Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Ep 2: Eli Roth

Episode Date: May 18, 2018

Film director Eli Roth joins us this week on the podcast, you know...Hostel, Cabin Fever, Inglourious Basterds. Eli opens up about his childhood, his career as a cybersex sex operator, and what it was like to work alongside his idol, Quentin Tarantino. He lets me in on growing up with a Freudian-trained psychoanalyst as a father and how that shaped him into a weird freaky little kid who loved the Alien movies as an eight-year-old. Listen as Eli and I talk about his career - from making over 100 short films before finishing high school to his Student Academy Award winning film featuring Ronald McDonald on a killing spree. Oh, and we talk about how we both masturbated to the same scene in Cannibal Holocaust. Join me as we get inside of the legendary, horrific, Eli Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Adventurist U owns the road with super all-wheel control. Regular side? Alone time. Adventurous side journeys together with third row seating. The new outlander bring out your adventurous side. Mitsubishi Motors drive your ambition. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. This week's guest is legendary horror director, Eli Roth, one of the best.

The Hostel movies, he's the Bear Jew and Inglorious Bastards. He's a dear old friend of mine. We used to run in the same circle back in New York. It was a real pleasure catching up with him. We talked about his growing up with a Freudian-trained psychoanalyst as a father, our Jewish guilt, how he and I coincidentally jerked off to the same horror movie back in the 80s. He was a cybersets operator for Penhouse? Come on.

Now let's get inside of Eli Roth. It's my point of view. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. My vision. Why isn't your vision gone? My vision is still. are we recording?

Why is my vision gone? I don't know. What a great way to start up. Eli, why is your vision going? You're a 45-year-old man. I'm a 45-year-old man, and I still have both eyes. It's weird.

I sort of expected it to, because my older brother's glasses, my dad of glass, nothing. I always had like, I had like 15, 20 vision. I visioned like a hawk. I had like,

and it would drive people crazy. I'm like, you can't read that? Like, I could read street signs from across the football field. You still get full hard-ons? Yes, I do. You keep them.

I keep them. I full hard. Good for you. I know. We're with Eli Raphael Roth. Eli, thank you for allowing me to be inside of you today. You know, Michael, there are a few people that I enjoy having inside of me more than you. And I'm not just saying that.

That's like, that's just not today. That's like for a long, long time. Eli, where did Raphael? Was your family fans of Sally Jesse or the Ninja Turtles? How did that work? Can I tell you, my first of all, my parents told me it was Raphael, until I realized it was pronounced Raphael. Raphael, the Angel.

Oh. And it was probably the most made fun of name at Angel elementary school, Eli, which was a very weird name back then. Not Elijah. Not Elijah. Just Eli. And, you know, they go like,

what's it short for? And my joke goes, it's short for convenience. Oh, good comeback for a child. And then Eli Roth was seven letters, which was like a phone number. I was like, well, that's just my phone number. So people were trying to,

I had like a lot of little, I had to come back with little things that in second grade, you know, you sort of made your names and cool. And then Raphael, I had to wait for a long time. And of course, kids just called me that to torture me. I hated it until Ninja Turtles came out. Then you were cool. Then I was cool. And Eli Manning. It took a long time for us come around. But I was, you know, Rosenbaum, Rosie. They called me Rosie Palms. You had a great last night. Like Roth, it was like Moth. There's nothing you could do. Roth was simple and cool, like Eli Roth. I was Michael Rosenbaum. No, but Rosie's a good name. But

The best, actually the best nickname was, like, it was one night we were all probably 25, and Matt Ballard was really drunk. And I was like, I was like designated driver, which was the thing we all did before Uber. And they said, how are we going to get home? And Ballard goes, have Loth take us. Have Loth take us. And that became the name. Then it was Loth.

To this day, I text you, Loth. It was Matt Ballard, the greatest. Matt Ballard. He is amazing. Ballard. So you're director, writer, actor, pianist, pianist, guitarist, Gordon. Tri-lingual. Gordon Lightfoot Maven.

Oh, my God. Where do we should love you? Where do we even, should we tell people our like history? Yeah, I think, you know, it's like it's one of these things conversations where we could We should start from scratch. Yeah. We really should start from the beginning. By the way, who's David Kaufberg?

That was, David Kaufman was a kid from my high school. And I used to draw pictures of his head on a bird's body. And so I would like act like he would float up. Because if you beat your locker, he was the kid that would just neg everything you did. Like in lockers, your locker was like your identity before your, like, social media page. That was like your Facebook page was your locker. And you had to put up like California beach bums. Like you'd have to find cool postcards of where you were over the summer and put them up in your locker.

So kids, like, it was a whole fucking thing in junior high and high school, like decorating your locker. Yeah. And you had to sort of look like you didn't give a shit, but also have enough cool stuff. that people would be, like, wanted to hang around your locker to see all the stuff. So what did this asshole Kaufman do? He would come and be like, well, she's not that hot, dude. He talked like, he thought, it's like he watched the breakfast club, Judd Nelson, and was like, but he would come up with these lies every day.

He was like, yeah, dude, Dolf Lundgren was at my karate club. I kicked his ass. We're like, you did not fight Dolf Lundgren. And he'd be like, yeah, I went to the arcade. I saw Anthony Michael Hall. I kicked his ass and centipede. We were like, but it was nothing that you could really prove that didn't happen. Do you have a character in any of your movies that you kind of were kind of based on David Kaufman, Kaufberg?

Yes, my character, Justin, and Cabin Fever, is me doing an impression of David Kaufman. I'm not even acting. I'm literally doing my Coffin impression. When you're telling the story about the bowling? Yeah, everything. Well, the bowling alley really happened. The bowling alley was a place called Sammy White's Brighton Bowl. This is in Cabin Fever, seen his first movie, Eli. Yeah, we discussed a bowling alley massacre.

And I remember when I was like 11 years old, we used to go to Sammy White's. He played for the Red Sox. in Brighton, Massachusetts. I changed it to name. You're from Newton. I am from Newton. I am from Newt. Fan Red Sox fan, Red Sox, and Bruins.

And so we went bowling every week. It was Candlepin. I didn't understand there was anything other than Candlepin bowling at the time, which is like, what does that mean? Candlepin, the ball is like the size of a soft ball, and the pins are tall and thin. But it's a very Massachusetts thing. But if you grow up there, then you assume that's like, that's, everything else we call big ball bowling.

Right. Like, candlepin bowling was like, that was bowling to us. everything else is like a joke. So we would go candlep him, and it's good, because when you're a kid, the balls are light, so you can throw him easier? And then we were asked my dad, we're like, can we go this weekend?

He's like, no. I'm like, why not? He's like the bowling alley's closed. There was like a murder there. Like, what happened? And one of the guys came back and robbed the place, tied up the employees and, like, beat them to death with a ball peen hammer and bowling pins.

Oh, yeah. This is real. This is based on the real. And the guy, the murderer went, is in Walpole State. prison and the story the like urban legend was that he has a tattoo of the bowling of a bowling pin for each person he killed and when he comes up to the parole board they make him show the tattoo and it's got the names of his victims they're like parole denied and today then it was an accurate dealership and i'm not sure what it is now so all these terrible stories come from there actually facts yeah everything

everything all the stuff is like you just hear weird stuff and you just write it down you think i'll put that somewhere. So I got to figure this out. I got to figure, because people think, you know, this guy, Eli, he's got these such a dark guy. He does these dark movies and he, you know, dork guy. You're like me. It's like people think I'm, you know, he's Lex Luthor and they, they meet me and they like more like Lex Luzer because I'm not like a billionaire, brilliant person. Your Masterminds sitting in your lair. It's sort of like, you know, then they meet me like, you're really kind of, you're like funny and funny and you play hockey and you're really into it's not Lex Luthor. It's called acting. Yeah.

Uh, your dad was a psychiatrist slash psychoanalyst. True, Freudian. Come on, dude. No, it's true. That's actually two different things. Like, I was like, are you- What's the difference? A psychiatrist gives you drugs.

Yes. Psycho-analysts kind of put you to sleep. The psychoanalyst is trained in the Freudian method. It's like a very specific type of psychiatric training. Like, and then my dad became a training analyst, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard. Very smart. Titles, I don't even know what thing.

I'd be like, what do you do? all we knew was that people like our patients my dad's patients would come to our house so they had a separate entrance did you ever listen in on them you couldn't it was like all double door professional we were super like respectful we're like my dad would go you know they're paying for college so be nice so and it was a whole rule of like you don't talk to them you just maybe wave high you don't play in the driveway if you got to house you had to be quiet because my dad's seeing patients but did you ever see them walk out like out of the house any weirdos that you were like oh my gosh no my dad would never let weirdos in the house, which was kind of disappointing. Nobody understood it until

growing pains, because that's what, you know, Seaver, Dr. Seaver did, Alan Thick. Alan Thick, the late at home. I love playing hockey with. I know, you played hockey with. But, you know, Ben, Maggie, the Severs, I would be like, when I told people, like, my dad's a psychiatrist, he worked at home because nobody else's dad worked at home or did that. And then they were like, but for a while, when we moved in, our neighbors thought my mom was a, hooker and was like running a brothel out of our house because there were these men coming in and out all day wow yeah they did it was such a that was actually my house that was your that was exactly a weirdly that was my house my dad once sat me down said michael are there any men

that show up to the house when i'm at work that you don't recognize i'm like no i recognize all of them not not exactly true no quite your your mother's a painter yeah she was a music teacher in the new york city school system she helped to organize the first new york city teacher strike When she was like 22, I think about this now, it's crazy. When she was 22, she was a teacher in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn. In the worst neighborhood, it was in elementary school that was the first one to have a full-timed armed New York City police officer in the elementary school. And my mom was the music teacher. And she told me the stories, like kids would come in with like in zero degrees with no jackets.

