Quentin Tarantino, an obvious non-Jew, was almost finished writing a movie that will re-write a chapter in Jewish history, so how does he capture the emotion that the Jewish people will feel when they see his WWII epic Inglourious Basterds? Well he went to his Jewish BFF and future star of the movie, Eli Roth for some advice. Here is what the The Bear Jew told Black Book Magazine about how QT and him broke unleavened bread aka matzah to make what looks like a powerful film even more impactful.
Did you teach Quentin anything about gore and how to make things look more gruesome?
Quentin knows everything about gore. We have the same effects guys. What I did teach Quentin about was, while he was writing it, I sort of became the Jewish technical advisor.
How so?
There were just certain psychological things that he would kind of gut check with me. Would a Jew do this? Or do you think this way? Before he wrote the last chapter, I came over in April of 2008 and said if you want real insight into Jewish psychology, you should come over to my Passover Seder at my house in Los Angeles. I’m not very religious, but my family celebrates Passover. He had never seen that side of me, because truthfully, I rarely let it out. So, he’s never really seen me as a Jew.
Wow. So how did Quentin do?
He did Great! My father is a psychoanalyst, and he really loves Quentin, and they really get along. It was my parents, my brothers, and very close friends. There was like 20 of us and Quentin. Half of it we were joking and doing it in our Boston accents, and half of it turned into this very intense philosophical discussion. After the Seder he was like, I’m gonna go home and finish the script.
Did Quentin read from the Haggadah?
Oh yeah, we all did. I make everyone read. They don’t have to read it in Hebrew. We do it in Boston accents, Jewish accents, we have fun with it. But it always turns into real serious discussions about the Holocaust. Quentin was talking about absolution and the concept of absolution, and I said to him, you know, absolution really is a Christian concept. So the Jews, I was like, we collect interest. We just get angrier about stuff over the years. We don’t just forgive, and we don’t forget anything. I was like, I would kill every one of these motherfuckers. I wouldn’t forgive any of them.
So in that spirit was it cathartic for you, as a Jew, to be able to beat shit out of fake Nazis?
What I realized was not only was it cathartic for me, it was cathartic for them [the German actors]. They’re this whole generation of people who have nothing to do with it. They are burdened by what their grandparents did—this horrible, unthinkable thing, and they’re getting stuck with the blame for it. So all of us wanted to kill it. And the guy playing Hitler, and girls, they were like let’s fucking kill these guys. Let’s just do it. Kill them. They all had fantasies about killing these guys. So they wanted the deaths to be as violent as possible. It was like, let’s go kill them together and make a great scene.
After reading this interview with Eli, you can see how much Quentin Tarantino cared to make sure that this movie was done right and respectfully. I admire that about him.
What I also thought was extremely interesting in his interview is when he said the German actors felt the same way he did about killing Nazis. That is something I never heard before. It really sounds like Inglourious Basterds is going to change the way that a lot of people feel in modern day towards some people for something that happened in the past. Really really interesting.
BTW Eli also talked to Black Book Magazine about his experience at Cannes during the premiere of the movie in May and you can really feel what a powerful moment it was for everyone involved with the film.
I seriously can’t wait until August 21st to see Inglourious Basterds!
Inglourious Basterds is less than two months away, and now with the debut of the full trailer we are finally getting more insight into Quentin Tarantino’s WWII Epic starring Brad Pitt, Eli Roth and Diane Kruger. In the full trailer we are finally seeing the plot that the Basterds have to take down the Third Reich and Hitler. How thrilling does that explosive plot look! I so can’t wait for this movie on August 21st.
Sadly though I read over the weekend in NYMag that Cloris Leachman’s scene got cut from the movie.
Did your part really get cut out of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds?
I have heard that, and I would suspect that that’s true, because it’s very long and my thing isn’t woven into the plot. It would be a very good scene to cut, in the sense that it wouldn’t hurt the picture. It’s a wonderful little scene. I love doing it and he loved it, too, but it’s not going to make or break the film.
What happens in the scene?
I’m an old Jewish woman in Brooklyn — we shot it in Berlin, but it’s supposed to be in Brooklyn — and I open the door and this young man [Eli Roth] is standing there and he asks me to sign his bat. He’s heard about these Germans, what they’re doing to Jews and he asks, “Is there anybody who’s been affected by the Nazis?†and I look at him and start signing my sister’s name. And you know that they’re just going to take the bat and just kill some Nazis.
We were hoping you’d reprise your role as the German grandma from Beerfest.
No. It’s a very serious movie. A thrilling script. Oh my goodness. I’m sorry. I wish it would be in because it’s a very good scene with a marvelous writer. But you can’t be upset about these things. It’s part of the business. I always think a better bus will come along that I’ll catch.
