would just like fucking hang from the pull-up bar just like hang toes like fucking screaming and sweating and then you know just warm up and then like finally by the end i just like went crazy and i blew out my voice i mean i have no training for that for that how for that how to scream. But, you know, everyone had tricks. Gummy was like, Gummibarren, Gummibarren. So like take gummy bears, bring your voice back, which is crazy. I didn't know.

And then so, you know, it felt amazing to do it. But I remember the, it's that moment before it's like you have this knot in your stomach. It's kind of like before I do a decapitation, you get like this nervous energy and you want it to go right. But when I had to shoot Hitler in the face, you know, we shot in in the fire stage but then we went on a regular stage with a flame bar so i'm not when we're shooting my close-up of that slow motion i was like this has to be like the most intense thing like this is all these guys want to do this is revenge for every person he knows has been killed and you know and then but you're friends with everyone so like geraldine was the camera assistant from south america who does the clap and she's like what's with you mr bad mood oh mr eli

mr moody actor i'm like geraldine i'm about to shoot hitler oh sorry i forget i forget because you're my friend like taking my process seriously yeah you know whereas michael fastbender fucking switches it on and off and like christoph waltz like they're so good that you're just like holy fuck i don't know how these guys like fast bender at the time i mean you could go until fucking 5 30 in the morning partying in berlin and pick up 5 45 6 8 and he's just like a machine did you guys do that i couldn't because i was shooting nation's pride the nazi propaganda movie quentin had me directing the movie within the movie so while so between going to the, I would go to the gym at 4,

I would freaking shoot all day, and then I would have to have a production meeting planning the black and white movie. So at the end of the theater, I'm basically blowing up my own movie. Quentin's like, just get me some gunfire shots so that when Zola shoots Shoshana, no one notices. I got him like, I had my brother, flew my brother out with two cameras. I got him like 200 shots in three days

of throwing people off roofs and piles of bodies and swastikas. Like I went crazy shooting. Yeah. So fun. I watched like that full length. It's a long. It's five and a half minutes. Yeah.

Yeah. It was a lot. Yeah. Because in the movie, there's just like a few scenes. Yeah. And yeah, it was fun. I had one guy like as an American soldier calling Hitler going, hello, Hitler. I'm sorry. Like just stupid. I remember that. Stupid. Quentin's like Hitler going, hello Hitler, I'm sorry.

Just stupid. I remember that. Quentin's like, the problem is this is like too good. He's like, your footage is really, really fucking great. So that was like the most forbidden horror movie I could do as a Jew was like shooting a Nazi propaganda movie. And then when watching it in the theater with all the people in the, actually my mom was there like being a Nazi extra.

It was so funny. They were like, we'll never go to Germany. And after two hours they're like, we're so thankful we came we came all the anger's gone and then my mom's dressed in like nazi costume like being in the movie in the crowd and and they it was like we'd watch the movie where i'm in the thing with a bomb on my foot in the tuxedo and then like he'd go cut and the german's like it's very good it's yeah it's good like everyone's like patting me on the shoulder it was like weird to get complimented by the nazi extras on my nazi propaganda movie it was just a watch like lanny ruffinstahl how do you say her name that leni

ruffinstahl yeah quentin had some movies he had one there would you'd sus was a big one he had there's crazy stuff there was like when he had called hitler saves hitler makes a town for the jews where they had all this like food it's so fucked up they had like all this food out this is genuine propaganda genuine oh there were there were 800 movies made right and they were they were innovators when it came to cinema oh yeah yeah i mean most like mostly all these guys were doing it so gerbil said the whole thing so the uh this movie hitler builds a town for the jews right jewish director jewish everyone's in it and there's all this food at and it's like they're sitting at a table and there's all this food and it's like they're sitting at a table

and there's all this food and it's basically like we're not killing anyone we just built a town for them just so they're separate from us and it's all and apparently uh if anyone touched the food they were shot on the spot and a hundred percent of the people in the movie and involved in the movie were killed as soon as it was done oh my god so you're just watching all these people that you know were killed so you're just thinking about all that like that but you'd sauce is pretty crazy it's like that's the one the classic one with like the picture of the jew the big nose guy and the rat and him thinking about how to steal people's money and you know do terrible things it's really it's fucking crazy those propaganda movies it's nuts so um what does your folks do my dad's a psychoanalyst oh whoa yeah so would you visit him as a therapist

like well he independent of the dad's he had his office at our house so it was like growing pains like i'm here like or do crazy people go to your house like at the time psychiatry was a kind of wild not like everybody had a therapist especially in boston like was there boston dudes who would come in and be like yeah we're Well, not mass holes. But, like, I remember my dad being, like, talking. We were talking. My brother was talking about the Bruins at dinner. My dad's like, they're going to be fine next year. I'm like, what do you mean?

He's like, well, the Russians are coming. I'm like, what? He's like, no, they're getting these three Russian players. I'm like, how do you know? He's like, I can't say. We're like, are you seeing the general manager of the Bruins, dad? He's like, I didn't say that. You said that, not me.

So my dad was super secretive about who his patients were. And a lot of times we were at school, so we didn't say that you said that not me we're like so my dad was super secretive about who his patients were and a lot of times we were at school so we didn't you know we didn't know but the thing that's funny is like everybody else i can i mean my dad was like every dinner was just like therapy my dad taught me dream interpretation so like on inglorious bastards i was like the resident dream interpreter i would sit and interpret quite it's like i have a dream and he would tell me his dream that i would interpret it and he's like that's amazing and so suddenly everyone's coming to me telling me literally what their dreams were

asking me to explain them and he's like Christoph had a dream like right before we started shooting the movie Christoph Waltz plays Hans Landa and he's like

he's like I'm in an elevator I'm like well it's so complicated I was like let me call the master so we're at like the cast dinner

before we start shooting and my dad had read the script I'm like hey dad i'm with christoph he's gonna play londa can i put him on he had a dream you might help me it's like hello sheldon hi it's a little loud i can't hang just one moment and he steps outside christoph nojo comes back three hours later like tears in his eyes he's like your father is the most incredible man i have the whole character like that was my dad so then everyone's like when my father is the most incredible man. I have the whole character. Like, that was my dad. So then everyone's like, when my dad comes, he's set psychiatrist. Like on Cabin Fever, there's a scene where Jordan Ladd had to like cry and be emotional.

And she's just like, Eli, can you just get your dad? I was like, set psychiatrist. My dad came in. And while they're like setting up the lights, Jordan lies down. And my dad's like, so tell me about your mother. And Jordan's like, roll the camera. Like, it was actually, I was like, I can't believe you're using your powers for evil. This is amazing.

And I think psychoanalysis probably lends itself well to filmmaking for you, right? For sure. I mean, because I think about the Keanu character in Knock Knock, and like you're talking about the repression and like the way that he kind of conceives himself as a good guy in his own mind, but it's only because those ideas haven't really been challenged. And that all seems like stuff that could be born out of your dad teaching you how to think about those things. Well, thank you.

I mean, I try to make sure that all of my movies are psychologically sound. I mean, I really, I would have my dad, I don't do this anymore, but I'd have my dad read my scripts and be like, okay, are these killers in Hostel accurate? Like, are these guys in Hostel too? If this guy's this repressed by his wife, what is his greatest fantasy to be, to like choke someone to death that looks like her right pick someone that looks like her so he could act out that fantasy and my dad would tell

us stories at dinner of just the most fucked up stuff like at passover seders and family dinners like tell boy in the i made him do it the other night so my dad's is my mom's 80th birthday and like all the grandkids were there my parents are 80 and 81 and great health wonderful they live out here in la they'll be like hollywood i've like moved them out here from boston and we're like tell boy in the drawer and everyone's like what's boy in the drawer everybody's like boy in the drawer boy in the drawer and my dad when he was in med school at nyu or he was a doctor resident he was at bellevue which was like the most you know the like the harshest for the craziest people in New York City um he was there and a and a woman had been brought

in there had been a complaint by neighbors of some smell and they went in her apartment and found in a drawer a boy who's 18 years old who had never been out of the drawer oh the mother was totally psychotic and his body was like all calcified and his skin was translucent and his brain was like this weird basket case thing. And so we're like hysterical laughing because we've read this over and over. We're obsessed with boring the drawer.

And so, and my dad is like, you know, 22 or something and they're going home and they go, what do we do? And my dad goes, honestly, i put him back in the drawer like what that's all he knows right like there's nothing and the the mother was like sent away to a mental the mother was crazy she's like no but i need to protect my boy this is the only way i can do it like she'd raised him and cleaned him and he'd never been out of the drawer boy in the drawer so that's where we grew up with those kind of stuff and then my dad trigger your all the time fascination with gore and stuff? Everything.

When did that kind of like, how old were you when you realized that that was kind of like something that you wanted to pursue? I was like eight when I saw Alien. I was desperate to see Alien. Because at the time, if you missed it, there was like, it wasn't a home video or cable.

Like if you missed it in the theater, it was gone. What was it about Alien that really spoke to you? Because I missed Jaws, but I'd heard about Jaws and read the novelization of Jaws and Alien just looked like Star Wars and Jaws combined. It just looked like Star Wars but really scary. I was obsessed with being scared and scary stories

and ghost stories and then it's interesting. I saw Pinocchio when I was three and that was my favorite movie but I was really scared of when the kids get turned into donkeys and when he gets eaten by the whale and then someone pointed out that hostile is a remake of pinocchio i was like what they're like yeah the kids go to pleasure island they get turned into jackasses and then like the factories like the whale like he gave like a serious deconstruction of the structure

of pinocchio and the structure of hostile i was like jesus christ he's right like we're just remaking the shit the trauma it's one or five. So I can't remember what I was talking about. When like Gore got triggered. When Gore got triggered, yeah. So I was, I remember seeing Alien and going to see that movie and the credits came up and it said produced by David Guiler and Walter Allen.

I was like, what does a producer, a productor do? My dad's like, producer has to find all the money. I was like, I think I want to do that. He's like, well, you have to find the money for the movie. It's pretty expensive. And I said, what does the producer, a productor do? My dad's like, producer has to find all the money. I was like, I think I want to do that. He's like, well, you have to find the money for the movie. It's pretty expensive. And I said,

what does the director do? He goes, well, the director gets to spend the money. Tell everybody what to do. He was like, I'm going to be director. I remember it was like eight or nine.

I was like, I'm going to be director. From watching Alien, and I was so traumatized by that movie. That's such a Hollywood answer from your dad too. Like, producer gets the money, director spends the money.

Director spends the money. And then I ran out of the movie theater puking. I had this horrible thing where I would puke during movies. And then I became psychosomatic. Like, we went to see this movie called Outland where heads exploded. My parents were looking at me like, are you going to puke? I'm like, what? And I, like, ran down the theater projectile vomiting on people.

So my parents were like, you can't see horror movies anymore because you puke. And was like no i can make it i can make it and then raiders came out everyone's like faces melt faces melt and so i was my parents like you can't see it but everyone knew that raiders was like the new star wars and i finally came out i was like i didn't puke i did it i was so proud of myself that i made it through and that feeling of like i made it i survived it then home video started i was like i want to see pieces. I was like, whatever's the most violent shit I could see. And I became obsessed with Dick Smith and Tom Savini and Fangoria Magazine and special makeup effects. And to me, it was like a magic trick.