And they'd be like, my mom burned it down the incinerator. And one girl was like, she's like, what's your name? The girl's like, my name's female. Like the parents hadn't even named her And she would always have like cookies for the kids And was teaching them violin And some of them went on to be professional musicians But she told me that there was like a bra

Speaking of brothel, there was there was a horror house across the street And she'd like, where are the fifth graders? And like they pull them out And then like one kid grabbed your ass in school And she like, she smacked him right But she called the mother And the mother said, I don't know what's going on I gives it to him in the morning

I gives it to him at night I don't know why he needs it at school. Are you kidding? No, it's an exact quote. And my mom was just like, it was just like you're dealing. That's the saddest, craziest, weirdest, yeah. Wow. Strange.

So my mom had like crazy, you know, but she was very, you know, she was a music teacher. And then when at 40, she started painting, wanted to be an artist and started, went to a museum of fine art school in Boston. And so she was painting, would have shows in Boston. This was kind of all through junior high and then high school. So I had like the artist, mom, the psychiatrist. Or were you, I mean, was there a lot of pressure on you to be like, I mean, And your dad's went to Harvard, your mom's as painter, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, Freudian.

Like, how do you, I mean, your aspirations were you like, oh, my God, I've got a lot to live up to here? Not at all, because I had no interest in being a painter and I had no interest in being a doctor. I was like, I'm going to make chainsaw movies. I really was like, I'm going to make Texas chainsaw master. And my parents were like, great, you can do it. It's weird because they were New Yorkers and they'd grown up in, my dad went to high school performing arts and was going to be an actor until, he was like a senior in high school or in college and switched to pre-med. But my dad had been cast in national shows.

My dad was like an amazing actor as a teenager. And performing arts, that was right down the street from the actor's studio. So my dad in high school would like leave class and see James Dean and Marlon Brando literally down the street. It was a block away from where the actor studio was. My dad told me, you know, it's even better. I think he knows someone. My dad told me he was in the very, very, very first group of Scientologists. because all of the actors in New York City were doing it,

and it's where they'd go to meet girls. Now, he's not a Scientologist. My dad was, like, I don't know, 17 or 16. And these girls were like, would be like, come, come to this thing. And they would go, and it was literally, Aaron Hubbard was living on a boat in the East River, and it was an apartment in New York City.

And like, it was kind of like the weird, cool thing to do. There were like 20 of them. And my dad, after a while, was like, this is weird. He said they would stand in the street corn and be like, we're going to astro project with our minds going across the building. We're all going to be on the roof of that building if we all focus and concentrate.

And then my dad's like, this just isn't worth it for the chicken. Nobody was on drugs. My dad's like, there's got, no. My dad's like there's got to be better ways to meet girls than this. You talk about like the Texas chainsaw massacre and how you grew, I, when I was a kid, I would come home and most kids

would have milk and cookies. Their mom would leave them. I would have VHS tapes of Motel Hell. The best. Make them die slowly. The greatest. Uh, alien. And my mother would say, hey, you're going to watch these with me.

I go, mom, why? She's what your father when I go, but you realize I'm eight. Then I, I read that you were like eight years old, I guess when you saw alien and it sort of changed your life. So me, I got my mother, actually, I give her credit, but I also, there's a reason when I sleep with a bat next to my bed. Right. I look under the bed every night. I have an alarm system and a dog. I still freak out.

I still want to be scared. I still love horror. You and I have that in common. We love horror. But it started. at a young age, and I remember I used to, I was the loser in high school who used to borrow my parents' VCR, hook it to my VCR, and dub, like. You rent Reanimator and make like a super tape of Dawn of the Dead. Yes. And I would look at the timing, be like, okay, I can fit

Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead, and one other 90 minute, you know, the Slayer or Scalps, like whatever they're like, great VHS movies. And what's, I mean, there was, there was an amazing time because we're the same age. So when we were eight years old, a movie, like, there was this weird thing of horror that your friend's older brother had seen it. And it was like dazed and confused kind of era. And they, so Texas Chainsmanasker, last house and the left, they weren't shown on television and there was no VCRs. So if a movie left the theaters, it would never be seen again ever in the history of humankind. And you'd have to like listen to some kids' older brother describing it. Like remember hearing about Jaws, but not really seeing it until television. And like

all these movies then in like 83, 84, VCRs became affordable, and we got our first VCR in 1984, maybe it was 83. And all of a sudden, your birthday party was like, we don't have to go to the movies. We can just rent Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, watch the house. What was the house? You remember seeing first horror movie that just really influenced you? I saw, I mean, in a theater was alien. I went to see it opening night.

I remember seeing the trailer for that and begging my dad. I remember it was like a Shabbat dinner. How old were you? I was eight. He let you see this. Our parents allowed us to see these movies. It was the only way to go see it. They took us.

But my dad was always like, well, just a movie. And I remember watching Alien and it said, produced by David Giler and Walter Hill. And I remember saying, what does the producer do? My dad's like, it's a producer. They have to raise the money. And then directed by Ridley Scott, I was like, what does the director do? He goes, well, he gets to spend all the money and tell everybody what to do. So at eight, I was super aware of what a director did and a producer did. And then I was like, I remember my bar mitzvah, the rabbi sits, like the rabbi at 12 years old, the rabbi sits down and like, asks you, what do you want to do with your life? Because when you're getting bar mitzvah,

they're going to say it, and Eli, blah, blah. And so there were so many Jews in Newton, you get a bar mitz with twins. So me and this kid, Rich Gilman, were paired up. We're friends. Gilman, Roth. Two nice Jewish boys. And Gilman wanted to be a writer.

So it's like, what do you want to do? It's like, Eli, what do you want to do? I said, I want to be a producer director. They're like, well, which do you want to be a producer or director? I was like, well, I want to be both because really it's the only way to retain control of your cut. Come on. You're eight years old.

No, no, this is when I was 12. Oh, you're 12. And I said this to the rabbi. And he's like, what do you mean? And I was like, Stanley Kubrick is a producer director. He's Jewish. He has total control. I want to be like Stanley Kubrick.

He goes, okay. Like, I was like Rushmore. I was like this little weird, freaky. I was like the Stranger Things kids. We were both like that. Yeah. Like in my parka, in my hat, walkie-talkies, Dungeons and Dragons, like total. The worst thing about the VHS tapes, and I still have some of them, is that I would spend thousands of hours through high school dubbing these tapes that are now all.

that now are they erase themselves yes i know all that wasted fucking time disintegrate well that's that's a beauty of film you know if you look at our old it's like our digital photos from 2003 there's like an area of my life my life sort of stops at 1998 yeah and then kind of picks up again when i got my phone there's like a 15 year period of digital photos that are on some hard drive i can't access anymore in an old program of i photo like we used to get our photos printed in 99 i drive out to the photo lab in santa monica like our bowling photos like you print them you put them in a photo album then i remember the digital camera started and i photo and iTunes and now all that stuff is obsolete so it's like now we have

our instagram and social but there's like a weird period of like 15 years of digital stuff well don't you miss it i mean think about it i mean i know technology is amazing and the things you could do now and it's great and we could talk about that ad nauseum but for some reason the instant gratification that we didn't have back then when you're talking about you got to hear about a movie and then you got to see it and you got to hear about and then the these pictures like if you see a picture from like 1988 you're like oh my gosh this might be the only one i know there was something really cool and now it's like with movies and everybody could see something right away and say no i'm not seeing that and the rotten tomato scores and the and all

these reviews about it and back then it's just like you hear about something and you watch it and you take a chance and you watch a movie and you haven't there's no real reviews except ciscoll and eber no exactly it was monday morning you waited to hear with people you know there's you could always get a good opening weekend because the word of mouth wouldn't hit until the next week and now it's five minutes into it or even before it comes out the rut but i also think the truth is people just like want to see something because they want to see it you know there's this whole thing in hollywood now of blaming rotten tomatoes for movies doing bad it's like no that was actually just a terrible idea or maybe people are sick of the franchise but then but then when

a movie like it comes at night which gets like 90% rotten tomato scores and doesn't really work at the box office it's not about it's just like it's like why isn't everybody going to see it because of the Rotten Tomato score. And I'm not knocking the movie. I'm just using that as an example of the score has nothing to do with anything. People are either going to see it or they're not. And it's just about what's in the air. And if it's a movie, people want to see at that moment in time.