How can they cut out Cloris? There is always time for Miss Leachman. Plus that scene where Eli Roth goes to the families of people who are affected by the Nazis and has them sign the bat he will use to collect his scalps sounds so powerful. Hopefully since Quentin is rumored to be re-editing the movie that debuted last month at Cannes, he will add that scene to film.
UPDATE: The above trailer was only a TV spot, here is the full trauler that is :18 seconds longer!
Eli Roth told Fangoria that he is talking to Universal about remaking the 1981 horror movie The Funhouse with his production company Arcade.
“I’m talking with Universal about that one,†Roth reveals. “THE FUNHOUSE is a movie where the first half is brilliant—they set up these great characters—and then they pay off none of them. You have Marco the Magician sawing his daughter in half, the brothers who run the carnival and the funhouse setting. And then it’s all about this weird mutant thing. It should be about the kids getting killed in horrible ways, put in different contraptions in the funhouse and the final girl being strapped into the ride and sent into the tunnels to be confronted by terrifying tableaux of her dead friends. A smart remake could be so much fun. Kill the kids in fabulous ways and continually reuse the bodies by making them freaks in the freak museum, sew their eyes shut, waxworks… That’s the stuff I want to do in a remake of THE FUNHOUSE.â€
The Funhouse is currently playing on HBO Zone and after watching it today, I am dying to see what Eli will do with this movie. Although I don’t think I should say dying and Eli so close together like that… But seriously what he is saying could really make the movie what it should’ve been and with his genius I know he can do it!!!
Besides going behind the camera again for his upcoming features Endangered Species, Thanksgiving and poss The Funhouse, he is also going in front of the camera again for Piranha 3-D to play a host of wet T-Shirt contest for 16 women and their wet 32 girls according to Bloody Disgusting! I read somewhere that he said this was brutal role for him and in fact he thought before doing the cameo “How will I ever top working with Quentin and Brad Pitt (in Inglourious Basterds)? Well…” Now he knows!!!
Don’t forget before those 4 movies even see the big screen, you can see him in Quentin Tarantino’s WWII epic Inglourious Basterds in front of the camera as Sgt. Donny Donowitz aka The Bear Jew and behind it directing the propaganda film within the film, Pride’s Nation on August 21st.
Eli Roth let People in on a little secret about how his Inglourious Basterds co-star Brad Pitt keeps his pits smelling so glourious!
"He shared that when you're sweating and don't have time to take a shower, you just take a baby wipe and rub it under your armpits," Pitt's costar and pal Eli Roth told PEOPLE at Saturday's Spike TV Guys Choice 2009 in Los Angeles, set to air on the cable network June 21 at 10 p.m.
"After a scene, Brad had to get next to me for a close-up shot, and he said, 'Damn, you're ripe,' " recalls Roth, 37. "I said, 'I didn’t have time to shower.' He said, 'Baby wipes, man, baby wipes.' "
When it came to Pitt's pits, Roth said the leading man explained, "I got six kids. All you've got to do is just take them, a couple quick wipes under the pits." Pitt further said, "Man, I'm getting pissed on all day. I don't have time to take a shower."
"I thought that was the greatest tip," says Roth, who took the advice to heart. "My character is called the Bear Jew. If I ever started to smell like a bear, I would just use a couple baby wipes under the armpits, and it made it safe for everyone else to act around me."
I can't believe that Brad Pitt told Eli that he was ripe. I could never tell someone that, could you? But hey he is Brad Pitt, he can do whatever he wants! Including letting people know his secret to armpit freshness. Now I want to know if Eli walks around with baby wipes all the time, unlike Brad he doesn't have any kids which could def be a fun conversation item if you see him with a pocket full of baby wipes.
BTW besides letting people know about Brad's baby fresh scent, he also told People what it was like acting with him and hanging with Angelina Jolie at a Cannes after party. Did you guys see that In Touch magazine this week they called him "The Other Man" that she was talking to at that party? Too funny. Wonder if he used the baby wipes before he sat down on that couch with her?
UPDATE: That picture of Brad Pitt and Eli Roth was the exact moment that he was talking about in the interview. I just spoke with Eli Roth and he said, that they only got through that closeup because of the baby wipes. He said that he felt bad about smelling like The Bear Jew that he plays, but he had spent all day beating a Nazi to death with a baseball bat and didn't have time to shower. He explained that he doesn't always have time to shower whenever he gets sweaty while filming, but he always time to use a baby wipe and make things as painless as possible for his co-stars.
I am thankful for baby wipes because that picture is beyond awesome, and it is shame to think it almost didn't happen.