Suddenly it wasn't violence anymore. It wasn't real. It was, oh, how did they pull off that trick? Are you an adrenaline junkie? Like, do you, is that, because for me, I love like roller coasters, getting scared and all that kind of stuff. That's sort of what draws me to horror movies. So is that because for me i love like roller coasters getting scared and all that kind of stuff that's sort of what draws me to yeah horror movies so is that it feels great i can do

it in horror movies i never could do it with sports like i started like in chile when i'd go down for christmases because it's you know summer there i would take surfing lessons and finally standing up because i was like i always wanted to surf growing up in boston there was not a lot of opportunity for it and then i always felt like i was too old to learn and i was like fuck it i'm gonna do it i'm gonna get like rocked i'm gonna get knocked get knocked to my ass i was also terrified of sharks so i started diving with them and now i'm like a big shark advocate like i love love sharks and i went over with whites and tiger sharks and like just anything that i have that like insane fear of i just want to lean in and get over it and understand it to try and decode it but yeah i liked i love the feeling

of being scared in a movie and i also realized like okay if you're gonna take your girlfriend if you're gonna take a girl to a movie and like george clooney and brad pitt you know ryan gosling's on the screen they're looking at you they're looking like you're not looking so good but pretty kruger's up there michael myers jason yeah you're looking pretty good better by comparison exactly exactly and then they're like no competition then they're like and you're like there's some bad dudes out there like i'm no freddy krueger like i paid for your movie ticket i'll open your door for you yeah these guys will haunt your dreams and murder your family exactly and then they're like well i don't want to sleep alone that was the trick right

my girlfriend uh she gets too scared she won't watch I get too scared I used to have nightmares I had to go see a therapist about my scary dreams yeah I love scary movies

though I just love I love them too it's the best feeling so much fun going there and sitting through and then you're like

I made it through right it's a badge of honor yeah as a kid you're like psyched you made it through you can take it

you can stomach it cabin fever actually stuck with me the imagery of when the guy gets his face like when you see his uh jaw the bone and his teeth because i was like you know like 12 13 or something and uh that stuck with me for like months that's awesome yeah i watched with my brother in new york city and i was just like, fuck, dude, I need to watch Seinfeld. Yeah, well, that's what you want. Yeah, yeah, it was great. It was great. How did you get from graduating? You graduated from NYU to getting Cabin Fever made.

What jobs do you have in between there and stuff? That's a good question. I sort of did everything. When I was 18, I started working on sets, like on weekends and Saturdays. Just PA-ing or whatever? Anything, getting coffee, assisting, answering phones. Were you good on the walkie? there was a movie or whatever anything getting coffee assisting answering phone we get on the walkie I was great on the walkie I took me a while it took me when it's a learn learn walkie etiquette you know New York City there was there's a whole

thing of like as soon as I remember I was on Central Park West this TV show and this woman was like the problem was like what are you fucking PA and i go yeah she's like fuck you you fucking pa i go nice to fucking meet you she's like hi i'm barbara like it like they do it to see if you're they're testing opposite yeah yeah um but i had after central park west my friend reina was the office coordinator she's like um i just got the job like i think i'm gonna work on private parts and i was like dude the howard stern movies we were all i was pretty obsessed with Howard Stern and then she said you know do you want to like

she's like I think it's supposed to snow there's like March there's a freak snowstorm coming so we want to do this thing with like Gary and these girls in the like

out in the street I don't know what's going to go on but can you just go with them I'm like yeah sure so I go with like Gary and these girls and they're all like

stripping they're all like stripping. They're like 1971, Howard's first job interview. And Gary's like, can you take your top off? And he goes like, what? And he's like getting them to strip.

And they're like driving. It's like on a highway median in the middle of nowhere. And like cars are driving by and they're honking, but they're going, Baba Booey, Baba Booey. Like they don't even care that there's naked girls. So then they shoot the reverse and they were like,

Hey, we got the camera guys. Like, I don't want to be in this movie. I was like, I'll do it. So it's like Gary and me. And I'm like holding the camera. And of like, hey, we got the camera guys. Like, I don't want to be in this movie. I was like, I'll do it. So it's like Gary and me and I'm like holding the camera. And of course, all that got cut from the movie.

But I got to be Gary's cameraman. And then like then they built a studio for a bedroom for Howard to sleep at Silver Cup Studios because he would do his radio show in the morning. Then he would shoot the movie and then he would wrap it like eight at night and have to go to bed. But he didn't want to drive it an hour and a half. So he's like, what if i just sleep here and they said well why don't we just like who do we trust that can be here with howard in case anything goes wrong i'm like well eli so they called me so i would just sit outside his door and i was working on the script for cabin fever i'd be like good night howard and then i was like do you want any porn

i have tracy lawrence movies like no it won't help me go to sleep that's shooting schedule thinking about howard working that hard it, I'm literally getting anxiety right now. There's a lot. Even on the little things that we've done, I've gotten to the breaking point, like I felt mentally a couple times. Have you been stretched that thin where you were like, like have you had mental breakdowns? Because I've never been in your position where you have like,

I'm throwing it out there, like a $30 million budget, and then you have 100 people on crew relying on you, and you have to like show up every day and be like the general. Did that ever, have there been cracks in the armor before? Or how do you deal with it? No, I think that's where I thrive. And I don't say that as like a brag.

I just like, that's actually what I do really well, is that handling that kind of pressure and handling that kind of amount of people. It's, you know, between the movies and handling that kind of amount of people it's you know between the movies and the getting the movie set up there's obviously moments of anxiety

and you want the shoot to go well but I'm so happy to do it and being a PA so I've worked for this producer named Fred Zolo

who was doing Angels in America on Broadway did this movie Quiz Show Quiz Show's one of my favorites really I worked on Quiz Show no you didn't

I have a Quiz Show crew jacket Charlie Van Doren yeah Charlie Van Doren well Yeah, Charlie Van Doren. Well, he was the best. Ralph Fiennes. I went to the wrap party. One of the best. The best part was the wrap party of Quiz Show.

I'll never forget. There was some girl from Entertainment Tonight and some other girl. Like, I was the PA. I was, like, the producer's assistant. So I was there, and I had, like, no money for taxis and stuff. I was still, you know, living with, like, my three roommates on 25th Street. And some girls were, like, going uptown. I was like, can I share a cab with you? like i don't even have money and the girl's like yeah

oh my god sure come on in and then she's like and so like ray fines was talking to her and he's like he's doing his baltimore thing game yeah so so yes i watch i'm watching rave well i used to do rave i used to do like i'd be like this is ray fines i'd like to go see the porkies trilogy can you get can you get tickets for me and then they'd be like uh ray fines wants to go see the porkies like i'd call the other people and do like the right so i was like my i was fine-tuned at that time i can't do it now i would call it paul scoffield i was like do stupid impressions um i'd be like where is weekend at bernie's two playing i need to see. And they're like, Paul Schofield called. He wants a copy of Weekend at Bernie's 2 for a scene for tomorrow.

Shit like that. So I remember like Ray Fiennes was like talking to this girl. And she's like, okay, good night. She goes, Eli, are you ready? And she fucking puts her arm around me and gets in the car. And he just looked at me and his jaw just hit the ground. And then the next day I was like working for this producer. And I was listening in the phone call.

The producer was like, hey, how late was the party the party he's like eli left the party and took all the girls with him i was like that was it i mean they i literally got out of the cab yeah 15 bucks that's a big moment were you like okay i can make it happen in hollywood i felt well i met david lynch there and did cool which was awesome and he's like here's the deal nikola tesla he was going to do a whole project on nikola tesla I said I was still at NYU I was like a junior at NYU and running his office full-time and working I mean I just made it work I was like I would go to school I would run his office I had different friends interning because if I didn't want to pay anybody and I learned so much

working for him at David Lynch and I remember watching Redford direct Scorsese on Quidditch. Just like sitting there on set. It was so, so fun. And Scorsese is so good at that. In that movie. He's great. Because he owns like Lipdahl or something.

Geritol. Geritol. Yeah, the big advertiser for the show. Yeah. The best. So you're sitting there in New York City. And I got to go to opening night of Angels in America. And I just had this crazy New York City.

Was Al Pacino in that? Pacino was not in that. He was in the movie version. But it was, it's great. And I subsequently got to meet Pacino. And you got to meet all my heroes, like Pacino and everyone. It's really, you know, my friends, it's incredible to have like grown up

obsessed with these movies and then getting to meet them and know them. And then also sort of my movie nerddom completely paying off. Like everyone just made fun of you. Like you're wasting your time. time you're just watching movies why are you spending all this time watching movies and then like you meet them you meet pacino and you can talk about scarecrow and panic and needle park and like all these different movies that people generally don't i mean obviously scarface but a lot of movies cruising yeah stuff that people generally don't bring up that's like yeah i love cruising

so so there's a lot of but so okay so i'm working and i basically wrote cabin fever with my roommate randy and we're 22 and i made a student film called restaurant dogs which is my tarantino reservoir dogs parody it was ron mcdonald killing his gang on a killing spree and you had to shoot it on film on like 60 millimeter and it was kind of a it's like it was like monty python it was like a terry gilliam like monty python it was like a terry gillum like half animated because i was like oh i'm on an animated vietnam flashback with like grimace and hamburglar fucking prostitutes like i'm born on fourth of july and playing russian roulette and it was just nuts like they did that some teachers didn't want to graduate me after

seeing it but i showed it to an agent who's like this is insane but it's funny and if you write a feature script maybe i can help you get it made. So we wrote Cabin Fever. I'll never forget it. It was like, we wrote it like three weeks or four weeks. And we tried to get it made. We spent six years just trying to get money. Yeah. And just setting up LLCs and failing. And finally.

How many pitches were involved in that? I mean, count six years, every single person you could ever meet. And you'd have like a deck and a script and a budget and a shooting plan. And we're going to do it for half. And at the time, we're like, well, we know Jay Moore. Let's ask Jay. And what if Steve Zahn plays this character? And let's get Mary McCormick and Zach Orth, like all the New York actors that we knew at the time could be in it.

But, you know, then it's like, okay, they're not available. They're too big. They've aged out. And then I finally moved to L.A. I was like, everyone's like, I realized that all the money was here in L.A. And a friend of mine, Evan Ostrowski from film school, was like, dude, I realized that all the money was here in LA and a friend of mine Evan Ostrowski from film school was like dude

we did these animated shorts I got money from to do this thing called Chowdaheads it was this thing for wrestling and this thing the rotten fruit

for this website and I basically finally got the money we started shooting it with like $50,000 we're like let's just go let's just start it was crazy

did you ever do you have any moments where you're just like I don't think I can get this made like did you ever or did you always like, I don't think I can get this made? Or did you always just kind of know, like, eventually I will get this made? I just need to get to the right person. Yeah, I just think you need to have such conviction that you're insane about it.

Like, I remember being 25, and there was, we called our apartment in New York City Mauschwitz because there was, like, a mouse infestation. And then we had to, like, bomb it with poison. So it was, like, poison and dead rats. So we're, like, here we are in Mauschwitz because there was like a mouse infestation and then we had to like bomb it with poison so it was like poison and dead rats so we're like here we are in mauschwitz like picking up every day we'd like pick up like 30 dead rats they were in the walls it was a nightmare and i remember like wow my friends have jobs they're like starting to be doctors now and lawyers and they have health insurance and i'm like picking up dead mice my brother's like yeah but like you're you know you're not gonna be doing that forever you know

you're doing that because you don't want to take a full-time job. You don't want to take a job at a bank. You don't want to go to law school. You're trying to be a movie director. But I realized I was at a disadvantage being in New York. And once I moved to LA, I was like, oh, this is – my roommate was Neil Brennan, who then took over at Chappelle's show. I moved in with Neil because Chappelle moved out.

What was he like to live with? Neil was a tough roommate. Yeah, I could see that. And then his brother Danny. with Neil and then because Chappelle moved out. What was he like to live with? Neil was a tough roommate. Yeah. I could see that. And then his brother Danny. And I knew. Oh, and his brother Kevin is supposed to be like tougher too. Well, Danny.

Everyone's like, oh, Danny's easy. So Danny moved in after Neil moved out. But I knew Neil. I knew Neil since he was 20. Like we were friends in New York. I just had never lived with him. But then he took my apartment. We did like an apartment switch where Neil like moved back to New York.