And some movies are seen instantly and others like, Big Lebowski was in a box office hit. Fargo, I mean, Fargo took a while, but people found Lubowski. You know, Twin Peaks Fire Walk with me. There's a lot of movies that, you know, not everything was Pulp Fiction. Some movies, like, slowly over time, developed a cult following. But in terms of what you're saying about instant gratification, there is a whole thing now with like kind of generation iPhone that everyone gets their movies instantly, their music instantly. It's interesting because what I've seen is kind of I had a hard time finding an assistant for a while because I think what happens is the kids sort of want their careers instantly. And you want to be a director instead, you want to be a producer instantly.

And the truth is you can. You can shoot stuff and put it online now. And for some people, that actually works. Like they can be 22, 23 making their videos and they have a huge following. And that's what's exciting about it. But I also think that you do miss something that it is, you know, you have to enjoy the journey. It is a marathon. It's not a sprint.

And that there are certain benefits to waiting and earning things over time and not having success too fast. I mean, look, at Hostile hit at 32. And at the time, I was like, God, I can't believe it. I'm already so behind. Sam Ramey was 21. We made Evil Dead. And geez, I'm like, you know, 34. I was 32.

It was 34 when it came out. I was like, oh, God, I got to, I'm like, fine behind. Everybody, it's like you're getting this crazy race and now I look at kind of 45 and think, wow, if I, if I had the hostile success, now I do things so differently than what I did. But it's, I don't know, it's like you have to enjoy it. Look, one thing that you and I've always done is that we've always like done what we loved and had a fun time. But I remember when I first moved out here, it was like you being on the WB show was like, he's never going to have to work. He's never going to have to work again. Which is not true. The WB pays the least out of all the end. But I have to say, like, but I want to say this about Rosenbaum. You were by far, like, the most generous friend. Like, there were so many people, like, out of our group of friends,

we all sort of migrated around 98, 99. Like, everybody moved to L.A. from New York at the same time. So there was this huge gang of us. And we would all go bowling. And, like, we were all kind of working. Everyone was hustling. But you were on a TV show. And you were on, like, it was Zoe Duncan.

And Jack and Jane-Zoie, Duncan, Jack, and George. George, Frank, but at the bowling alley, like, you got recognized, you were going to events. You were the first one out of any of our friends to rent a house with a pool. And always- And rats in the bathroom. Yes, I do remember that. But you had arcade machines, but it was like, we would go bowling, and then we'd go back to your house. That was the Silver Spoons, kid.

You were the, you were Schroding in a big way. It's like Gallagia. Yeah, that's what it was. Still in the basement. But you were the one that is. As soon as you made money, shared it with everybody. Like, you would treat us to bowling when we couldn't afford it. You'd have everyone at the house.

And I'll never forget that. Like, that is such a testament to your character and to who you were that, like, when you got that success, which was more than any of us had ever seen or known, it was like you were on a television show, which was the biggest deal. The first thing you did was, like, constantly inviting everyone to dinner over at your house and sharing. Like, I'll never forget that. I'll always think of you that way and love you that way. It's like, that's incredibly nice of you. It's like, it's like that's who you are. Like other people would get successful and you never hear from them again or still make you pay to show that they're not like going to pay.

But you know what? You say that and I really appreciate that. It really does touch my heart. And I have always been like that. My grandmother, Ruth, God rest your soul, she was always inviting everybody in the house and she had money. And she, you know, at the time, she was like on the World Book Encyclopedia at the board of World Book Encyclopedia for Women, which was a huge thing. And she was making a lot of money. And she would always have people in the house, sleep.

there her parents stayed there her her husband's parents they all everybody stayed there she ordered food she always entertained she just loved being around her friends and her family and I got that from her and I really I just love being around my friends and what's weird though is there's something I got to figure it out in therapy Eli that the success I have it's it's this weird thing where I talk about it's not like I don't think I deserve it but it's that weird thing where I never feel like even though I'm on a show or if I'm doing something I'm telling this is i need your dad psychoanalyst because i always feel like when people talk about i almost get embarrassed by it it's weird as as cocky and confident as i can seem by a lot of people my

friends and like the leader of the gang and we're going to the beach this week it's like sworets and we're all going to sure so i just feel like uh you know i'm like no no no i i i feel weird talking about that like oh yeah is that you know what i'm saying no i do no i there's also a thing where maybe it's because we're jewish and we're supposed to feel the guilt the guilt is like, why am I successful? God all are. I should be successful. We should be working at the grocery store still.

We should be in an oven in Poland. Like there is that thing of like, you went dark. You just did it. But it's real. But it's real. It is fucking real. I'm sorry. There is a thing that you grew up because our parents were probably five and six years old.

And my parents now are 75, 76. Like they were six years old when World War II ended. So they grew up with people coming back from the camp. And you had family in the Holocaust. Yeah, but like their relatives. It's not like a media family, like my parents, my grandma, like their aunts, their uncles. There was like sides of the family that never came out of there. Because it was all Austria, Hungary, Russia, Poland.

That was where my grandparents all came from. So all I heard about growing up, like from my grandmother, from my mom, from the aunts were just like, you know, finish your food. You could have been in an oven in Poland. And like learning about the Holocaust, they were like never buy a Mercedes. Oh, my gosh. Because, you know, fuck me. Don't use Bayer Aspirate. Wasn't it?

Anything that was German in the 70s, I was traumatized. And then after going for Inglorious Bastards and living in Germany and I brought my parents over there. I was there too. It's beautiful. Amazing. My parents were like, thank God you got us here because we got rid of all that shit. Not that we forgot it, but this hatred and anger and this feeling that we're doing something wrong. So I started driving a BMW, like just to show that this has changed.

We've changed. Let's move on. But there is a thing where when you have success in some way, it's so much of it. It's talent. but it is luck and right and persistence and you think like I'm going to do it I'm going to do it and then you're like oh fuck this happened why and and other people look at you and they're like fuck that guy and then there's another thing you feel of you always feel like your friends are like 10 steps ahead of you like you look around you're like fuck they're like oh man and what am I

doing wrong they're doing this I should be doing that I should be doing that and the truth is that everyone's on their own path everyone's got their own thing to do and the thing is if we wanted to be doing those things we probably would have you know there's like there was a moment after Hostel where I was like, it was the big studio movies, Marvel movies, all that stuff. And I was like, I kind of just want to do Hostel too. I don't think I'm ready for this. I don't know if I want to like. There's that fear. I was like, it was fear, but it was also like, I've made two movies that I wrote, directed, produced. I have total control of this. And I'm like, financially set. So why would I not, why, now that I've worked so hard to be in a position where I'm a

voice, why would I want to execute? And now I'm like, and now I'm like, okay, I did five. movies that were like my voice and I'm like I love directing I want to shoot so let me see how it is with someone else's script making it my own like death wish which comes to me and I was like yeah I'll do this I had the best time I loved it and I want to get into all that because I do I feel like just to touch a little more on on that I think with me the guilt also I won't blame the holocaust exactly but yes I know you're saying but my father was like 1420 SAT he was a guy who woke up at 5 a.m. to deliver papers and then went to work and never missed a day of work and let me know about it. He busted his ass and was the manager of his plan and this and this work ethic.

And I just felt like I forget that I was like without thinking, hey, you're just really good at this. So you should, I felt like, he's like, yeah, what do you do? You go act. You see some lines into a camera. This is what you do. That's a job. What are you doing the day sitting around? And then I felt like I think that part of me was like, yeah.

But then I work really hard when I do. do a movie yeah what do you do you sit on set do take after take and then have a lunch and someone pamper's you i feel like that look i'm making my that sound like a dick he was a dick he was a total dick but i mean i love him a dick yeah but i think that was sort of it too is sort of like you know this is kind of fun because what we do is great but i don't think people understand how difficult it is that's because there's nothing about it that if you say what you do is difficult you immediately the middle finger comes up like there's you can't do it's nothing I think you can't do it.

Oh, I don't know. We had a 14-hour day yesterday. Fuck you. The truth is, it's not difficult. What's difficult is in between work, the struggle to get there. Doing the work itself is exhausting. Yeah. And it's tiring when you put your heart and soul into it.

It's not hard. I mean, it's hard to outdo yourself. It's hard to challenge yourself creatively. But what we're doing is something that we love. And most people to pay the bills, but food on the table, have to go and do a job. Now, they can get into that job. Some people are lucky enough to enjoy. their job every job has problems but most people aren't getting to get up and play in the movies

and like what we do is amazing like you can't so as soon as you say it's really hard it's like when people say making the film was a battle or making it was war it's like nah it really wasn't you were it was all pretend i don't know i don't know if i agree with you there i think that even though it is pretend there are days where i directed my first movie back in the day like a couple years ago and i made it for nothing and there were days where i honestly felt sick to my stomach days at a time where I felt like I want to get on the next plane and get the hell out of here

and you never look back. Moments where I just I was clueless. I was lost and it really it was scary. It was exhausting. And so I'm not going to say it's a cakewalk. I think we...

