Interview: Eli Roth

After just a few short years in Hollywood, Eli Roth has managed to create a genuinely multifaceted career, not only as a writer and director, but a producer, and most recently, actor as well. After a few small roles in his own films and a brief appearance on both sides of the camera in Grindhouse (he not only directed the fake-trailer Thanksgiving but played one of the guys getting Jungle Julia drunk in Death Proof), Quentin Tarantino enlisted Roth to play Donnie Donowitz, also known as "the Bear Jew," in his WWII opus Inglourious Basterds. If appearing in a second Tarantino film wasn't enough, this time he's sharing the screen with a literally international cast, headed up by none other than Brad Pitt, with whom he shares the majority of his screen time.

Cinematical recently spoke to Roth in an exclusive telephone interview, where he acknowledged his good fortune thus far. In addition to talking about his role in Inglourious Basterds, Roth talked at length about how playing Donowitz rekindled his creative fire behind the camera, and he also reflected on what makes the horror in horror movies last once they've left the screen.

Cinematical: In Hollywood, directors don't usually say, "what I really want to do is act."

Eli Roth: I'm actually at a photo shoot, so I'm going from director to actor, now a model, and what I'll end up as is a waiter.

I didn't say what I really want to do is act, either; it was Quentin who pushed me. Even in Cabin Fever, I'd hired another actor for that part, and it really just didn't work out. We were on location and there was no one else to play [the role], and it was the girls, Jordan and Cerina who said, you've got to do it! so I did it and Quentin loved it and he pushed me to be in Grindhouse. I mean, I knew that I loved doing it, but I never considered that real acting; I was just screwing around and having fun. But Quentin sat down with me and said "you're going to play Donowitz, and this is a real part and it has to be a 360 degree role," and he said I know you can do it. Quentin's confidence in me made me push myself; I said, you know what? If I'm going to do this, I have to be great, I have to bring my A-game and prove something to myself and prove something to everyone else – that there's a level of talent that's there that nobody knew I had.

Cinematical: Quentin obviously has very specific ideas in mind for each of his characters. Did that help you or was that a challenge because you would be plugging yourself into a predetermined characterization?

Roth: In my case it helped, because Quentin knows I'm from Boston and I'm Jewish, and he's heard me talk with my Boston accent with my friends before. He knew the whole thing, basically, so I knew that the character was something in my range and was something that I could do. If it was a role that I felt was really not right for me, or I couldn't do it justice, I wouldn't have done it. But Quentin loved when I was in character, and I really dropped everything for it; I put down my pen and went to Austin and I researched the character. Everything I would want an actor to do for me, I did, and when we showed up for rehearsals, the first thing [he said] was "tell me about yourself," and you had to have your character's entire history. You had to know your character the way you know your best friend, and describe them and know how they would react. Anything that happens, if a guy walked into the room, if a girl walked into the room, if a dog walked into the room, you know how your best friend would react, and you have to know the character that way, and once you know that, you can be in character. And Brad [Pitt] was the same way; the two of us were in character all of the time and it was like hanging out with Donnie and Aldo. So for Quentin, it was like he had these guys in his head for eight years and now he was seeing them come to life; and once he sees you in the part, then you're the part, and he can't see it any other way.

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