I took Neil's. Basically, it was me and Neil's brother. And then I finally. But then he took my apartment. We did like an apartment switch where Neil like moved back to New York. I took Neil's. Basically, it was me and Neil's brother. And then I finally got money to live on my own. And, you know, once you find that first investor, I was like, I mean, Cabin Fever, we had people like almost lost their houses. You know, my dad put his retirement money into it. We got shut down by the union. We never had the money. I would literally shoot and then call people between setups for money.

I was begging for money while I was shooting. And we all got stress-related health problems from the film. And then we took it to the Toronto Film Festival. And I remember watching it in the lab, getting it on the plane, flying to Toronto. And because thankfully Harry Knowles on Ain't It Cool News had written, I had a phone call with him and he's like, I think this movie is going to be amazing. I have a feeling about it. Because we were programmed dead last. Out of 345 movies, we were like 346 and he's like don't go home stay for cabin fever and i remember getting off the plane seeing a friend from film school who's like working at miramax and he's like dude everyone who's seen your movie said it's amazing and then like literally i'm i was the only one who had seen

it at the lab by myself checking the print and then we sold it and everyone made their money back and then that was it yeah it was a hit right it made like 80 million it's a great well in the theaters it made like it would cost a million and a half because there's made 30 but then on 30 everyone's buying dvds it made another 70 million so that's right 100 million yeah it was crazy it was one of the highest it was the top grossing film for lionsgate that year and then they're like let's do saw let's like it then hostile it just became huge huge did you get like whiplash from the change in your kind of life from that yeah it was crazy it's all of a sudden you're like you know because this it happened to me at 32 33 like all of a sudden everything changes where you finally are like in the club like people

are returning your calls like you're like oh actually director i remember going bowling with my friends and there was a tv on it was like look look look it was mtv and it was commercial for cabin fever and everyone stopped and looked at me and that was the moment it changed they were like you're a real director like you really did it like you have a commercial on mtv i was like i told you this isn't like some indie everyone thought i was doing blair witch it's like yeah i went out in the woods i made an indie movie it's going to be coming out but when there were the commercials on mtv people were like oh you're a fucking mate like and then it opened the peter jackson saw it and gave me quotes and Quentin saw it and became friends with him and then I was offered a lot of stuff and I was like fuck it I think I should just

do my I don't know what to do remember was the main was Duke's a hazard I turned down and I was offered like 300 grand to do it which is more money I'd ever seen in my entire life and it would like wipe me out of debt it would have been everything and i said no because i just didn't click with the script and i go i went over to quentin's house and i was like i think i just fucked myself because this is a warner brothers movie they've offered me the directing job i could get out of that and he's like fuck that he's like don't do it he's like don't think about opening week i think about that we can you know think about he's like what other ideas you have what are the ideas you have and i was like well i have this one idea but i think it's too

sick for like mainstream movies and i told him the idea for hustle and he's like what other ideas you have what are these you have and i was like well i have this one idea but i think it's too sick for like mainstream movies and i told him the idea for hostile and he's like dude that's the best idea i've heard in 10 years for a horror movie you have to make that movie you have to he's like i would even come on and present that movie i'm like really he's like yeah i was like i was like well maybe it's just too much for people he's like don't think about opening week but think about the weekend 15 years from now if kids are watching to sleep over that's the weekend you want to make a movie for and i I did it, and it wound up being, like, the most financially successful of all my films. It was crazy. Who of your heroes have you been able to create

a close relationship with? For sure, Quentin. I mean, Quentin was, like, I was making Restaurant Dogs in film school, and then, you know, your best man at his wedding. It's like, and he's my Passover Seder. He's, like, my brother. When did he get married?

He got married in November, last November. Whoa. So, yeah. I listened to your podcast, The History of Horror November, last November. Whoa. So yeah. I listened to your podcast, the History of Horror, I got with Quentin. So fun. His movie knowledge isn't like, he just keeps going. You're like, this is insane.

You're swimming in the deep end. Yeah. I could watch movies every day. I could watch five movies a day for my entire life. His ability, not just to watch movies, but to retain the information. Like cultural impact and stuff everything what it was who made it what like the what the reviews said about it it's like it's like he's a mad genius and has entirely channeled it into movies yeah and there are very few people like the people

that i met that had an intellect that's like daunting that you're like oh my god this is like one of the smartest people i've ever met but also truly one one of the funniest. It's Quentin and David Lynch. And those two guys were like incredible mentors for me. You know what I mean? But you sit there and you're just like, Jesus Christ, I will never know as much about movies as this guy. Do you, because I've noticed in myself too, that I'm like hyper competitive,

like sometimes to my detriment, I think. Do you have that too? Like, are you measuring yourself against other directors and are you trying to beat them critically or commercially? That's something you do at the beginning of your career, hardcore. And you always do that. And it's something that I've sort of worked to get over. And I think that kind of with age and experience,

you learn to become competitive with yourself. And once you're focusing on someone else and what their career is, like life happens. And it's funny because I was like cabin fever, it all worked out. And then I was like, here's an idea for hostile. And it's like, it was so sick.

They had to create a new term to describe it. And they were like torture porn and this, it was just like, but I was like, this is easy. I can just fucking shock people. But then you realize life has other plans for you. And you're just like, okay, so there's people that are kind of in your class that you're like, you're friends with. They're like Rich Kelly or Edgar Wright, like the people that we all broke around the same

time. You'll always kind of like. And you always have the competitive thing, but it's not in a bad way. You're just like, that's how you keep track of each other. You keep track of how you've changed. But they see a movie, you're like, oh, fuck, he did a movie. He really, he went for it. He did it.

Okay, I'm going to push myself. Like, you can use it as fuel in a really healthy way where you're not like, fuck, they did it. Or you're, you know, you never. You're not mad at them. You're not mad at them. You're never rooting for them. They're your colleagues, not your competitors. You're not, their success is not.

They make you better. They make you better. Their success is not a measure of your failure. And I always talk about with the Saw guys, how we were pushing each other with Hostel and Saw, who could be the most shocking and who could be the most critical. And even if their box office was bigger, I'd be like, yeah, but I did the scene that upset more people.

I got banned in more countries. And they'd be like, yeah, we got this. I'm like, I got on Howard Stern. But the thing that I had was i sort of because i was there first and i kind of got out there i was like the director i used to love going on talk shows i was like doing the tonight show i did jimmy kim this was kind of before howard stern's all before and glorious bastards so then after that so it was just like you just start winning it and then you're like what do you what am i doing like i'm losing track of what's important like if you focus

on because it literally means nothing. And by the way, nobody else is keeping track except you. And I'm sure someone's keeping track of me in a way that I don't even understand, but you just, you can only be competitive with yourself. If you think,

am I pushing myself from best? Because you can't control what's going to happen. So all you can do, the only thing you control is your frame of mind and the work you do. And that's why I'm really, I went off social media for like, I haven't been on in like two months. Like I just realized that it starts to, you know, take me to that place of like,

why the fuck aren't I doing that? That's what they're doing. I should be doing that shit. Like of like the FOMO and you're like, no, no, no, no. I'm like right where I should be. I'm like tuning everything out so I can get into my creativity. Like what's in my brain?

What's in my brain that I'm not accessing because I'm filling it with worrying about what other people are doing? Yeah, there really is nothing, because I get those competitive feelings too, and there's really nothing better than when you feel like, you know, you're falling behind a little bit, so then you use that to push yourself, and then you get some kind of victory.

It's just like when you utilize it in the correct way, it's such a satisfying feeling, but it's so, especially because utilize it in the correct way yeah it's such a satisfying feeling but it's so especially because we're early in our careers and it's so easy to fall into those oh you make yourself crazy because there's no social media that's like that's like where we exist right now I feedback I feel yeah oh the feedback is it's hard no you can't you got there nice though so I yeah it's great I had message boards I was like the most hated director I mean it just it happened yeah the fucking Razzie Awards all that shit you just gotta go no i'm doing my thing yeah sometimes to be misunderstood

that's how it's part of the deal was it hard for you when you broke through to like not be able to like because i'm sure you had like a group of friends that you broke through with to not be able to like you know get it all changes because you're you're pure group shifts and i talked about this with some other directors pat Patty Jenkins, other people. Like, if there's your friends and I have, like, I turned down $350,000 or whatever for Dukes of Hazzard, you can't have that conversation with your friend who's working at Ralph's because they're going to be like, you fucking asshole. It's not a problem. They're like, you don't have a real problem.

Why are you talking about it? But then you talk to Quentin. He's like, that's really smart. Play the long game. Because if you don't think you can make that movie, great. And if you're not excited to make that movie, then it's going to fuck you in your career. You don't want to make a bad movie.

That's your first studio movie. And you're not psyched about it. And you can't kill it. Don't do it. Don't worry about the money. Do what you love. Follow your heart. Follow something you believe in and the money will follow and the other thing is that there's no rules there's no fairness there's nothing nothing

is equitable like it's not like oh you're a good person and you did right and you were like virtuous and you got like there's some people that are just fucking assholes that you think have no talent whatever and they're like having crazy success and you just go you know what good for them. That is their path. Maybe these other people saw something I didn't, or I can't control whether or not they're a good person. It's like nothing is just.

And once you kind of let go of that and be water and you can just move around things, everything is easier. What do you do to keep your head on straight? That's why I don't go on social media. I think you will fucking spiral. If I go on Instagram and I just start looking at stuff, I mean, I'll post stuff to promote, but like reading comments like reading comments it's so to me it's like poise i think i like to think of my creativity as like a well that is pure with fresh rainwater and if you look

at other people are doing in other people's lives i have it me this is me personally now this is my weakness other people have alcohol, drugs, but it's like sewage being dumped into it. And I like had this pure thought where I was in this headspace of like writing a scene. I'm never gonna create anything. Like, what am I doing here if I'm not here to create something?

I'm in an opportunity where I can write movies, produce movies, direct. I can act in movies. I can host TV shows. I can be, I'm like, I can do anything I want. So now it's about me choosing what to do with my time. So really, you have to just find ways to focus on yourself. And that's why I go to the gym and I work out. And when you're feeling, you know, like a part of it, and that's growing up,

too. It's like, it's hard when you're young and you're like, see it. And then like, you were so close. I mean, I've been so close on fucking movies, like you wouldn't believe. And I've turned down movies that you're like, oh, are kidding me why did you turn that down you idiot like after hostile i could have done anything and i was like now i'm gonna do hostile too because i don't want to fucking take orders from anybody so like and then i look back i that's what that was what i needed to do at the time then i'm like fuck it i'm gonna go to chile for four years and just make movies there and reinvent myself and clear my head and that's why i like shooting you asked why i like shooting overseas and why i like shooting in prague and south america it's like no one fucking bothers you man you're just like there's nothing and you're in a new bubble

and it's not movie bubble like ours is not comparable but we had that in hawaii kind of we shot an episode of hawaii 50 yeah a weeks ago. And it was... Like, it was... Like, you were talking about being on location. It's just like... We were both ready to move. It was so refreshing. Yeah. Well, you get seduced because movie time happens.

And suddenly you're, like, two weeks or, like, two years. And friendships get really intensified. And relationships are really intensified. But to me, I was a big summer camp kid. I don't know if you guys went to summer camp because you got to grow up basically in summer camp but on the east on the street right but on in the east coast we go to summer camp yeah and the closest replication to summer camp is making a movie yeah because you're in it for eight weeks it's a bunch of people you're all kind of living together eating meals you have to do stuff every day there's a

schedule but it's all fun stuff that you all kind of want to do and it's not like school and then at the end everyone's like we're all gonna be best friends and stay in touch forever every day and then you all lose touch except for maybe one person and then you reunite on something else the next year and it just pick up exactly where you left off yeah is it is it kind of weird but is it is it hard to direct Bruce Willis for some reason it seems to me like it'd be tough. Here's the thing. Every actor has their thing, and it's as tough as you make it. You know, like certain people like Bruce, there's just a way to approach him,

and there's a way to do it. And I never had a problem with him because I asked what happened. When did people run afoul of Bruce? And it's generally if he's an actor that likes it, if I'm going to direct him, you stop everything. You walk up to him, and it's the two of you having a conversation. If he feels like you're yelling at him across the room, then it's like, don't fucking embarrass me in front of the crew

by telling me I'm doing something wrong. It's like he's had enough bad experiences in his career. He likes to be very specific direction and he doesn't want you to waste his time. So you have to really have it figured out, know what you need him for, use him for that, and talk to him up close one-on-one.