It's very hard and that's why very few people can do it because the challenge is how do you deal with when nothing goes right? So many moving pieces, right. So many moving pieces, so much money on the line And everyone looking at you, everyone needs you, and now make it natural and make it great. He's dropping the ball.

And so getting second guess, how do you not lose your fucking cool of people? And I tell people when, like, they're like, what should I go to film school? By the way, have you ever flipped out on someone? I usually flip out once a movie. Once a movie. Is that by choice? No, I just, I sort of like, it happens. And I try to prevent it from happening.

I'm not a screamer on set. I'm like very clear with what I want. But if what sets me off is when I ask for something two or three times. and I know that someone's being passive-aggressive. People make mistakes, people get exhausted, it's a lot of information, things get done wrong. But when I know that I specifically discussed, you are not going to do it this way,

you're going to do it that way, and they go ahead and build it a certain way because they think they either know better or they're not going to listen to me, I either go crazy or I just fire them. And that's every single movie. And you have to be in general, and you have to show that nobody is sick.

It doesn't matter who you are, if you're not doing your job, you're gone. And they have to respect the director. And you've got to earn that respect. But if they're not respecting you, you fire them. You just get rid of them or you do the job and stuff. It's like there's no, you can't, it's like you have to look like at the big picture. That is, you know, protect the queen.

Like, it's like David Lynch says, eye on the donut, not the hole. The donut is the movie. The hole is all the other bullshit you get sucked into. And he's right. Yeah. You know, there's a famous story about Kevin Costner when he was filming, um, dances with wolves. You know, that story. Day one, they're like, he can't fucking direct.

He's not going to, you know, he's, actor he's going to direct a movie and day one finally got the budget everybody's like okay we're behind you and he shoots the shot it's the opening it takes three or four hours to get you know to set this up and he realizes it's the wrong direction they can't for some reason he so he thought right then i'm going to look like an absolute fucking idiot and people are just going to look at me like you fucking suck and you know and i could you know if i do this if i just redo the shot and do it somewhere else or it was one of those decisions that you make you know a director defines who you are i could i could just say okay we're going to the

next shot now we got that what did he do he said no we just wasted five six hours i think it was a half day the first day this is all wrong we have to turn around and do it this way i just read about it and and and the whole crew looked at him and go they just looked in like you fucking what are we in for in this one and he felt horribly felt like it was this numbing thing i think we all know that feeling when we're doing the wrong thing or we can't you know because we're not we're not perfect and he did he set up that the the next shot took three or four hours the other way to set it and he did it and he did it and um he said that was the day that day one that was the decision if i wouldn't have done that i don't think it would a that movie wouldn't have done what it did

yeah and it was just balls you have to just you have a vision you have you have to blind you have you have the thing is you got to like listen to the people around it's this fine line of listening to people you trust but also being 100 percent that that thing and you're you got to trust your instincts and there's a reason they put you in charge and if people aren't going to like it people are going to get mad people are going to second guess you cannot care you're not there to please them you're there to make a great movie that's and you have to be organized and you have to be open and flexible to seeing what's in front of you but that that i've had those moments on cabin fever i remember how cabin fever i cast an actor named michael rosenbaum yeah the role of

justin i want to talk to you about this this is what happened this is my this is my dance with Wolves moment. So Rosenbaum and I obviously were friends and like really close. And I finally get the money for Cabin Fever. And it's like a big deal that like I'm finally directing. It's like you're making that jump from being the guy that talks about being a director. Right. To finally directing. It was probably 29. And I got the money and I was going to shoot it in October and that summer you booked Smallville. Smallville. And you're like, I'm going to play Lex Luthor. And I was like, okay, I think I can shoot this in two days. And you call me and you were like, dude, that show was a cultural phenomenon. It wasn't like a hit TV show. This is before internet, before, I mean,

we had email, but before social media, before Twitter and all that. That's why I only have 125,000 followers you're like. Well, yeah, we should just start. If we were famous now. Oh, if Twitter was out now, but then Smallville was the biggest deal and you were like, I literally, you're like, you don't understand. I can't, it's not just that I can't get on a plane to do this. They have every single spare minute. You were now being on the cover of magazine. And I was like, like, dude, this is your moment. Like, your career is so much bigger than, like, we got a long career. And so then I cast someone else that I'd seen in a commercial, and they just weren't

getting it. Like, I'd written it for you, and I'd written it with this, with you and mine. The Nuget? No, that was, well, that was, yeah, Jimmy DeBell. Well, there was a few things that I wanted you to do. But I wanted you to be Burt, and then you're like, you couldn't be Burt. I was like, okay, you'll be Justin, and then you'd be Justin. And then I remember, I cast this actor.

And I'd read it in rehearsals, and the cast was loving it. And this actor was not getting it. And we shot with him until lunch, and at lunch, I fired him. And after lunch, I was in the Justin makeup, and I came out, and I reshot the scene. And the whole crew, this is like day four. The whole crew was like, oh, what the fuck are we in for? This egomaniac just fired an actor and is doing it. And even like,

dances with wolves moment. And it was that moment because I'll tell you, the cast supported me. The crew was not into it. They're like, Eli, you're not funny. This isn't it.

Do you know who fucking thought that was the greatest? Quentin Tarantino, he thought me, my acting in that movie, loved me so much he put me in death proof and then death proof to God me glorious bastards.

It was that moment that led to in glorious bastards. And I did it. And it was one of those things where I knew I could do it. I was like, but then we showed it to like a test audience and they loved it.

So it was just one of those things where my being on camera was like, I knew I could do it. I tried with you. I tried with this other actor. But it was that defining moment of, do I not want to hurt this guy's feelings and have a really weak scene that I'm probably going to go hot? Or am I just going to say, I don't care what anyone fucking thinks. I'm going to act in this.

And I did. And I mean, this was like, we're shooting on 35 millimeter, it was a million and a half dollars. Some guy had put up his house for the movie. It was like, people risked a lot for that film. And I remember, but that was that dance with the old moment. You're just like, this is going to make her to break it. by the way yeah and then you see like a little aspergery about it yeah they just like not care what people think I think that is so important and especially in this business if you could just zone out and not listen to I mean obviously you surround yourself with good people positive people that's the key yeah it's the key I weed out the bad you just if they're bringing you down they have nothing to offer or they're not fun to be around fuck off I just can't I know I'm getting too old for this shit I want people who like support me who are I support them they're fun so hostile

again the smallville thing i remember you called me i was at the airport and you go hey can you fly to check republic or whatever and i couldn't fucking do it and i wanted to fucking do it i remember telling you at the airport i was in the burbank airport i go i pissed he lay off now i i couldn't do two fucking movies for him and now he thinks that oh i'm too big for my pants but i always felt like i know he feels that when i want to support i want to be part of his movie i want to be part of that and i just always wanted you to know that i felt so bad it wasn't you know Because it was different. I had to film in Vancouver.

I was literally, the first three, four seasons were just, it took me three hours to shave my head and my balls. Listen, no, first of all, I thought the opposite. I thought, I actually thought, and I would never ask you this or ask you to say anything, because it was, the show was such a great show. And when it came out, it was like the thing of the moment. Sure.

And you're like, I'm going to be bald for the next seven years. I'm going to be Lex Luthor. I remember when Hostel happened, And, and you... Which, by the way, that's one of my favorites. Everybody ever asked me about Hostel. I'm like, that movie to me is just like I was so, so proudy and so... Thank you.

So just amazed, because really, that movie just, it's gripping, it's intense, it's nonstop. It was just, to me, it was incredibly original. Thank you. Go ahead. Well, that was where I felt like this is what I can really do. Like, Cabin Fever was like, this is, you give me no money and a very limited scope and we'll pull something together that's really fun. But Hostel's like, And again, we did it for $3.8 million.

And by the way, we even made like $80 million worldwide. It did great, yeah. And so did hustle. But first, which is the best thing and worst thing can happen because then you're like totally confident. You're like, see, my ideas work. Like, you know, it's actually great, but it sort of in a way is like, it leads you, I don't know, whatever.

The universe points you in whatever direction you're supposed to go. I'm a big kind of believer in that. Thanks to therapy as well. I thought I'm not in any rush. I thought, you know what? We can do this. But if the timing isn't right, if he's on this show, we're both on our own path.

We'll find the right one. Absolutely. Like, we both are going to have long career. Like, I still feel like my career is just beginning. I feel like your career is just beginning. Like, everything else is like. We've only just begun. It just feels like freshman years over.

We went through it now. We're like, okay, this is now life can start. So I never thought that way. I never thought pissed up. I'm glad. I knew you were on the show. I always wanted you to know that like you were my go-to guy first before anyone else. And I was so honored and I was just like, I remember telling like Lally and my buddies.

I was like, so honored like I know he's going to be like this huge thing and I just like I couldn't I had no life for 10 months a year you were up there for I know and so I'm glad we got that you know in the clear yeah but also people it's it's it's hard to explain television now is 10 episodes now it's you can do movies now you can do movies yeah and back then if you were on a TV show it was 26 you were locked in for six I was I was I was Lex Luther for seven years there were a couple little roles here and there but I was usually wearing bad wigs I hadn't that was it I was just Smallville for seven years so in the last seven years that's been done. That's like pretty much my career starting over.

