Eli Roth aka The Bear Jew spent his Saturday getting wrapped up by a big snake and totally making out with it. Kind of sounds like how I spent my Saturday, but he did his for a good cause! The Inglourious Basterd is doing a video for PETA and the Boston native previewed the PSA for The New Yorker. When the writer/director turned actor was asked to do the PSA by PETA he wanted to use his friend’s Python, but he was told he they could not use live exotic animals. So he called the makeup artist, Greg Nicotero who worked with him on Cabin Fever and Hostel 2 and created that beautiful big d!ick that he modeled for a photoshoot and asked him he had a big snake (not the one that goes between your legs) that he could use. Lucky for him the body was available, but the head wasn’t so Greg made one just for him. Eli went in and got to intimately know the snake that he will have such a passionate kiss with that it would even make Eve jealous and detailed what we can expect from the PSA.
Nicotero wound the snake tightly around Roth’s body while Roth rehearsed his lines for the public-service announcement. “Everyone knows that violence in movies is fake, but violence against animals is real,†he said. “Research has shown that violent criminals start out by torturing animals. If you see violence against animals, report it.†Roth looked into the snake’s open throat. “Can we add a little tongue? After I make out with it, I’m going to want to say something like ‘I thought we said no tongue.’ â€
I can’t wait to see their tongues in action!
Not only did he give them that salacious story, now that is he in the #1 movie around the world he told them what is up next for him, “Acting is fun, but I like directing,†he said. “I’m ready to start chopping up body parts again.â€
BTW on a Inglourious Basterds note, Eli isn’t the only hot Basterd in Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece and Best Week Ever listed the others and I have to say I so disagree with their list. Eli is 4? He should be #2 behind Daniel Bruhl, the only actor that ever made me think a Nazi could be doable and he didn’t even make the list. Is she blind? Because she has Samuel L Jackson on the list ahead of Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbende and the Pulp Fiction star is only the narrator. Also missing from the list was Omar Doom who knows how to work a white tux. What do you think of her list? Do you agree with me she needs glasses because that list is so off track?
Eli Roth is one of the Inglourious Basterds in the bloody brilliant movie that comes out tomorrow, August 21st! Eli plays Sgt Donny Donowitz aka The Bear Jew and his role will go down in the movie history books, but how that will happen you will have to find out later. Not only is Eli playing the guy who swats off Nazis’ heads with a baseball bat, but the Cabin Fever and Hostel director also directs the film within the film Nation’s Pride and he did a fantastic job with that extra responsibility. That propaganda movie will make you laugh and cringe at that same time in a way only Eli can make it work.
Although Eli has acted before in his own movies and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, this is his first major acting role and you would never know it watching him on the big screen. He is just so believable and funny as The Bear Jew and he told us at The Weinstein Company’s roundtable for the WWII epic that this was the only role for him.
No, the only role for me was “The Bear Jew.†I was like this is it, to be a Jewish guy from Boston that beats Nazis to death with a baseball bat. I have been training for my whole life for that part. There as no other role. That’s what I said to him, “This is it.†I think there are some actors, who feel, no actors in this cast, but other actors he worked with that felt that they were now that I’ve been in a Tarantino movie I can do anything. But for us, this was endgame. This was it. Like the ultimate dream for all of us to be in a Tarantino movie. And we know there is no such thing as a small part in a Tarantino film. You can be Floyd in True Romance or Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction. Every part is a chance to create a classic cinema moment and everybody is going for it. I felt so lucky. The first table read you look around the room with Christoph Waltz and August Diehl, and all these incredible European actors, Melanie Laurent, you felt G-d this movie is going to be amazing. It’s going to be something so special and so different. It was a thrill to be a part of it.
One thing that wasn’t always a thrill for him was a piece of costume he wore for the role in this period piece . Something BJ Novak said he didn’t have to endure and didn’t know what type of a relationship Eli had had with the costume lady to suffer through that. Well I don’t want to hold you back from scratching your itch any longer here is what it is…
Plus being in wool underwear will make you want to kill anything. I mean we were totally period thing. Even if it wasn’t seen, like the socks, the underwear, wool wife beaters, my G-d you can’t imagine what I smelled like, I smelled like a bear. It was disgusting, but the costume, and Quentin’s like, “yeah, you’re getting a cool leather jacket.