Then there's not a problem. Yeah, like competency is like the great equalizer. Like if any of these, and I don't mean to put him in this group without knowing anything about it, but like temperamental actors, if they have faith in you, that can regulate them. People told me they were like, well, fucking Russell Crowe is difficult. And I was in China with him. I made him the Iron Fist.

I was like, oh, he's going to be a pretty, you know. And then Rizzo was like, Crowe's the best. And then he was. I fucking sat down with Russell and I loved him right off the bat. And, you know know he'll want to talk and you'll want to listen and he has a very strong opinions on the characters because i'm writing it but he's also really smart he's the one who has to do it and sometimes i can be like okay what is the note behind the note what is he worried about what is actually okay they don't

want to be he's like why would i fucking break a table with a knife that's stupid i've never done like and then i'm like okay yeah but it's a magic knife and it shoots bullets and it's kind of a fantasy movie and he's like this is gonna be fucking ridiculous let me try and then i'll do it i'll show him the playback i'm like see he's like i got it all right that's fucking cool let me do it again and then he was he's like okay that's fucking great you know like as long as you trust that you know what you're doing right and that you don't back down like a lot of these guys will bark to see if you're just gonna like will to be but if you're like you you never meet if someone's because because actors i know what it's like having been on that scene with the bat and i know what they're like like they're exhausted

they're afraid they're under a lot of pressure they want to look good maybe they don't feel like they're looking as good as in their younger years like there's a lot of stuff going on so you just have to be like what do i need you you to do? And like, I got you, man. Like, I will make you look great. Like, what's your concern? We're going to figure it out. No problem. You wouldn't do that because you think that's fucking stupid. You think that's going to look dumb.

Okay, here's where I need you to get to. How should we do it? Like, don't meet their level of anger. Just listen to them. When did you learn that? Was that pretty early on that you knew how to sort of relate to actors? Or is that sort of? I think by after Hostile 2, I was like a little bit burned and then acting in Inglourious

Bastards and watching Pitt, watching Kristoff, like watching how Quentin directed actors, watching him like when actors were difficult, how he kind of handled it and sort of sympathizing with him for that. And then going back, going, okay, it's the rehearsal time. But it's really like kind of understanding. It's just like being around them. And once I went through the process, it's also like after that fire scene,

people are like, he's not a fucking pussy. Like he really did it. Like you acted on screen with Pitt and Kristoff for Quentin. Like that was no bullshit. It was a real performance. And so we get that you understand what we're talking about. This isn't a director that's afraid to get his hands dirty. Quentin shoots, he stands next to camera.

He doesn't see, he doesn't have a chair. He doesn't have a monitor. He's like, he's like, his philosophy that why directors start to suck is they get lazy in the chair. They get comfortable. So he's always like up and he's standing there. He's like, if I feel like,

oh, I have to get up to that. Like that's when the movie starts to be bad because then the DP is directing the movie. You know, the director has to be there on set next to the camera looking at the actor. So, but then I finally got the opportunity where we were like Jack Black and Cate Blanchett, which is just like an absolute, you know, Cate Blanchett is fucking cool and funny and great. And you can be like, wow, that was terrible. I didn't think Cate Blanchett was terrible. She was like, fuck you. Just tell me what to do. I'd be like, wow, that was terrible. I didn't think Cate Blanchett was terrible. She was like, fuck you.

Just tell me what to do. I'd be like, wow, were you blinking? Like she's never terrible, but you could joke like that. But she could miss. And Jack would be like, I'd be like, Jack, that was a tent. Like just dial it back. I was like, what's that? It was like the eyebrow, doing the eyebrow.

Like stop the brow. He's like, okay, thank you. Like they want to hear that. You know, like Cate was doing, I was like, Cate? She's like, what? I'm like, why are you blinking? She's like, I didn't even, she's like, fuck. She's like, I didn't even kate was doing i was like kate she's like what i'm like why are you blinking like she's like i'm like she's like i didn't even she's like fuck she's like i didn't even notice i was doing that like they have their sort of fallback things that they do that's kind of second nature um but also when they trust you and also you can get it what quentin what i learned

from quentin was he would call it the little sister take he's like okay we got the big sister and it could be whoever the two sisters of the moment are where there's the pretty older one and the not so pretty younger one he's like this one's like a little sister it's like we got like the big sister take that's the good one let's go for a little sister let's just see what happens like it may not be as pretty as the other take but it's still dater it's still fun and sometimes i watch okay i like giving an extra giving an actor no we got it it's great sometimes you're rushing move on

you know what we have time do you guys want to do one more just see what happens sure one more before the other thing Quentin did was like

was really smart was when we're doing like the scene where we had to be like Margarete he's like actors are always better off camera

watch what they do so he's like if you're the camera's on you and your guys are acting opposite me, you're going to be so loose and funny doing stupid shit. I think that's the hardest part about acting is being good when it's your close-up.

When it's your close-up. But then you can do it. But then Quentin will be, then he'll put the camera on you guys. And then I've already shot my shot. And then I'll come up with something so funny off camera. He'll be like, wait, wait, wait. And he'll fucking turn around

and he'll rewrite, relight the entire sequence. And that happened when we were shooting the margarita scene the margarita scene the margarita scene we didn't do christophe's coverage where it was like his his side so we did the lights we got to come in on a saturday for off camera for christophe and we're like well let's get in our costumes and everyone's like why are you getting on look because it's fucking christophe we're not what i'm gonna be like acting in like my normal street clothes like let me put on the tuxedo so it feels more authentic. Then if there's behind the scenes, maybe he wants to do a photo.

And we just started fucking around. I just started doing the hand gesture. And Quentin was laughing so hard. He's like, turn the camera around. He's like, let's do your hand gesture. And he's like, okay, Eli, I don't want to step on your gesture. He goes, but what if Omar copies Donnie and then he does it too? I'm like, that's perfect.

No, that's the right thing because it's the blind leading the blind. And it was just like the margheriti margheriti and it was just one of those stupid things that was based on a kid I went to high school with I went to Italy for two weeks and came back and started doing this because he was espresso in Rome like he started doing this fucking hand gesture yeah we're like what the fuck happened to you you're like some greek heavy metal fan and now you're like this like you want this I don't think people understand too that it takes a certain kind of person to be generous to the other person when the camera is not on them yes because some actors it seems like and i have very limited experience will kind of not give the

person who's on camera everything that they would give when they're on camera and it can kind of rob from their performance or i've been in a situation where actors will flub the line on purpose off camera to fuck up the person on camera. So then they have to improvise and change their dialogue to make up for, like by a word or two. Just like the competition thing, right? Yeah, just to make them look bad. So that's why they say there's no small parts, only small actors. Because an actor can come in for one scene in Christopher Walken Pulp Fiction and kill it.

You know, all the scenes in Charles Manson, all the scenes in once upon a time in america and uh once when i'm in hollywood so it's great when you have an actor and obviously like screaming is hard and doing stuff but like when those when i was doing that when they're doing the reactions to the baseball bat you know i was just like beating it and then like i just like started fucking the corpse and then jumping on it and like punching in the face and they were laughing so hard they were just like it was genuine you know i didn't tell i was going to do it but like they were like thank you you know that's and that's what it is like i understand when you have a scene and the other thing that quentin would do that was so cool is he's like when we go into interrogate diane kruger he's like he'd come back he's like now donnie and aldo you don't know what this fuck this bitch is

everything just went wrong in the tavern like he's like you know what who she is she a spy she fucking she claimed she's but she might be the one that fucking got your buddies just killed. Like all your friends, so you guys talk. So me and Brad would do the scene before the scene offstage, just the two of us. And then we'd fucking, like they would roll the camera and then we'd fucking go in and do the scene.

It was so fun. I'm like, I'm doing this war scene with Brad Pitt. It's fucking awesome. It was the best. That's awesome. Fuck a duck. That was your line, right? Yes, it was so fun i'm like yeah i'm doing this war scene with brad pitt it's fucking awesome it was the best that's awesome fuck a duck that was your line right yes it was i um what was brad like it's the best he seems like he seems like i've been watching like interviews for once upon a time hollywood he seems like the coolest dude yeah you want to talk about the legend yeah it's not i mean it's a spoiler alert there's no one better than that dude. Because I remember he was so, look, his life was big. It was at the height of him and Angelina and leaving Jennifer and just having twins.

And you would never know that any of that is going on when he shows up on set. He's just a chill dude. He's nice to every single crew member. He loves being there. He was, like, great with everybody. There was no, like, movie star bullshit. There's nothing i was like and i kept thinking like when is this like at when's like the real brad going is the monster gonna get nothing never he's just the the coolest dude i fucking love him and then like even when i

saw him on set and once upon a time in hollywood it's like exactly picks up like 10 years later just funny cool chill yeah you know i i really like i've and i think he's such a great actor yeah and he was he was great at giving advice like once everyone was like so what was floyd like he just started talking about like like we kind of waited and tiptoed around asking him questions about chet but then he would just talk about true romance and talk about floyd and talk about all his characters and i loved it and he loves loves loves movies and he told me he's like oh man i watched like i've watched green inferno like four times i was like

that's so awesome he has great taste his production company just like that's amazing really oscar movies yeah it's funny he's making oscar movies and it'll be like i think he loves like he loves jackass and hot he loved hostile he watched all my movies he was just like you're a sick man mr roth you're very sick man so i. Roth. You're a very sick man. So I just, like, I see him and I just start fucking laughing. He's one of those dudes. Who's a newish, or sorry, keep going. No, I was going to say.

Who's like a newish director that excites you? There are these guys, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who did this movie called The Endless that was done for like 200 grand that I thought was like really, really cool. I love when people do movies for like next to nothing. And you know, obviously when Jordan Peele came out with Get Out

and Ari Aster with Hereditary, I thought it was like great. These guys are coming out with really cool, interesting movies. But Benson and Moorhead, they did a new film that I haven't seen

with Anthony Mackie, but they did a movie called Spring. And I was just like, man, these guys are making movies for nothing and they're acting in them and they're taking very simple premise. I like that they take kind of one location

and turn it into something really cool and sci-fi. So I love those dudes. Cool. Should we get into the questions? Yeah. Whatever you want. Yeah. Oh, and Shark After Dark, what was it like working on that?

I loved it. Shark After Dark was fun because that's where I started learning about the shark slaughter, which is unfortunate. That's something that I'm kind of very involved in. I'm going to be coming out with a project soon about it, about like how 100 million sharks a year are taken out of the water

and they're like the doctors of the ocean and keep the water safe and the ocean healthy for everyone. And it was crazy. It was like every single person I interviewed, they were so cool and they were like, yeah, but you know,

the sharks are like going to be gone soon. I was like, what? Like, yeah, 100 million a a year that's the conservative estimate i found it's as high as 273 million so i loved it and i got to go diving i got to go diving with tiger sharks which is one of the greatest thrills of my life yeah and i went diving in guadalupe island last year with michael muller and laird hamilton wow so it's like with me and laird and great whites it was like laird ham Laird and Great Whites. It was like Laird Hamilton, Great Whites, Laird, Great Whites. I got this. Yeah.

And then I did that crazy pool workout at his house, which was absolutely terrifying. We were like walking underwater with weights with Gabby Reese being like, Eli, go. And you're like. He's always working.

He's like, it seems like Laird is always working out. He's a beast, dude. Yeah. Like from the moment he wakes up, he's optimizing. And I've seen it.