Oh, for sure. Hair growing out. Yeah, because also you have, when you have a two-month window, you're basically looking, you're either sleep or you're going, what movie, what is a movie that shoots in six weeks that's right for me that I can do between this? Yeah. So the movies that you do aren't necessarily the top choices of movies you'd want to do or you do smaller parts in big movies with directors you want to work with. So I remember when it was like, you know, when, and hostile when that kind of stuff was happening, you have that moment, everyone's going,

get Michael Rosenbaum. It's like, he's not available. So it's a very tough thing for you because you sort of have all the fame and you have all the heat, but to do those, like, get to be in the Scorsesies and the Finchers and that it's just not going to work out

with the shooting schedule. Yeah. And you're getting notes because of small, but now, and then the show's such a hit that now people only think of you as that. It's really, really difficult. The first thing I did once the show ended like 2009 or whatever it was,

I said to my agent, get me general meetings like what general meetings are like yeah you know set me up with casting directors for every studio and network and whatever they go why do you go because i want them to see me with fucking hair dude and i wanted to see them i want them to see me i'm not this weird eccentric billionaire you know i want them to see who i am and that really helped just going in like most actors when they're just starting out to go in generals hey this is the cat i go no i it's like i'm starting to reintroduce that's what i had to do so um i want to talk about you you made a hundred films before high school?

Well, they're all short. I mean, I think about that now. I mean, there were, like, somewhere like two minutes, five minutes. Did you use your family? All the time, my brothers. Yeah, I would just, I basically, if you start from the time you're, I mean, I started eight years old with a super eight camera, nine with a super eight camera. I remember in fifth grade I had like a retrospective of my animated films.

Kids were like, what the hell? I brought in my super air projector and they're like, it's the Eli Roth retrospective. Oh, my God. You made that? It was like, and what does that mean? Star Wars, action figures, fighting, he man figures. stop motion drawn claymation stop frame animation and then i got a video camera and every we'd shoot parodies we'd shoot news stuff we should so by the time i was learning all this shit just

figuring it out you just figured it out just figured it out there was it was it was it was it was it was reading fangoria oh yeah you know i have like a hundred episodes a hundred issues in there if you want it he can't have my fangos right now he goes like hey can i buy your fangoria's all of them well yeah he's they're like at his house they're great they're great the old interviews like they get really good people like david lynch is a good interview and there's i have all the motel hell that i thought i made it when i was in fangorri when they interviewed me for urban legend i was like yes dude you being an urban legend was a huge deal that was a huge that was that came out that was great and i got to work with uh braddorf yep i have the photo of you dead on the toilet

that you gave you do you still have that you're so sweet so you went on to do like all that i mean i remember you showing me like when you came out to do like chowd ahead and rotten fruit and it all stemmed from that. All my animation, yeah. Well, I'd done animation. I was pitching everything. I had Cabin Fever written, but the stuff I wound up getting

was the animated shows. Chad is, which is originally called massholes until someone had the word assholes in it. But we did it for WCW wrestling. They were going to be like the Simpsons on Tracy element. Yeah, and they were going to run it. And then the CE, they were supposed to air on a Monday. They announced it on a Friday.

We had the CEO got fired over the weekend. I remember that. And we were, and we sat at your house for three hours watching, and it didn't. come on and i remember and i just felt bad i made everyone sit through three hours resting it was like i don't know i fucking remember that and it wasn't like and we were all like what the fuck we put all this stuff we had watched all the episodes you put all that hard work into it and those nothing it's out of your control totally it's not meant to be and it's done it's like mahalan drive

when you got to go see the cowboy at the ranch and whisper the password and your movies back on it's like the forces that are with you or against you there's nothing you can do i think it's a lot of ego too i think a lot of these people that like somebody gets fired and then new guy comes in and goes, that's not my work. I'm not part of that, so I'm going to show you. It's so fucked. But imagine if you're in that job and you come in and there are these four other things and you agree to air it and it's a big hit, then they're like, why do we fire that guy?

Right. So it's sort of like you have to. You have to show. Well, the reason they're bringing me in is because everything else this other guy did is terrible. So anything he touched has this poison and get rid of it. But not shout ahead. Not chowderheads. I know.

And then from that, I was able to least get money for rotten fruit and which was z.com was like the big thing. That was the website. Thank you. It was fun. There's a couple of them. I remember watching everything at my own. We watched them out because I was shooting them. Hill Slope. I used to live in Hill Slip Street in Studio City, California. And Eli, and I, we'd play guitar. We'd play Gordon Lightfoot. By the way, at the end of this podcast, I want to just play a little Gordon Lifefoot. Can I tell you something? Gordon Lightfoot is playing tomorrow night in Pasadena. He goes on at 9 o'clock at the Rose Theater. He was only eight years old. I can't go. I have birthday party to go to. Do you want me to

Facebook live? My brothers are going. are they and apparently it's not sold out guys Gordon life and if you have he goes on at nine Gordon is the greatest rock I mean folk singer this guy is the greatest I don't know how much longer he's gonna be with us I saw him 15 years ago Tofer Grace went with me not to drop a drop a name we went and he goes I don't know who this is and he went and we sent front row and Gordon then looked like he could go at any minute yeah and he's still going still fucking going tomorrow night in Pasadena my brothers are going I had a ticket yes I had a birthday You, uh, I didn't know this.

You were a cyber sex operator for Penn House magazine posing as a woman to pay for your movies. I was a fucking fantastic cyber sex operator. Okay, this is how fantastic. I was really good. Okay, I'm going to be, I'm going to be, I'm calling you right now. I want, I want you to, you just go, all right? Yeah. If you're on a telephone, I'm on a modem.

I'm on an 800 bod modem. Remember, like, when a dial-up was 56,000? This was 800, 800, 800. So they gave me a computer terminal before I knew what a modem was. And it was a huge, heavy thing that you plugged into your phone lines. Your phone was busy. And between 6 to 10 or 6 to midnight, I would sit there and they would type and be like, blink, and there were ads in penthouse.

Come sign up. And it was, we were very reasonably priced 50 cents a minute. People would be on for hours. And there were different people off. You're a liar. You're posing as a woman. Oh, yeah. Guys are jerking off to you.

Yes. So for instance, I'd be like, hello? And I'd be like, hi. Well, give me your voice. It wasn't a voice. I was typing it on the keys. It was like old, like the computer in alien, it was that level of text. It was only text.

Oh, it was only text. It was text messages. And what's the dirtiest thing he said? I would sit there with like 20 guys in my room. And there were different things where there were like, I had different personas. I was me, Ray, the beautiful 22-year-old bisexual French girl who couldn't understand why she kept getting arrested for sunbathing, toppless in Central Park. Then I was Tammy, who was like, oh. a heavy metal.

She had gotten like gang bang by guns and roses and fucked everyone. I'm already jerking on. I was just like, oh, Allison with a Y who had just gotten divorced and she was looking for characters for her novel, but she was really bad at it. So guys loved it. They're like,

oh, Allison, I can't defile you. I'm too respectful. I'd be like, no, please talk about my breasts. And they're like,

oh, you say breasts and not tits. And then I'd be like, yeah, fucking come on my face. And guys were like, and then what happened? You really thought about these things.

This is how I, wrote characters and dialogue i'm telling you i was 19 and 20 like i was so good i got so my parents saw me they're like how are you so fast at typing? Wait a minute they knew what you were saying no they would they saw me like i was like i'd be like at my dad's computer like give me that i was like how are you typing come on my face so fast i'm typing 200 words a minute so i would sit there and like with all the people in the dorm they'd be like come here for something like no no no he hasn't earned it yet he hasn't earned it yet like you got to try hard these guys one guy started the customers would fall in love with you because this was a new thing no one these are like

doctors and lawyers the people that were on the internet at the time were like wealthy professional people who were very lonely and they were they would start one of the guys started FedEx and cash to one of the other kids to his dorm room at NYU because our whole thing was like my real name is is Alice and I have to go back I really have a kid I got to go back to being a stripper I can't do this anymore like do not leave do not leave they're like I'm sorry I'm quitting they're like I'm in love with you. I'll subsidize you. One guy started getting cash dropped off at his dorm room at NYU. It was four dudes

that were doing it. And the best part was me and my friend Bob, the last night, we quit. It was over and we had to turn in our terminals the next day. We remember this woman who had like these really thin, black Virginia slim cigarettes. You'd like drop it off at her house. It was all like super shady.

And the last night we went on and all the guys, we logged in as like Tammy and our girls. And they were all like what are you wearing? And we're all like, we're like okay we got to tell you something we're guys penthouse only hires guys because they know that only a guy can come up with what another stupid shit that's sick enough for what another guy wants to hear so that's why there's only men pretending to be women my god we have dicks and the guy goes ha ha shut up tammy tell me about your tits and we're like no we're serious dude and they're like you

are so funny me right like we're like no we're actually we're guys we're dudes we're like doing this out of a dorm remember you we're not fucking with you and they're like ha ha Oh, my God. Allison, like, they wouldn't believe it. And it's just like, who would want to believe that? Who would want to? Because what? You've just spent thousands of thousands of dollars. My parents are like, this is so immoral.