I've seen it like from that moment. It's like incredible. He's a human. He's a very unique human specimen. Yeah. does he get hang yeah i mean it's like intense like they're so like laird and gabby because his daughter was on the boat uh marise and she's really into horror movies and like serial killers so then i started like having dinner and like hanging out with them and like i was like i'll be at the i'll be with the hamiltons all day and then their daughter brody uh does equestrian and she was and then we got really

into katan so we're like i gotta go to lear hamilton's play katan with his kids like just the whole family was so nice and they do these kind of open pool trains that they're very generous to invite me to and they're super but gabby they're like superhuman they're really really nice who's your favorite serial killer probably hh holmes the original his deal was he he was the beast of chicago in 1896 he had a death hotel he was totally crazy at five identities and he would have people build this hotel that like if you turn on the shower like flames would shoot out and you like you there was steroids that like led to nowhere and then you would like push a button and the floor would drop out and you could fall down into a vat of acid

and in the basement he was like trying to he was stretching people to build a race of giants so yeah dicaprio has the rights to a book it's a great book called devil in the white city oh it's amazing oh that's the the larson book uh yeah his name i think so i've seen it yeah devil in the white city it's about it's about hh and when they caught him he's like i am the devil like they they finally like one woman escaped. And it's during the World's Fair. It was so transient. People would check. He had a pharmacy in the ground level.

But he would like, he would have people build and build and build and just give them plans and build these like torture rooms. And then they would go, can we get paid? And he would just kill them. It's a different time. Do you ever get scared on set? I get scared. My nightmares are like, oh, I had a dream.

I show up on set and there's no camera. Right. That's actually happened to me before every shoot. Really? I'll show up and there's no camera there. It's like, what are we shooting? I'm like, where's the camera? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. That happens to me a lot. But no, I mean, I get scared that we're not going to make the day or that that's going to happen. But no. No. All right. So we answer some questions from our listeners.

Dear Legends of Stoke, I unfortunately write in today with some historically low stoke. I recently moved into college for my freshman year. Like any wide-eyed freshman, I came in absolutely psyched to go out on the weekends and rage with the squad. On my first Friday on campus, my fellow stokers and I traveled to the infamous liquor store on campus that is known for letting subpar fake IDs slide. The transaction

went smoothly, and we were on our way back to the dorms when we were stopped by a freaking undercover cop. The officer immediately told us to drop our backpacks on the sidewalk and line up in a row. The officer claimed that she had tracked us from the liquor store and was now approaching us due to the fact that we displayed signs of being underage. In other words, she saw one of us put a bottle into a backpack. The ordeal ended with the whole squad getting fake ID and underage alcohol possession charges. Absolute vibe killer. Just to top things off, the officers made us pour out the bottles on the sidewalk as random bystanders snagged videos

of us. The crew is now under the magnifying glass of the campus police and is in serious danger if ever caught again. Any tips on how to still enjoy my freshman year despite this horrible setback on the first weekend? Advice or any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time due to the fact that this was a lengthy write-in. Sincerely,

a stoke-deprived stoke deprived stoker i can offer advice please go to prague oh good call go to prague go to europe where they like drinking age is 16 and it's like not even a question yeah where it's like do we want absinthe like with wormwood or not like or go to south america like literally get out take a trip to another city in europe and then we're like okay we're doing a semester here because then we can don't have to worry about any of this yeah i did that in high school where i went to spain and because i was i was starting to party and like my school it was a zero chance policy so i would have been out so my buddies and i we went to spain so good and uh i lived above a pub flaredy's so i was just crushing heinekens wasn't worried about

all that so it's great advice if you want to and i sort of and also i was in high school so it helped me sort of mature party wise before college so when i got to college you know people were just like puking everywhere doing crazy shit and i'm like i got this great advice i went i was an exchange student in france my second year my senior year it was like life-changing it was awesome yeah and the drinking and the wine it was nothing you i learned a lot they taught me a thing or two them they're french girls it's such a different culture around drinking the way they compared to americans you know they teach kids how to drink they start kids drinking at the dinner table with wine

when they're nine or ten years old so the kids get sick learn how not to do it and then learn not to be idiots by the 14 like so by the time they're 16 they can drink it's like they've been educated by their parents on how to drink it's crazy yeah I've never bypassed like the drinking is a race to get fucked up mentality that like I kind of adopted as like a 16 year old so i still i still like when i see booze i'm like i don't think am i getting a buzz i'm like am i getting fucked up tonight no probably not and then but if i do drink i'm typically i get it partying i was like that with weed i used to think with weed the point was to get as high as you could

as fast as you could i didn't smoke till i was 21 and I can't really handle it. I think the longer you wait, the better too. Yeah. I tried acid. I tried acid when I was like doing knock-knock. I was like in my 40s. I was like, I'm going to try acid. This would be great. And of course, like I go to Lollapalooza and I'm like really high on acid.

And Lorenz is there and she's like, it's like fear and loathing. She's like helping me like walk to the empanada stand. It was like, I felt like Benito del Toro at Circus Circus. And then two days later, they're like, Eli, you have your drug test. I was like, my what? They're like, yeah, we have to insure you. You're the director. So the investor wants you insured. So I went.

And me and Keanu. Keanu doesn't drink or do drugs or anything now. He's like, what? I'm like, I can't believe I'm going to get drug tested with Keanu Reeves. And so I was really excited. we go and we get like because that's like standard for insurance you need to do a drug test yeah so we do the drug test and we both pass and i was like oh it's amazing that like i passed you know with the acid and i was editing and i was talking to the producer i'm like god you remember like the one time in my life i try acid

what are the chances that i then get a drug test three days later and it could jeopardize the entire production amazing i passed he goes what are you talking about? We paid off the doctor. Oh, really? I had heard that acid, you need to do like a spinal tap to find it in the drug test. Did you hear that? Well, I know that it stays in your spine. Right. In like the fluid or something.

It's probably still there. Right. Yeah. Did you enjoy acid? It was the best. I saw the pixies in Soundgarden. I was like, caribou! I was so happy. I was like, caribou! I was so happy.

I was like, I just want to create art. Like, if you ever meet Lorenzo, just be like, just ask her to do her impression of me on Acid at Lollapalooza watching pixies in Soundgarden, like tears in my eyes. That's awesome. Nice. Hey, Chad and JT. Sorry it took me so long to write you guys, seeing that I've been listening from the very beginning.

But basically, I just turned 20 around the same time that I got off probation so of course I decided to fire up the dab rig but I didn't anticipate to get this high and I started to get really paranoid and think about all the shitty decisions I've made up to this point most recently getting fired from my telemarketing position at a big insurance agency

basically it was a bad trip I put on nature documentaries to help me calm down but it didn't work then I seriously got a notification that your new pod came out and i knew you guys could help what should i do guys help so this was kind of a time sensitive one but but this could happen again so maybe the advice will still be you know helpful i wasn't really listening to the question i was really spacing out i appreciate your care i was thinking about lava flues and the acid i was having a flashback yeah i do that so why don't you guys answer every question and i'll try and reverse engineer the

question i do like every question like jt so he smoked too much weed yeah basically oh he smoked too much weed this yeah i think he's having a bad trip yeah he fired up the dab rig and now he's tripping he's looking for how to calm down next time it happens and i'm the worst at this my brain that's why i have i have a french bulldog get a pet oh can i tell you monkey my dog this happens if i get like too high which is rare because or or when i get high period because to me there's no i don't have a cover no when to stop the once a year I do it. And then I'll just like my emotional support dog monkey is the best thing when you're high.

Cause she just wants her belly to be scratched and she's just very grounding. So if you can find a pet that's like really grounding to have around with you then and just stroke it, then it'll calm you down. Yeah. I, I don't really smoke weed either cause it, I can't handle it.

So, uh, but I just turn to like funny stuff i'll watch south park that usually gets me in the mood cheech and chong yeah cheech and chong they put on something funny if i get too high the thing i do to keep myself from thinking i'm dying or fixating too much on my bad decisions is uh i go out into public actually because it forces me to be a little bit more present. And oftentimes I'll just go do stand-up because like if I have to do stand-up, there's no time for me to worry about whether I'm going to die or not because there's bigger embarrassment at my feet. So the adrenaline counteracts the

effects of the THC. Yeah. And sometimes I think I'm jacking myself too much up and I'm just going to have a harder crash. But I do think like having a thing in front of me that doesn't let me focus on like the the bigger problems that there's no way to address anyways that i can just like i'm like all right just focus on the stand-up set and don't embarrass yourself being too high on stage and it helps yeah yeah we i i get paranoid my whole family like none of us really dabble i just get terrible movie ideas that i write down and i'm just like who's the keebler gnome what was that i did last time i got high i wrote down like because i was writing that stand-up material burritos are funny i remember that was my note. That's how I was like, dude.

Burritos are funny, though. Jerogan was right. I just unlocked the creative juices. Alright, this is a long one, guys. What up, Stokers? Proud Stoker. Can't appreciate enough what y'all do. I find myself in a personal conundrum. My ex-girlfriend and I split up 16 months ago. However, we never

stopped talking. Over the course of these 16 months, I asked about nine times that we stop. The reason for which was I wanted a space to figure out what I wanted. Maybe that meant seeing other people, sure. But overall, I knew I wasn't going to be able to think objectively as long as she was still consistently in my life.

Despite the requests, we never stopped. I say we because I like to think I'm self-aware enough to know that at the end of the day, I also didn't follow through with what I was asking for. She would constantly ask to see each other, which I would fight, but eventually cave cave on she constantly told me she missed me which i almost never reciprocated but the real fault of mine i am my own i believe was continuing to tell her i loved her at the end of most days the main reason for doing this was i hated hurting

her despite the lack of relationship still loved there anyway after the ninth request that didn't stick i decided to just do what i wanted anyway and ended up going on a few dates one of which has stuck don't know where it's going but but I'm being open about it. While we were still talking as I am seeing this new girl, I've stopped telling her I love her. I guess my hope was that I wasn't saying what would not saying that would get the message across when I should have just been upfront about it. The other night I got a bunch of texts from my ex telling me she knew I was seeing someone that I was a liar and a bunch of other choice phrases. I just can't figure out if they're accurate or not. So am I a bad guy? I can't decide if my continued contact with her was selfless or selfish. As I really do maintain,

it was to keep her from being sad, not to keep her in my back pocket, so to speak. Well, I do think you're being selfish and I do think you were keeping her in your back pocket to be candid with you, dog. But I don't think that makes you a bad guy. do think you were keeping her in your back pocket to be candid with you dog but I don't think that makes you a bad guy I think you were being weak in a way that's very understandable but I do think there's a better road that you could probably take yeah I think he's just being human I don't think he's a bad person yeah but I do think that don't kid you the first thing is you stop kidding yourself that this is to protect her feelings. This is entirely about your insecurity of being alone because you have issues that you don't want to deal with.

It's so much easier to keep a relationship going and focus on the problems and the texts of that other person. Because without that other person, you have to look inward. And for a lot of people, that's very scary. So it's not like you can leapfrog from one to the other, but really all you have to do is be upfront and honest with yourself and say like, you know I love you, but I do need to move on and I just think we should not text for a while and if you text me I might come back with a heart,

but I think I'm just not going to respond. It doesn't mean I don't love you, but I do have to do this for my own sake. And then maybe find therapy or find friends to talk to, because once that voice is quiet, you're going to have to focus on your own stuff. Because my guess is you're going to repeat the same thing in the next relationship because you haven't addressed it. Yeah, I think it's sort of the pleasing mentality. I mean, you're saying you're trying to protect her, and I think it's, you know,

you just don't want to hurt her. But I think the best move for her, like you guys are saying, is you just got to, you know, draw a line in the sand and sort of cut ties because I think in the end that'll definitely help her the most to get over it as opposed to just dragging it out so you don't. It actually has the opposite effect of, I think, what he intended. So, yeah.

What's bro chachos? First first off thanks for the fire pod i've been listening for six months and my stoke levels have risen to astronomical levels so i have a question about dealing with an asshole roommate i have a bulgarian roommate who's a nice guy but he has this thing where it seems like he has to argue with everything i say to go along with that he will make personal attacks at me in social situations to make other people laugh i'd like to think i have six thick skin but i can't handle this if i try to ignore him he goes with the classic you mad bro oh my god nothing upsets me more than when people do the you mad bro fucking i am mad tactic how do i handle this meat bag thanks bros mike move out

why would you choose to spend your entire existence with this person if they behave that way? There's so many other people in the world and so many apartments. All you have to do is look for one and move and then just stop hanging out with him. You're not going to change him. And he's obviously keep doing it because he's getting a reaction out of you. I concur.

It's good advice. It really is because I was like, maybe you could talk to him but it's like some people are just not and also bulgarian russians they have like a very blunt way of talking they don't have like the veneer of politeness that americans have and a lot of people can't handle that so it's not like you're going to culturally it's not that it's bad that's just how they are israelis are saying like there's a way certain cultures when they translate to English, they just say it like very, you know,

like I work out with this Hungarian trainer and she'd be like, you can't eat cheat meal. You're too fat. I'm like, what? She's like, you'll be fat. I never cheat.

Don't cheat or you'll be fat. I do all this work for you. Then you cheat. And you're like, okay, no one else would ever say that, but that's why I love her. So, you know, move.

Yeah, and I don't know what the other options are. The only thing I could say is if you ask if you're mad, I think being honest and just saying, yeah, I'm mad, you're being annoying is a valid response, although it could be a little bit awkward. But I think people, they kind of trap you with that, you mad, because it's embarrassing if you admit you're mad. And and like in guy banter like being mad is like a weakness but i think if you can own it it can actually jar the other person a little bit all right yeah i've

been friends with people they're like this is my sense of humor i give you shit you know and you're just like but it's annoying no one's laughing so i think yeah just cut ties we almost never give each other shit no because we're from california not like you know east coast is like they're horrible that's why i moved yeah yeah fucking suck kid you fucking pussy all right last one what's up team first off i just want to say i'm a big fan of both of you like you two personally are my second and third favorite people out of like actors and athletes and doctors and scholars and everyone i met chad when i was going to shred at el porto and it was my peak anyways i'm just wondering how you can have self-confidence like i have no self-hate but i also have no self-love and it could be because i am not hot but the only person who has said i am not hot is myself

if i'm gonna be honest most people say i'm like really good looking or whatever but but my mind does not allow me to think that. It is entirely impossible for me to say anything good about myself. I just assume the worst about me and it makes it hard for me to reach out and talk to people. But if they talk to me first, I'm fine because my mind can't logically doubt they don't want to talk to me. No, I just assume any friends I want to make or girls I want to talk to don't want anything to do with me. I went through like six years, the worst depression, anxiety, but I mostly came out of it. Good for you, dog.

This is pretty much the last thing I got to fix. I would really appreciate any wisdom or advice you have on having any self-worth. Also, I just watched you two on Ellen, and as stoked as I was to see that, I'm kind of really disappointed. Like, it is dope that you two have a lot of causes you support, but it seems you have forgotten about the coral. We bleached our hair to bring awareness to coral uh bleaching which is like an environmental issue right i might just be an environmental science major but losing the coral is a

legitimate issue that needs support it was something that you used to care so much about damn um what was his name um colton. Yeah, I remember meeting him. I met him at the beach. Oh, really? Yeah, El Porto. Okay, so you know him. Yeah, we met. So let's be honest.

Was he good looking or was he really ugly? Dude, he was good looking. I was with my girlfriend too and she concurred. Okay, so he has depression issues or insecurity. Yeah, and I think he said it's not self-hatred but i think that possibly is and i think people can have pride in like not having self-confidence you know yeah like you're like no i'm not like one of these delusional people who like thinks he's awesome when he's not awesome but uh i almost think there's like ego in that too

you know like uh in recovery there's a phrase like i'm a piece of shit that the world revolves around or like i don't have anything but i have more than everybody else and it's like this way of like being low and high at the same does that make sense yeah and i think you might i might be projecting this on you it might just be my shit but i think you might be doing that a little bit and i think the best thing you can do is just be embarrassed a little bit that you do think you're cool and it is a little embarrassing but it's better yeah i think self-acceptance is a big thing you know we all go through that where you're like i sometimes look back at how much attention i wanted and i'm like why did i think i needed that it wasn't making me any happier it wasn't

making the movies any better i just liked being the guy it's like oh i love being in the center of attention i love being the spotlight but then i started thinking well why what is it what do you have to say what are you going to do with that attention so then you look back and you're kind of embarrassed and you're like no i'm capable that's that's me that's part of who i am so part of it once you kind of accept it and you stop criticizing yourself and beating yourself up over it it doesn't become like a need. But it does sound like this dude's got depression issues. So maybe, you know, if he had depression and maybe it was on medication, I mean, it sounds like more than, more than just some self-confidence.

Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah. Because if it's that long too, if it lasts for like years. Yeah, it's not just being bummed out. Yeah. It's just like, and being kind of mad at everybody. No one understands me. It's, you know, it's just externalizing the problem on everyone else.

And sometimes when you get the help you need, you'd be amazed at how quickly your outlook can change on the whole world. But there's also dudes that you'll meet and you'll see this in stand-up. It's crazy. Not just people that are afraid of failure, but people that are terrified of success. And that there are some people that it's so much easier to put the world against you because then you're not judged fairly on the open market you're like no one likes me everyone's an asshole i'm not going to that party it's so much easier than that

than rather than going out and getting rejected or being told by someone you suck or you need to get better you know it's like it's a way of putting up a defense mechanism so that you don't have to like deal with the reality of what people think of you I fucking love it you're right no it's my psychiatrist dad yeah you wonder where the psychoanalyst yeah dr. Sheldon Robb you're bringing us out of me now I loved it I went to therapy for like a month and then the just having a therapist because I love it he said I had some like self-hatred stuff he's like and and i was sort of in denial like that too i was like i was like no i'm a happy guy i love my you know love myself and he's like no you

don't and so once he like said that having like a professional it just started it started the uh that was like the medicine i needed to sort of like look inward and then start fixing that yeah i for when a therapist first told me, you're mad at your parents, I was like, no, I'm not. I have the best parents in the world. He's like, no. He's like, both things are true. You're mad at your parents. I was like, no, I don't.

He's like, yes, you are. And then when I finally accepted that I was mad at them, I became less mad at them. Of course. I love my parents, but most guys separate from their parents in their 40s. Right. Not teenagers.

In their 40s, when they're like, whoa, I'm an adult. I'm not like a little boy leave me alone yeah do you have to do that i had to do that yeah so i have a great relationship with my parents but there's a moment where i was like we're not talking would your dad like butt in too much into like your career choices like your artistic choices not just i mean look my parents were like don't go to fucking grad school for film go to undergrad for film move to new york city move to california good advice well like we'll help you with your run if you need to charge gross i was 30 dead fucking broke charging groceries to my parents on their credit card to the choir here when i was like trying to make cabin fever and trying to edit it i was like you just have to

swallow your so my parents are awesome and supportive that way um but it doesn't mean they don't drive you crazy about certain things and then you know but i it's it's part of the relationship with them you just gotta you know accept that because you feel bad we don't want to be mad at our parents but then you get mad at them for shit yeah and there's a lot of you love them so much that if if you are mad at them sometimes you just don't want to admit it right well you gotta learn to bury that deep you gotta learn to express the anger with love you gotta say it with love. You can be like, why the fuck? You know, which is the urge. Because when we're teens, we're like, why would you do that?

It's like, just so you know, when you say it like that, it just makes me not want to talk to you because I feel like you're blah, blah, blah. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. They're usually pretty responsive when you approach it in a... Is it hard to argue with a therapist's dad, though? I mean, I used to, I love

arguing. And so my mom is really good at arguing. And so my dad would just like have me arguing with my mom and he's like, see, that's why we had him. So I don't have to do this with you. But my dad was great with girls. I'd be like, dad, how come she ignores me? And she says she likes me and then she ignores me. I didn't understand anything about women. I saw them. And they was like, well, if you look at her relationship with her father. Like my dad kind of psychoanalyzing. And also the crazy ones, like all the crazy kids in the neighborhood, my dad loved them.

They were just totally accepted. It's like, well, you look at his father and the mother, and it's perfectly understandable. Like there were no judgments in our house. So everyone felt like really calm. People love my parents. They're very funny. Most people are like, we're your parents.

We like them. Having that advice with girls sounds amazing too. You'd think I could put it to use. It would have been way more useful to have a sister. I had two brothers. And we're like, thanks, mom. Because we thought that kids were just like really, really. We grew up.

We're like, oh, well, girls must be as really into like porn and Iron Maiden as we are. This is, you know, in horror movies and baseball. I didn't like my. And then all my friends who were like like, amazing with girls had five sisters. Yeah. And understood, like, when to open a door and when to offer your coat. Stuff that was just like, what, huh? Yeah.

Took me a minute to catch up. I have, like, a lot of guilt over having such a good support system and then pursuing, like, an entertainment career. Like, and then seeing other people who fell to the wayside just because they didn't have that. Did you ever have to deal with any like kind of residual like guilt coming from a strong no no because i worked really hard because i was like okay this is going to be really really really hard even with that right and their failure has nothing to do with me just didn't want to face the rejection like you have to be told i mean for six fucking years with cabinin Fever, everyone told me,

you suck, nobody wants to see this movie. Horror movies are dead. Horror movies are fucking dead, Eli. It's not the 80s, it's not your childhood. It's 1996, it's 1997,

it's 2000, it's 2001, nobody wants to see a horror movie. It's 2003, Eli, you think anyone wants to see a horror movie? Like, you know, and then you fucking do it and everyone goes to see it

and you're like, I fucking told you. Like, you just have to be, like, indefatigable so the whole again the whole thing about like oh i feel bad about these people i have it so good it's just a way of not focusing on yourself it's like what more should i be doing right it's a waste of energy yeah my siblings gave me that this similar advice and they're like if your parents are helping you out it's because they want you to they want to help help you out. Right. Like they want to, you know, help you succeed. So, yeah, I think the best thing you can do in return is just work as hard as you can

and make sure that, you know, you achieve what you're trying to accomplish. I'm very lucky that we had the crisis on Cabin Fever with the union extorting us and shutting us down and taking all our money, and we had $17,000 in the bank. And the movie was unfinished. I had to come back with an unfinished movie and edit it for free and give away points and beg the money to shoot the extra days and and my dad took ten thousand dollars of his money and then like a hundred thousand dollars which was like basically his entire life it was like his retirement and he fucking gave it to me so i could get through the shoot and i was just like oh my god like my dad

will now have to work until he's a hundred if this fails and then we sold the movie and i doubled his money well let's go and the feeling of being like i could actually pay my dad back the money he invested plus like another hundred and ten thousand dollars i was like now it's like i basically paid for college and then the profits came in it was like that that feeling of my dad being so happy and be like wow i actually got to pay you back and then after hustle two i bought my parents a house they were in boston and every conversation was like oh so and so just fell air in the star he broke his hip he slipped in the ice every single doctor was falling and slipping on the ice and i was like that's going to be you guys and none of us are here my brothers are here it's like why don't you move i'll buy you a house

and i did so i did my money i bought my parents and moved them out here my brothers are here it's like why don't you move i'll buy you a house and i did so i did my money i bought my parents and moved them out here my brothers have kids they're great grandparents it's like the whole family came west and then i moved my dad at seven i got him he's a professor at harvard psychiatry i was like i think you should just retire and come to la and hang out and he's like so happy that they did it and they're like great and they seem really really young and everyone that stayed in boston the snow is like old and frail now it's crazy california is nice man yeah yeah all right is it almost like your parents when you become successful they feel like they had even more a bigger role in it sort of like they're like oh yeah i believed in you i help you get to the achieve your dreams kind of thing

yeah i feel like that with my parents now with what we're doing they're kind of like it's kind of like the fact that they believed in me and stuff they feel like it makes it that much sweeter yeah yeah it's nice it's nice for them it's like a big moment of pride yeah but then what happens is they just start walking up to like reese witherspoon like we're eli's parents like i don't know her i don't know i mean i do because we're looking at each other awkwardly now in the room and she's like hi i'm reese hi i mean but like you can't just go up i know it's sasha baron cone and you think borat's funny but you can't be like we're eli's parents we love ali like and of course everyone's nice because everyone sort of relates to parents that way but the other thing they do

is like like my mom met ryan gosling with me like at a party once and then after started sending me every press clipping ever on ryan gosling and i and it's like oh you're i thought you would want to see this it's about your friend ryan gosling i'm like ryan's doing fine mom i love ryan he's a great guy i don't need every press clipping ever on ryan i don't need it and so i'd see ryan now and he just he just laughs's like, how's your mom in the press? It's like a joke now. But they do that. They think that everyone in Hollywood is friends. You know, oh yeah, your friend