Cut to two years later, AOL starts. And then everyone is like doing it. I was the original catfish. In 1994, you directed restaurant dogs at NYU. 93, December of 93. Nominated for a Student Academy Award. Much to the chagrin of my professors. They couldn't believe it.

At the festival, it was the total audience, but it was Ronald McDonald's gang on a killing spree. You can see it on Cripped TV, my digital channel. Yeah, I put it out there. And it was totally silly and insane. I tried to violate as many copyrights as I could because everyone's like, you need to clear music. I was like, this isn't going to play on television, guys.

This is like, so, but we did it. And then what was great was 1995, the word alternative started because it was alternative music. Alternatives, everything was alternative rock. Alternative rock. So they started an alternative. alternative category, and I was animation, live action, color, black, and white. It was a 10 minutes of Monty Python violence, and we won.

And the professors were like, I was like, yep, I got my student Oscar. Ceremony at the Museum of Modern Art. The other kids in class were like, that motherfucker with the stupid Ronald McDonald movie. It was great because everyone in film school was so pretentious. Not everyone, but a lot of the kids were like, everyone's making movies about the holoca, I mean, make a Holocaust jokes. Only a joke can do that. Only a joke can do it.

Like making movies about Schindler's list and people with tattoos and flashbacks to war. And they're like, I'm going to cure homelessness in a student film. So they'd go and like film the grunge roommate sort of walking around near a homeless person and cut it to where the streets have no name. It was like the adventures of teenage homeless man, we called it. It was like every student films. And mine was just like, you know, hamburger getting his eyes stabbed out and Mayor McChese being decapitated. I wanted to do like, you know, Monty Python had this sketch of Sam Peck and Paw salad days where. arms and legs are ripped off.

I was like, that's what I want to do? I was like, what more do you want to see than that? I just want to see, like, arms getting ripped off and people are like blood splurting. That was all I wanted. And the professors, they almost didn't pass me. They were like, this is not. And I graduated with like the highest grades,

but I remember showing that student film, a lot of the faculty members were like, we can't allow this. And my professor stuck up for me. It was like, this fucking guy's doing what he wants. And the audience loves it. And they'd say, what's your message? I was like, my message is maybe people just like to be entertained for 10 minutes.

And 10 minutes was short. Kids would make 45-minute student films, shot on film. They were awful. It was like nobody knew. So it's fun. I'm one of the few, I think it's like me and like maybe one or two others to my class who are actually directing. Who's the other guy?

Well, I see Andres Heinz wrote Black Swan, has made a couple films. Todd Phillips was like half a year ahead of. I remember him being a year ahead of me. But I think he's like technically graduated in my class or a half a year. year ahead of me. So he was dumb. What's that? He was dumb, graduated, but it'd take him for you.

How many years he was, no, he was, I don't know. No, Todd was brilliant. By the way, can I tell you something? Even in NYU, Todd was a legend. Really? Because Todd was making a movie about G.G. Allen, the punk rocker. Yeah. And kids were coming up being like someone in Christine Choice documentary class

is showing footage of a guy eating its own shit and throwing shit. Like, and then he produced this movie. He produced a movie called Chicken Hawk. about like a pedophile. And Todd dropped to the New York Post. Woody Allen was seen going to a screening of chicken hawk. And then he did a screening. This is Todd, did a screening of the movie.

And he invited to the screening Nambla and the Boy Scouts of America. The North American Man Boy Love Association and the Boy Scouts. He invited them both, he sent official letters to both groups saying we'd like to invite you to the screening. And then called the New York Post. like that's Todd that's in film school that's like with a student film that wanted to be a legend Todd he was a legend it's not even had to try to be a legend it was like that's animal house shit Todd it was and you watch his documentary frat house and this type of the energy girl and like like like like the hangover Todd Phillips Wardox it is no accident in film school everyone's like this guy is a fucking genius I met him for with I auditioned for the hangover and I went in the room with them and I auditioned he goes Great audition. I go, thanks.

He's like, yeah, no, I'm really impressed. You're really great. I go, thanks. He goes, but we already have that role. Bradley Cooper's playing that role. You're not right for this role. I go, okay, thanks. I left.

He was totally honest. I loved it. He was just so brutally honest. No, I love, Todd. You did great. We already cast that part. I love Todd. I remember when my agent sent a script,

and I was like reading stuff, and I was directing, and I read the hangover, and I call my agent. And like Todd Phillips is producing this. He thinks you'd be right for it. And I read it. And I was like, this is the best script I've ever read. He goes, yeah, Todd thought the same.

He's directing it. But nice to be asked to the dance. I was like, thanks, bye. So wait, so on a scale from 1 to 10, what number were you in terms of Quentin Tarantino fan? Like back in 90. A thousand. A thousand. I, not only did I, I saw Reservoir Dogs.

And I was in such complete awe. I saw it in the theaters. How many times have you seen it? I mean, it's not, it's not even that I saw it. It's that I saw it. I had the laser disc that. was fucked up. When we got Macs that could play sound bites, we crashed our

computers because we audio recorded it. It's like, I did that with like Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross, the blues brothers. I audio recorded the movie. If there was a movie that you love so much, you would put a tape player up to the television and then drive it, play it in your car. And you're driving to school and we had Hamburger the Motion Picture. That's why I know

Hamburger and Jerry Rafferty were a duel on a Steelers Wheel. Yeah, all this stuff from the soundtrack, but like every other you know, I don't know a shot. We're going to talk to daddy. I don't know his dad. I don't know his life. I don't know his shot. I don't know he's not. Like all the nice guy Eddie stuff. How about Chris Pence? Like, he's just going to decide? Out of the fucking blue.

Out of the fucking blue. Why don't you tell me what really happened? What for? Just be a lot of more bullshit. Lauren Stearney. Fucking cabot. It was the best. I'm a cop, Larry. Fucking, just it's just like a chill. Yeah. And I watched Pulp Fiction two nights ago. And it's like, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, a, much like Noel and Felicity, and I was in charge of my floor. Felicity. And I remember when film threat came out with a whole issue on Tarantino Reservoir Dogs, I, I, I was in charge of the theme floor, of the theme of what your floor was, and I decorated my entire floor, like, Reservoir Dogs, saying this is the moment, I actually, I actually put

the whole thing. This is, you know, November 2nd, 1992 is the moment cinema changed. Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs was releasing. And it wasn't a big theatrical hit. It was like, it was like what the Babadook is now. People had seen it, but it wasn't like a movie made a lot of money. And I covered the floor. I dressed up. I got suspenders. I got a straight razor. I went as Mr. Blonde for Halloween. I was so obsessed with this movie that. Who's Mr. Blonde? Michael Madsen. Michael Matt's right. Lawrence Bender's sister, the producer Lawrence Bender, his sister Karen Bender, happened to be at NYU. in my dorm at the time.

And someone's like, you know that Eli's floor is dressed like Reservoir Dogs. And she's like, oh, so she's like, she came to my floor and she's like, my brother Lawrence is in the park. He's shooting this movie called Fresh that's shooting. So Lawrence Bender, who produced Reservoir Dogs, was then producing Fresh, directed by Boise, Ekinoy, later at a company with Ronner.

We produced Hostel together. Lawrence comes to my dorm room when I'm 20. Come on, man. And he sees the floor. He sees the entire floor is decorated as a shrine. to Reservoir dogs. And he goes, oh my God, this is so awesome. He goes, I've got to get you Quentin's new script.

I'm like, really? He's like, his new one Pulp Fiction's even better. He gives me the script to Pulp Fiction. He's like, you make a copy. 93. I'm in my dorm room at NYU. I'm the biggest Tarantino fan in the world, and in my hands, I have Pulp Fiction.

And I read it. And I knew the shooting gallery was a reference to the Scorsese documentary American boy that I had. I was like, I read that thing. And I was like, this is poetry. This is going to be. So when Pulp Fiction came out, it was like everyone was going crazy. But for a year, in 93, I had the script because Lawrence Bender gave it to me.

And then when we're doing Inglorious Bastards, Lawrence would just look at me when I come out with a bat. And he's like, fucking year that, he like, you're that, 17, 16 years ago, 15 years ago, you were that fucking nerd in the dorm room and look where we are now. And Quentin loved it too. Like, Quentin knows. I was like, you got to understand what that much. movie was to me and Lawrence is like yeah no I went to Eli's dorm room he had dressed the whole floor like okay let me this is interesting to me because you do yeah restaurant dogs my student right but you do cabin fever years later and Tarantino says something in in some magazine premiere

which was which at the time matter that was premier magazine you you hadn't met him yet no I had he'd come and he'd seen it and thought it was the greatest thing and we became friendly and then in his interview for Kill Bill 2, which was coming out in March of that year. Cabin fever had come out in September. So this was like, you know, he used to wait like six months for home video and it did well, but like Tarantino in his premier magazine cover story interview, they said, what are the directors you're most excited about? And he said, it's Eli Roth.