Tom Cruise. I don't know Tom Cruise, but he's in Hollywood. You're in Hollywood. You're all friends. Alright, Chad, who is your Beef of the Week? My Beef of the Week is with the new Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. Have you seen this? No. So, some dude your beef of the week uh my beef of the week is with the new salesforce tower in uh san francisco have you seen this no so some dude decided to build a giant dildo essentially in the skyline

in san francisco it just it it's the tallest building in san francisco and it's not a good looking dildo no it's not a good looking dildo and. No, it's not a good-looking dildo. And I think it ruined the skyline, to be honest. Wow. I look at that. I'm like, great, now there's a dildo in the freaking. Yeah. They didn't put the time into the design. Into researching good dildos.

Yeah. So, yeah, dude, I just saw it. And I was just like, you know, San Francisco has a beautiful skyline. And you guys kind of tamper with it to build this monstrosity. And I just had to beef with it. You were mad all weekend about it. Yeah, we were driving on, like, the Golden Gate Bridge. I was just like, what the fuck is that?

Because my family's from the Bay Area, you know? Oh, yeah, it's personal. Yeah, it's personal. So, you know, you'd see that skyline, you're just like i don't know dude would you like if they just chop the top off of it and just shorten the dildo yeah i think maybe yeah maybe just like to make it look like a dildo i think yeah maybe if they made it more pointy or something like coy tower no coy tower is not pointy the transamerica building that's cool or they put like a needle on top of it but we're just like the round top it it's uh i think it's a shame so

for sure that's my beef dude my beef of the week is with myself for um showing up to muay thai class only my third class on my phone while i was doing my raps and I was having like kind of like a Hollywood conversation on the phone and I was late getting on the mat and then the instructor came off and he goes hey bro did someone die I'm like no he's like who are you talking to I was like my managers and then he said once you come back tomorrow bro and then I grabbed his shoulder and I was like I am so sorry and I really realized no lifetime full of douchey moments that might have been my doucheyest so I came back the next day on time, did my raps, studied the moves diligently.

And I'm sorry to my Muay Thai class. I'm glad there's a place like that in Oasis where the rules of martial arts supersede any other rules. Have you ever had a moment like that? Yeah, I've had those dou douchey hollywood moments when it happens you just don't even realize it's happening it's just you there and you're in it and it's kind of beautiful in a way because it's like you've been body snatched and it just happens so naturally and you're just like making a hollywood deal on a cell phone in front of a bunch of people waiting for you and you're just that fucking asshole and you just sort of own it you go yeah that's me

it always happens at muay thai that muay thai um my beef of the week is with i got i don't know if this is i was gonna do like people that kill like make money off the death of sharks because it's very upsetting it's happening a lot but what's really bothering me if i'm being totally honest is i upgraded my apple tv to 4k so there's like and i have this like entertainment system where it all goes to this one giant remote and because when i don't know i was i when i was married to lorenza and she's chilean she would watch everything with subtitles so like our netflix even though it's my account has like the subtitles on all the time. So I was trying to watch a scary movie

and like I couldn't figure out how to get the subtitles off. And then it said in parentheses, monster breeds. I was watching Ritual. It was like monster runs through woods. I was like, well, now I know it's a monster. And I got so fucking mad that I upgraded the damn 4K thing. And I was just like, I can't. Like, they ruined.

I didn't know what was in the woods. If it's a cult, now I know it's 20 minutes into the movie. It's not a big spoiler. But, like, I can't get the Netflix. And now I can't even watch Netflix because I only watch subtitles. I might as well just subscribe to a text service that just sends you text messages with dialogue because my eye goes to the subtitle.

I can't take it off did you is it one of the have you tried scrolling up not to be a nodal i think if you scroll up i'll cruise over dog do it please i'll fix it up for you dog i think i can do it because my roommate does the subtitles yeah i need it i need one of the kids to do it chad who is your babe of the week uh my babe of the week is uh our choreographer chrissy have we done her before i don't know but she's the best man i love her yeah so we love to dance we like to you know in some of our videos we like to break it down um it's sort of like our hidden passion and uh chrissy just gives us fire dance routine so i just want to give her a shout out she's the best uh she's

so patient with us and she helps us perfect it she cheers us on through the entire shoot and um she's just a yeah freaking babe in that respect so chrissy what up thank you for teaching us how to dance um you helped jt master the body roll which was legit and um yeah i love shoulder pops all that kind of stuff. We were just breaking through. Oh, dude. If you ever want to do a dance with us. Oh, Eli, you can move, dude.

I've been to some bar mitzvahs. Oh, dude. I have the whole poster in my garage of the New York City Breakers with the fresh moves you can learn. Dude. Yeah, if you ever want to dance with us. I was nervous at first. I was like, is he not vibing on our dance stuff?

And then he started dancing. I'm a robot dancing robot yeah uh dude she's the best dude my baby of the week is my two mini fridges that i have stacked up in my kitchen as one full fridge almost and it's because they're in an existential they're they're they could be reaching their end because one of my roommates is moving out and uh now it's like a reckoning of like, is our apartment good enough? Is our stuff good enough for me and the remaining roommate? And my GF, who's the best, wants me to get a regular fridge, but I don't cook.

So I like having the two mini fridge on top of each other. I had the one mini fridge, then Joe moved in. He had a mini fridge, so we stacked them because it's funny. And maybe that joke's run its course over three years, but I don't need a big fridge. I'm not trying to keep up with the Joneses. Because guess what? Jones can't keep up with you if he can't predict where you're going.

So I'm not making moves that make sense to Jones. Because that's how you beat Jones, by just staying focused on you. So the two mini fridges, they look good. You know, I don't cook. I'm happy with them. You seem happy. Thank you seem happy it looks good did you have names for them no there's the black one and the white one i'm pretty creative let the audience fill in the names from there um i guess my babe of the week it's kind of a tie which is sort of cheating but it's the truth and one of them is Claudio Simonetti

who's the lead singer of Goblin who did all the music for Dario Argento's movies and they played live um on Monday night and Claudio is the nicest dude and got me tickets and I went down and saw him and they played Deep Red live which is one of my favorite movies and then all like the greatest hits like Dawn of the Dead and Demons and Suspiria. And I just got like very emotional because I realized how much of my childhood and my like absolute love of horror was tied up in these movies and in this music. And then I saw him after and it's like I see him once a year when he comes to town to play and he's just the nicest dude.

So I was like very, and I've been listening to, like, Rocking Goblin all week because of it. And then my GF, who came into town from Italy and just, like, fills my house with, like, warmth and love. And she's Italian and has, like, Italian coffee and makes, like, brought, like, the best Italian coffee from Naples. So I'm very happy. Oh, that's awesome.

That's awesome. Chad, who is your legend of the week? My legend of the week is the sun god Apollo. I love the sun. I love getting bronzed by the sun. I love getting a fresh shot of vitamin D. I'm talking about the molecule. And, you know, Ellen gave me a nice zing.

You know, she talked about my tan and said it's not up to par. And that was the perfect zing to get me back out there and to work hard before winter comes. So I just want to give a shout out to Apollo. I'm going to be out there. I'm going to be bronzing. I'm going to be crisp. I'm going to saute myself. I'm going to send Ellen.

I don't have her number. Somehow. You could tweet her, probably. I'll tweet her and I'll be like, look how tan I am now. Exactly. Because you motivated me. That's awesome.

You gave me the zing I needed. You're going to be so tan in that photo. Because I took it for granted. I took it for granted if I'm going to be honest. I was shocked she said you weren't tan. That's like a third rail thing like we don't touch. Yeah. Is it third rail?

Yeah, it is the third rail. Okay. But I love honesty though. Yeah, that's like a third rail thing like we don't touch yeah it's a third rail yeah it is the third rail okay but i love honesty though yeah that's true and you wore it well dude yeah it's where you had like a dr phil moment on ellen she really cut to the core of me she got to you know she didn't uh she didn't um sugar it, which I respect. My legend of the week is Vampire Weekend. I saw them last night at the Hollywood Bowl. I'm not even like a huge fan of their music, but after the show, I was like a gigantic fan.

It just like deepened my respect for them. Cause like, I think they did what good authors do, which is where like, after you read their book, it reworks your brain to think like they do. And like by the end of the concert, I felt like I had a Vampire Weekend brain. Like that jaunty guitar that they have. It's like the same sound in every song. It's like, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.

Not quite, but something like that. And you're like, you get kind of annoyed with the riff, but then they build so much elegant stuff around it. Like it goes in so many different directions, each song. And they have like ballads and hard rock, like hard rock songs. And I was like, whoa, this is like hard rock songs and i was like whoa this is like a full like vision from these guys and it really impressed me and you can just tell they're

all smart you can tell they get around and they're like dude that's cool like they're all good individual musicians and like one of them has like a good riff and then the other one's like dude i'll add this onto it and they're like nice and then one of them's like and then maybe nah never mind and then they keep it there and it works. I had a backstage moment at Coachella. Like when you're a snake, the artist pass. And I was walking around and we saw Vampire Weekend. And there was their trailer. They had like a little white picket fence.

And Danny DeVito was sitting outside in a lawn chair with sunglasses on. Whoa. With his feet up. And he was just like smoking a cigar. And he was just like, I'm Danny DeVito. And I'm in the fucking vampire weekend camper and you're not like wow he's like this is this is like a real actual vampire weekend for him he's there all weekend it's very exciting no so i don't know

if you saw devito at the concert i didn't see him he's a little short though he's tough to see at the bowl yeah a lot of people are um i gotta say i mean now that you mentioned him i had a lot of legends but we gotta go with with bp gotta go with brad pitt because he's just he was just that cool he was that awesome i don't speak of him often because it sounds like super tabloidy and name droppy but while we're on the subject and the vibe i have to think that like someone that has that much experience who's really played the long game who didn't take stupid roles and would like rather take roles in movies like snatch and just do really cool weird offbeat character stuff and became like you know it's like aging into like being a paul newman kind of icon and i loved him in once upon a time in hollywood um and he's just this sweet i don't know him well i mean every time i see him he's just a sweet dude so So he is as legendary as you'd imagine.

We talk about him a lot. So to have that corroborated by you is pretty impactful. Yeah, we're huge fans. I just keep watching those Once Upon a Time in Hollywood interviews. I'm just like... My favorite line in that movie. There's so many lines in that movie that are so good. But when they're watching the episode with the FBI,

my new favorite one is in dicaprio goes that guy's a fucking prick i was like you never fucking see that two actors watching their own tv show commenting on what a dick one of the other guys was i was like that fucking caught it man that is exactly what it's like that's what actors do they're like yeah it's a fucking prick besides like this poor extra who did this episode in 1969 now 50 years later dicaprio's making fun of him it's great hilarious besides once upon a time what's your favorite pit performance floyd i love i mean i love seven is fucking amazing he's incredible um but fucking he's in floyd for me he's in the movie for five minutes. And he just.