He's the future of horror. Now, at this point, were you already hanging out with him? I was hanging out with him a little bit. He invited me to his house, but he was also making me to, he invited me to the editing room. We were, we were friends. We were. Now, how does, like, is it hard?

because I have some friends, like, you know. Well, it started as that. But it had to, like, I still, like, but you're good friends of them, so that probably wears off a little. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, like, once you cast, you know, once you're, like, obviously you love him and you're in awe of him and respect his work. But the thing about Quentin is we very, very quickly became, like, family. Like, Quentin became, like, a brother.

He was doing Passover at my house. We're going, spending Christmas together and thanks, like, like, I love him. He became, what happens is, it was interesting. I remember having a conversation with Patty Jenk. of all people about this kind of around hostile time after she did because we were both she's patty's our age we were both working in new york city production at the time and we were talking about after your first film when you start getting movie offers for stuff you don't want to do whether it was like like dukes of hazard kind of stuff you know stuff that like shit is this

what i'm supposed to do now i remember i got offered like 300 000 to direct that movie and i was and i said no this is after cabin fever and i remember going to quentin's house being like I don't know if I just made the worst, am I supposed to, what am I doing? Like, that's more money than I had ever seen in my entire life. It would have completely gotten me out of debt. And I was like, I just didn't like the script. I didn't feel like I could do anything. And he's like, no, no, no, you got it.

He goes, do what you love and the money will fall. And I remember Quentin was the only guy that I could turn to for advice. And Patty Jenkins said something interesting. I would never forget it. She goes, your peer group shifts. It's not that you ditch your old friends. It's that your friends that are working, you know, shitty jobs. or something, you can't have those conversations with them because they're not really in a

position to give you any advice. Like, they're not coming from any kind of place of knowledge or strength. Like, after you get your television show and Zoe, like, what acting doing this? You're not going to ask your buddy from high school because they're not going to know. You have to ask someone you respect, someone with a career, and they're happy to give that advice because they had someone that was advising them. You know, Quentin's mentor, like his acting teacher mentor was James Best, Roscoe P. Coulter. Duke of Hazard. So I was thinking, holy shit.

So that's the guy that was like giving, you know what I mean? Can you imagine that? Yeah, and teaching him about acting. And like that was like really one of Quentin's like big influences was James Best. And he studied acting under him and learned directing and acting. Like you'd never think tying in the Dukes of Hazard and Quentin Tarantino, yet there is that going back to Duke's Hazard. There's a connection. So I think that what happens is like there comes a point where I was like, I never want to bother him.

Oh, he's busy. But Quentin is so open and so generous. and so warm, and very quickly, and then I introduced him, I remember when I started going on the film festival circuit, and I was like, I met this guy, Edgar Wright, you've got to see his movie, Sean of the Dead. And I arranged a screening at Quentin's house for Sean of the Dead that, like, I hosted, or Quentin, and we brought all these people there. And I was like, oh, Edgar, you got like, I just sort of start being, and then when I met Peter Jackson, like, we hung out with, like, I started being the connector introducing people and bringing. And then it just sort of crosses over

into we made hostel together and Quentin gave me such a great advice then he came on as a producer and then we traveled the world with it. I took him to Iceland. We went here, we went to sit just together and suddenly then within glorious bastards and grind house it's not just that we're making movies together, it's that we're hanging out

all the time. He's the only person you want to hang out with because he's the only one that you can kind of understand what you're going through. If you look at his history, it's like it makes sense that you're friends. He's working in a video store and he's like, you know, he has just such a knowledge of movies. But honestly, you'd

think that we would all think that but i think the reason that you and i are friends is because you're funny it's like i think we're funny like we love joking around and being silly and people might not ever funny i think so and it's that it's like with quentin he's fucking funny yeah he's hilarious and it's just like when you talk to him about life or girls or the world or history or most of the time we're laughing and he's such a fun for history like people see him on interviews talking about movies people know that's how they know him but the rest of the time he's just like that with a million other subjects it's just movies are always a common go-to but we'll talk about it's like anything so i love it i have so i mean it's crazy as like

i don't know how much time we have rob my producer rob here by the way he has a kid he has a child look at him he looks at he's eight years old he is a child what the fuck he just nods no fucking direction i have so many questions for you ely fire uh first of all do you know um lady gaga i know who lady gaga is i've never met her actually would love her on the show just let me you knew her. What's that? Are you going to, she come on the show? I'd love for her to be in the show. I just want to know if you knew her. No, I heard you. I mean, I know she's a movie fan. I really. And glorious bastards. Did you read for it? He just said, you want to play this role. Well, Quentin, with everything, this whole thing was like you got audition. Everyone auditions for me. But then he was auditioning everyone else in town. You know, Seth Rogen, Joan Hale. Anyone that was a Jew was going in on in Glorious Bastards. I don't look Jewish. You're not Jewish. I'm not Jewish enough. Yeah, you have a hairy bag. Paul Russ looks way more Jewish than you. He's pretty non-Jewish.

I could have been on the other side. You could have. You really could have. Bad guys. Very conflicted character. But Quentin called me, and he had been reading scenes to me as he was writing it. I was like his Jewish fact checker. He called me, he's like, Eli, what a Jew?

Do you think a Jew would offer a Nazi absolution if it meant ending the war? And I said, Quentin, I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't know what that word meant until I was 25. I was like, I don't, the concept of absolution is a Catholic, I was like, Jews are moneylanders. We collect interest. We collect interest on everything, including anger. We're more mad about shit from 2,000 years ago today than we were 2,000 years ago. That's just how we are. Not only do we not forget anything, if you asked me if I saw a Nazi, would I forgive them? I would fucking kill them. I would burn them. I would make sure their genes. Like, like, you got to realize the Nazis tried to

eradicate Jews from the planet. It wasn't like I don't like them. It was a systematic system of Death camps. I see the bear in you right now. And I was just like, you can't underestimate that. There is no circumstances under which any Jew ever would ever forgive any Nazi. You have to kill all of them. And he's like, whoa, okay, I get it. I get it.

And he's like, all right, great. I'm going to go right. And then he had over at my passive or sater. We had a bunch of mass holes. Which, by the way, my assistant thought it was, what's a cedar? Camp Cedar or Cedar. That was where I went to overnight camp. But we were like, dude, man ishtonah fucking Lila Hazer.

Dude, like, we were all, like, kind of doing our fucking asshole accents guy. Like, dude, where's your fucking Mata, dude? Hide this fucking Offie Coleman, fuck. Like, we're just doing that. And Quentin was laughing. And he's like, I sort of have you in my head as the Boston Jew. He's like, right now you're the guy to beat. And everyone he was auditioning, he didn't tell me this, but he was auditioning them against me.

He already cast me in his head. And then he's like, and then he was like, but he hadn't confirmed it. It was just like, I hadn't officially gotten the thing. And then he called me. He's like, hey, man, I'm about to go to Germany tomorrow. you want to go get dinner? I'm like, sure. So he picks me up. We go to dinner. He's like, so listen, here's the thing with Donnie. You're going to have to do like a, you know, it's got to be 360 degree characters. It can't be like grind house. Can't just be like coming and telling a couple

jokes. It's got to be like you got to know this guy like your best friend. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you saying I have the party? He's like, I go, are you telling me I'm going to be in fucking movies playing the bear dude starring Brad Pitt. He's like, yeah, I'm like, can we have a toast? He's like, yeah, cheers. Listen, you got to fucking do this thing. Like it's a real. I was like, it's nothing and you're dying here. Nothing. And I was like, well, look, dude, I'm going to fucking go all in on this. I'm going to be, like, method actor. I'm going to go and build the character.

I'm not doing any, like, this is too much responsible. This is too important to me to do anything else. Like, this is my life as being the bear Jew. I'm going to fucking go to the gym. The only thing I'm going to do 24, I'd do like Daniel Day Lewis level. Like, whatever those guys do, I'm going to try and do the best. I haven't had that experience yet. Well, I was like, I have to.

I was like, that status. Yeah, go. I'm going to do it. I was like, this is also important. Like, it's a chance to change the image of Jews in movies. It's like this character, if done right, like, we're all like, it's like the three S is, Seinfeld, Sandler, and Stiller. Like, we're funny.

We get the girl, but we're nebishy, dorky, Woody Allen. Like, that's us. This is a chance to change that, to add to that dynamic. We need, we just a chance to be, and I'm going to fucking do it. Incredible. And so I was like 40 pounds. I was like, fucking lifting. I was so, went back to Boston, got in character, built the character, all that shit.

And then I was like, you know, dude, if you need help making the movie, you got another director there. I know you want to make can and I know you don't. second unit but let me know he's like no i never do that every shot i do myself and they call me after two days he's like i don't want to deal with this fucking nation's pride chick you come over here and just fucking take care of it i was like done got on a plane i was there prepping nation's pride as the director of the black and white movie within the movie he's like i'm going to shoot the shot of melanie saying this is for germany and zolr thinking he's like there's two shots that i'm going to do and everything else just get me a battle i just need i need enough gunfire to cover up

in the theater and i did 200 shots my brother gab came over we got two cameras Because we shot it in Gurlitz where they shot Grand Budapest Hotel in two days. Three days, I got him 180 or nearly 200 camera setups for like a five and a half minute full shot on film that I edited while he was doing the tavern scene. So I was pulling double duty. So finally in the last chapter five, I could just act. But it was insane. It was 24 hours. I was up at 4.15 in the morning to be at the gym at 4.30 to fucking lift until quarter to 5 for the 6 a.m. pickup.

And then at the end at wrap, I would have my pre-production meeting on Nation's Prize. it was like fucking insane but we did it you know it's funny as i it people should know this but it's based on a true story i mean the characters right these these were real guys who went in there and risked their lives to stop the nazis right there's a documentary about it which one i don't know it was the real inglorious bastards it was just on like the history channel well there's a lot of stories like that but i haven't seen that well it's it's called the real and glorious bad i just saw it i was like what the hell is this well there were a lot it was based on a lot of stuff from history he said that there was a, there was a thing with the Nazis where they'd be like, they'd be like,

you tell us, they'd get them and get information and be like, well, let's bring out, let's put them in with the Jew. And the fucking, they'd have one and they'd like let the Jewish guy and go come out and just fucking tear the other one apart until the other one confessed. Like that was, that was a real thing. There was a lot of, I mean, obviously a lot of stuff was real. I wish me shooting Hitler in the face was real. Yeah, that would have been beautiful. But the, but it was a real fantasy. I mean, that was one of the, we did that screening for Holocaust survivors. They fucking, they were like hugging me after. They're because even though the movie was fantasy, the fantasy was real.

It was a shared fantasy that everyone in the world had. It was the fantasy of being the one to kill Hitler. And that was real. And that was more real than anything that could have happened historically. And not only Jews, yeah, it was pretty much everybody here with the world. It was the world. It wasn't just exclusively Jews. And people were like, there was something about seeing it that struck a chord with people,

that people just felt like, yeah, that's what I've always, I've always felt that. I've always dreamed of that. It was cathartic. It was amazing. I mean, only Quentin could have pulled that. that off. I hate to go to this, but we both really became friends because of one movie. Do-lo-doo-doo-do. The greatest.

Cannibal Holocaust. We bonded over it. Yeah, we both jerked off to it, but we won't say which scene. We won't say what you're seeing. Not on that's one thing we won't talk about, but we did jerk off. It's a great movie. It really is. Can't inspire both of us. I remember watching Cannibal. Green Inferno, of course. And Roger Deidado doing cameo in a hostel, too. And it's amazing. now knowing the director of all of these movies and knowing like dario argento and lamberto bava and roger de adado they're so nice and so funny and there's and lucio fulci's daughter auntinella i'm friends

with wonderful sweet funny they're like they talk about the fucking how like you go back and watch live like a cop die like a man they're running through the streets of roman motorcycles 200 miles an hour going over cars they were just doing that shit it's amazing that that sort of period of history Cannibal Holocaust, I saw that movie when I was 19, I was like, I cannot believe that this, I was like, this person's in jail, like, they've killed people for this movie. This is like, this is insane. What do they call Mondo? Well, there's Ultima Mondo Cani Bali.

That was his first one, last cannibal world. Starting with Robert Kerman, the professor of Cannibal Holocaust, too. It's really, but then now, and sort of seeing what they did at the time where he was shooting the jungle in Colombia with, like, real animals and they were really indigenous people and that's what inspired me to do green inferno was I thought you can't do that anymore because every part of the world has already been image mapped and explored and then I thought no there are like a lot the last bastion of uncontacted tribes are now being contacted there's videos on YouTube of it and then I thought you know it's the whole culture

of social justice warriors and kids being Twitter activists and slackivism just retweeting stuff to look good rather than caring about a cause and getting involved because you want to stream yourself to be seen as a hero, not really knowing anything about it, but just sort of, and then sort of going all in, listening to someone and just thinking, and I'm sort of feeling guilty about what you already have. So let me just, okay, I'll let me just do this bit of activism. Now I can go back to being selfish and living in my own world and enjoying my, you know, privileges that I have. So it's, and then we went and we shot in an area in Peru. They had never seen cameras before and there was no electricity, and it was amazing.

It's one of the greatest experiences in my life. You met your wife there? Yeah, we met on Aftershock. You met on Aftershock, and then I wrote the Green Inferno for her. Now you're putting it in everything. You put her in Hemlock Grove. Well, Hemlock Grove. Well, I did Aftershock, then we did Hemlock Grove.

And Hemlock Grove, we did Green Inferno. And the green Inferno, we did Knock. And I get the idea that you like to torture her in these movies. Well, we flipped it because in, yeah, Aftershock, she's been through an earthquake all night. She's running around in heels, covered in dust. Green Inferon. Does she want to fucking kill you? Is she like, Eli, leave me alone.

Stop this. She loves, I mean, look, I think she loves acting and doing it. She's Chilean. She's Chile, Lorenza. Does she ever just literally look at you and go, enough? I'm done. Eli, I'm done. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you ever laugh at her while she's crying and screaming? Yeah, I do. Well, only when the cameras are rolling. Like, we have a scene in Green Inferno where she's in a river and they had a cord around her because she had to scream. They had like a word, like a safe word. Right. And I was like, action. And she, of course, slipped and really started drowning and screaming.

and the cord went up into her ribs and she was trying to scream and, like, coughing. And I was like, God, I love her. Look at her. She's just going forth. But the river was so loud. I couldn't hear her screaming. And we finally had to cut.

Like, she almost drowned. But her performance is amazing. I also feel like she doesn't get, I think that people look at the movies and go, oh, it's just gory. Like, I think a lot of the times, I think what makes the movie's work is the acting. I honestly do.

I think the kills are great. Acting, that's it. I think it's the look on Derek Richardson's face, Jay Hernandez's face, Heather Montarossi. They sell it. If they're bad acting, it's not, it's not really, they've got to be fun. You've got to care about them. And I think she's such an amazing actress. She is. I believe her when she's being tortured for sure. You believe it. And English is her second language. When you watch her for real, she's, you know, speaking Spanish. So we've had a great, but knock, knock, she gets to do the torturing. So it's funny. And I have yet to see knock knock. And I want to see it. I work with Keanu. He's the sweetest guy. I know. I played a transvestite sweet November. And every day I go, hi Kiantu. He's the best. Whoa. He's calling me Keontu. What's that? I'm like, I'm like, I just. I just, I just. the little plan. It's on Hulu.

Yes. Watch Knock Knock. I mean, honestly, this is awesome having you on here. I mean, by the way, I mean, you've done cameos and everything, the horse whisper. Office worker number four, shocked onlooker, boyfriend, frightened citizen, Justin and I'm the world's worst extra. I love that you do this. You work in trauma movies. It's Lloyd Coffin, I'm sure.

Well, Lloyd will call me and go, hey, we're shooting and you go by and say hi, and then he points a camera at you, and next thing you're in his movie. It's not like you go, oh, I'm going to be in a trauma movie today. You're like, oh, hey, let's stop buying. see Lloyd. I'm like, wait, what's going on? You're next to Lemmy. Now, I told you that Eli and I are Big Gordon Life at fans. And even if you don't like it, we're going to try this. Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready.

Picking up the pieces of my sweet cheddar dream. I wonder how the old folks are tonight. Her name was Anne, and I'll be damned if I recall her face. She left me night. knowing what to do

Care free highway Let me slip away on you Care free highway You've seen better days The morning after blues From my head down to my shoe Care free highway Let me slip away

slip away on you A lot of tune but who gets your shoes Wow I get chills here and We need to do another Gord night for sure. Oh, that was so much fun. We've had too much fun. This has been a real treat.

I mean, there's so much to you. You speak Russian. You speak. God, I could talk to you. Well, to be continued, we'll do it again. This is too much fun, really. Eli, you're doing everything. I love that you're working so much.

And I'm proud of you. You're married. I'm proud of you, man. You finally got married. You did it before me. I know. I don't know if I'll get married. I hope I do.

It was great. It was the right time. I'm married two and a half years, and I love it. It's when you find the right person, it's just everything falls into place. I actually, like, I feel way more productive and happy and it's awesome. In a way, I feel like your father, you're psychoanalyzing me in a good way. Like, I really appreciate this therapy. No, I do.

You can't do it with the wrong person. It's got to be someone who is totally, you're equal, your match, your challenge, like, you know, someone you really love. And she's younger as a totally different perspective on things. That's good, too. But we really, you know, South American, just another person. perspective on the world, the best. Eli. Michael. Thank you for allowing me to be inside of you. You are welcome inside of me anytime. All right, guys. That was, that was really amazing. Thanks, you're right.

What if you came across $50,000? What would you do? Put it into a tax-advantaged retirement account. The mortgage. That's what we'd do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice. Buying a vehicle.

A separate bucket for this addition that we're adding. $50,000, I'll buy a new podcast. You'll buy new friends. And we're done. Thanks for playing everybody. We're out of here. Stacking Benjamin's follow and listen on your favorite platform.