And you're talking about True Romance. True Romance, yeah. But also California. Oh, interesting. Early in California. That was the first time I was like, put your dude back in, A. Dale. When I saw him like being a dirty serial killer. I mean, I love him.

Thelma Louise, Johnny Suede, all that stuff. But like California was the one I was like, whoa, this dude is way darker than I fucking realized. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. What a weird detour that must have been for him being such like a pretty boy. Oh my God. California was the one I was like, whoa, this dude is way darker than I fucking realized. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. What a weird detour that must have been for him being such like a pretty boy. Oh, my God. Thelma Louise, the hottest thing ever. And then he does this movie where he's like this fucked up serial killer.

Everyone's like, how's a pretty boy going to pull it off? And it's like, nope, he was amazing. It's legitimately amazing. And Duchovny's the... Yeah, David Duchovny. Right. Yeah, it was a cool movie. Chad, what is your quote of the week my quote of the week is uh alan's toast from the hangover um hello how about that right in i guess that's why they call it sin city you guys might not know this but i consider myself a bit

of a loner i tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack but when i my sister brought doug home i knew he was one of my own and my wolf pack grew it grew by one so there were there were two of us in the wolf pack i was i was alone in the wolf pack and then doug joined in later and six months ago when doug introduced me to you guys i thought wait a second could could it be? And now I know for sure. I just added two more guys to my wolf pack. Four of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine.

So tonight I make a toast. Blood Brothers. Nice, dude. I'm nervous all of a sudden. My quote is from Primary Colors. Do you like that movie? I do not. You don't like that movie?

I don't not like it, but I don't like it because I haven't seen it, but I haven't seen it because I'm not interested in it. Do you not like political movies? I like some political movies. Do you like the American President? It's all right. Interesting. I like Bullworth. Okay, cool.

I like all the presidents, man. I mean, I like some political movies. But you don't like the ones where they make the president look like a nice guy? Dick. I just think it's a little soft for me. Right. It's interesting. I remember on Quiz Show, they were talking about how that was going to be Redford as

the American president. And then when they cast Michael Douglas, I was like, I kind of wished it was Redford. Yeah. I don't know what to say. I'm biased. Interesting. I don't know if Redford would have been as relatable as Douglas was. Probably not.

He's not a relatable human. Yeah. He's like from another world of superstardom. Yeah. He's just like, oh, it's Robert Redford. He's an alien. Yeah. I'm just merely observing.

I didn't know he was almost the dude. Yeah. Dude, that's interesting to think about. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So my quote is from Primary Colors where John Travolta plays like Stanton. His name, he's running for president.

He's basically Bill Clinton. And it was written by an anonymous Bill Clinton staffer of the book. And then so in this scene, the main character, Henry, is in a donut shop with John Travolta playing Stanton. And Stanton's talking about the sad guy who works at the donut shop. And it kind of explains why he wants to be president. He's talking about the sad guy who works at the donut shop. And it kind of explains why he wants to be president. He's talking about, he says, he doesn't complain, doesn't do anyone any harm, aching to do good. God, if you let a man like that go down, you don't deserve to take up space on this planet, do you? That's a good one.

And he's kind of a piece of shit in the movie. He's charismatic, and it seems like he can bring the country in a better direction but you see all of his weaknesses too so it's interesting that he he can be such a bad guy but then still have this like aching heart for the underdog and i just found it very compelling i gotta watch it i had actually forgotten about it do you like mike nichols i love Mike Nichols okay I think you'll like it then yeah and that seems well directed like the way that they frame we have to do a Mike Nichols quote do you want to do one we could do you have a good one I mean I'm curious to see what movie you go I would go with Myrtle her name's Myrtle what's that from carnal knowledge oh

yeah Jack Nicholson fucks our car funkel's girlfriend because our because our car was like the hot movie star and jack nicholson's the buddy and then he's like making up a lie and he's like what was her name and he's like myrtle her name's myrtle and i just thought like was that like a hot girl name back in 1970 is that a good movie i love carnal knowledge he did after the graduate it's fucking great movie what's yeah it's ann margaret jack nicholson our car he did it after The Graduate it's a fucking great movie it's Anne Margaret Jack Nicholson Art Garfunkel

it's so good what's your favorite Jack performance I mean obviously The Shining but I loved One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I mean The Last Detail that's my favorite Last Detail is amazing the bar scene I like King of Marvin Gardens the movie that

saw that i that fucking blew me away with jack that i was like this could be my life if i'm not careful it's five easy pieces right five easy pieces like is a movie that stopped me in my tracks when i was just like oh my god just like a disaffected a guy who's like someone who's really smart who throws away their talent and just fucking constantly runs away someone who has a gift at something and is from like an educated family and is just so self-destructive, they just like can't face reality,

they can't face responsibility and they just throw all their talent away and just hide by like continually running. It's just one of those things like that's your worst fear of becoming that. I was going to quote, that guy's a fucking prick. Do you have to quote a movie?

No, it can be anything. Can I quote, this is a real quote that I heard from RZA. I heard so much amazing wisdom from RZA, Making Man with the Iron Fist. But the best thing that he told me that stuck with me forever was, you know, I was talking to him about like,

fucking like crime. We talked about everything growing up and like what it was like and then, you know, Staten Island, everything. And and he's like you know how to get rid of it's like and i was talking about someone's like different crazier people getting killed he's like you know you know how to get rid of someone i was like what he's like you know you really want to get rid of someone like you want to get rid of him i go yeah he goes you lend that motherfucker money you will never see him again he's like man i got cousins i lend him five grand i never see those

motherfuckers they too ashamed they're too ashamed and i was like that is the best fucking straight wisdom i've ever heard don't have someone killed lend them ten thousand dollars and you will never see them for the rest of your life because they're too embarrassed yeah it's like that's it where is it you want to get rid of someone lend them. What's your quote of the week for getting after? Or what's your, we have a buzzword of the week for getting after it. I need a thinking one. Let's see. I'll go quick.

My Australian girlfriend told me in Australia, when you're like amped on a good day, you say it's a bonza day. And she said, I couldn't say it like without inflection. Like you can't just say bonza. You got to say bonza. That's a good day bonza is my phrase me let's squat the keg dude you're so good dog eli do you have one what it would it's just like you just come up with like a phrase for like we're gonna party tonight and

it could just be a substitute instead of saying we're gonna party tonight you say like let's get bonza or let's squat the keg let's knock boots with hunter s thompson oh i'm like trying to think of one that actually happened um let's get really fucked up and i hope we don't have to get drug tested with Keanu Reeves on Wednesday. Yes, dude. Yes.

I want to party right now. Yeah. I'm fucking fired up now, dog. I like that a lot. Well, how about just, we don't have a drug test next week.

Let's, let's fucking go. You got to throw Keanu in there. Yeah. We're not getting drug tested with Keanu next week. Yeah. Let's go. And then I always ask,

who's, who do you think is the smartest person that ever lived uh nikola tesla okay why who are you gonna say i don't really have an answer dude i like nikola tesla i mean we we've you know conceived the internet he figured out the speed which like there's actually nobody smarter than him ever yeah people have said newton then like Shakespeare, Einstein. But is it first Tesla? But when you bring it up, he's a beast. But most people go scientist. Most people go scientist like physicists.

Yeah. I like Tesla, though. Like Ronnie James Dio. Hmm? Who's that? Doc and Ronnie James Dio. Don't know him. Dio, who's the lead singer of Black Sabbath.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Before Ozzy? It's after's dad. Oh, okay. Yeah. Before Ozzy? It's after Ozzy. Oh, okay. What happened to Ozzy? They did it alone. Oh, okay.

That makes sense. All right. Is that it? I think you did everything. All right. Eli, thank you so much for joining us. We're big fans of your movies. Fans of you guys.

I love what you guys are doing. Oh, thank you, man. I've seen it all. I've been following everything. Thank you, man. Really enjoying it. Dude, doing. Oh, thank you, man. I've seen it all. I've been following everything. Thank you, man. Really enjoying it. Dude, thank you. You're fantastic, man.

Thank you so much for doing it. I've been watching Hustle. Like, all my college buddies are going to be pumped because we watched Hustle 1 and 2. That's cool. Multiple times in college. Love that. That's great.

That's what it's for. Yeah, loved it. So, dude, thank you for joining us. I wanted my movies to have, like, drinking games made after them. Do you think it's harder? I have one more heavy question. Yeah. And I've been thinking about this because I have a lot of friends in comedy who are struggling

with it right now. Like, is it harder to have a relationship in LA than other places? There is no relationship. The relationship is the work. Right. And once you accept that and once the other people, everyone's like, that's it. If you're going to make it in comedy, that is the relationship, period. There's no other relationship.

And if you want a relationship, you're going's no other relationship. And if you want a relationship, you're going to find another occupation. And that's the truth. And nobody wants to admit it. And relationships do suffer. And I'm not saying you can't meet someone, but your relationship is to the work because you're not going to be happy until you get it. If you really have that dream, you can't be happy in a relationship unless you're happy with yourself. You're never going to be happy with yourself unless you're giving a thousand percent to everything. And you have to constantly be writing jokes thinking of material working on stuff sitting at comedy clubs i didn't have a relationship until i was like 35 i was like i'm gonna make

movies and i've dated girls and would hook up between movies but literally i was like i will never have a girlfriend because i'm always just gonna go and that's why i was like okay well maybe we'll just make movies together and then we'll be married and then then even after two movies, after Death Wish and House of the Clock, I'm like, you know what? It sucks being married and being apart from each other, so let's just split up. But we're not going to be happy unless we're doing what we love. So what's the point?

It's not even a question. I didn't mean to break up your relationship. No, no, no, no, no. You need someone that's understanding. It's just like your relationship is your work. No, my gets it she's cool she's so supportive yeah but it's early it's easy now right it's easy now dude by the way i'll enjoy it while it's easy yeah and try not to make it harder by the way my dad and i we love going to see bruce willis movies i love that my dad's a surgeon so we went to see death wish together. That's so cool. Because it's such a good revenge.

Fantasy. He was so pumped. So life taker gets to be a lifesaver becomes a life taker. I love that. Everybody's dad loves Bruce Willis movies.

That's really cool. That's exactly what I wanted. Do you worry about the morality of movies ever? Like all this hoopla about Joker being like encouraging to incels? No.

Is it just blowing up critics? Yeah, of course. People need something to write about. They need a story that people are going to read. That's it. Nobody cares. Literally nobody cares. Everyone's just going to go to the movies and have fun. Have you seen it yet?

No, I'm dying to see it. I want to see it like tonight. Yeah, it's coming out tonight. Yeah, I'm going to see it this weekend for sure. I got to see Ed Astro and Joker. Yeah. I saw Ed Astro. Good? It's a little underwhelming. It's good. To me, it sounds like a movie about Ed Asner. So I'm just like, do I want to go see ed asner for two hours i like the director a lot i like james gray a lot james is a good dude i see him at the gym a lot um he seems like a smart guy too

i hear him when he's like talking about opera on podcasts and stuff very smart and very funny and very cool but there's heavy duty blunt voiceover throughout the whole movie yeah if you're into Brad I guess he's great smoke a blunt and then you enjoy the blunt voiceover dude that's

I was uh I was thinking about what is Stoke I was gonna say Brad Pitt's hair in One Spot Time in Hollywood it's amazing

it's pure Stoke it's so good alright on that note alright thank you guys for listening thanks guys that was so fun

that was fun thanks man oh thank you man you were amazing. Alright, this was great. Yeah. Let's head out. I like those questions at the end, too.

Yeah. Yeah, good stuff. If you need advice These guys are really nice You wanna know What to do and where to go When you need someone to guide you Who tries to have the girls beside you

Go in deep, go in deep Let's go deep. Go with me. Got to dig deep.