Something that wasn’t disgusting for him is that thing that will land him in movie history and it is a huge spoiler why such an honor will bestow him, so if you want to see what he told us about the change that QT rewrote for him in the middle of filming the movie then click here!
These pictures of Quentin Tarantino demonstrating Big Gerry on Eli Roth have Caption Me written all over them, so go ahead do it!
Don't forget you can see QT's WWII masterpiece Inglourious Basterds starring the multi-talented Eli Roth next Friday, August 21st!
Here is a plea to my Canadian readers, can one of my neighbors to the North please upload the MTV Live segment those pictures are from and let me know when you do?
The cast of Inglourious Basterds took over Hollywood Blvd for their big premiere of The Weinstein Company movie and boy did they look glourious!!! Quentin Tarantino and his Basterds Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, BJ Novak, Omar Doom and Michael Fassenbender all worked the blood colored carpet last night!
I just love those pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Joilie looking so in love, seriously they are the sweetest couple in Hollywood. Another thing I adored from the carpet is that even though Cloris Leachman was cut from the movie, she still came out to the premiere and was greeted by QT!!!
Inglourious Basterds is out on August 21st and after seeing the WWII epic on Saturday, all I can say is "Holy f*cking sh!t wow! I so loved this movie!!!" Seriously I think this is Quentin Tarantino's best work to date and I can totally see why Christoph Waltz won the acting honor at Cannes because his performance will blow you away! Next week I will write a much much longer review of the phenomenal movie and post interviews with Michael Fassenbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz and BJ Novak! So cancel whatever you planned from next Friday, cancel it and go see Inglourious Basterds. It's the movie everyone will be talking about for months to and you don't want to miss out on the conversation about this movie that changes history!
But before then I will leave you with one quote from Christoph Waltz, when I asked him about him how he is dealing with all the international interest in him he told us, "I said this after Cannes. Ten flashbulbs bother you; 10,000 are fantastic!" By the look of his face below from last night's premiere you can tell he had a fantastic time!!!
Yesterday Eli Roth showed his director’s cut of Cabin Fever at the HollyShorts Film Festival, where he was honored the night beforehand for the accomplishments he has done for Independent film making. This is the first time the movie has been seen in its entirety in the United States since before it was sold at the Toronto Film Festival because Lionsgate made him cut about 4 minutes of little things from the version that was the talk of film festivals around the world. So what other way to show the movie, but for Eli himself to introduce it and tell the audience little tidbits about the movie.
Before the movie started, there was a long line to get into the theater and Eli stopped and greeted everyone who came out to see his first movie. Then we went inside and it was time for the event to begin. Eli starts out by telling us that he showed a shorter version of the movie in the same theater that we watched last night back in 2002. Tarantino was also there then watching the movie and loved it! So much so he offered Eli the role of Dov in Death Proof that eventually lead to Donny Dononwitz in Inglourious Basterds. How cool is that? In the audience last night were the people who helped with the production of Cabin Fever including Rider Strong and Eli gave us little tidbits about them and the importance of them being part of the production of the movie.
Eli also answered questions from people in the audience and the first one was how do you make it as a filmmaker. He told them work on a set and told stories about his past experience. Including how he technically worked with Brad Pitt before IB in Meet Joe Black, I say that because he was fired from the movies 10 minutes after he started playing Medium’s Jake Weber’s stand in.
He also talked about filming the movie in North Carolina and the problems he had with some of the dogs that were such an important part of the movie. He also shared with us about how the guy who gets stabbed in the ear with a screwdriver in the movie was in a mental institution and how the actor was obsessed with Boy Meets World and Rider Strong.
The sweetest part of the night came when Eli was wrapping up and he told the story about how his dad gave him $100,000 to fund Cabin Fever and that was a lot of money for him at the time. As we know Cabin Fever was such a huge hit that Eli paid him back with much more than he gave them. Last night was his parents 49th wedding anniversary and they were in the audience. What an awesome way for his parents to celebrate such a milestone. I wonder what Eli give them for their big one next year???
Now even though Eli said he was going to bolt during the credits, he stayed to find out what we thought of the added scenes that were missing from the movie we have been forced to see. And those scenes really made the difference. He asked us to plead with Lionsgate to release a BluRay version of a Director’s Cut of the DVD and I am so going to ask them to do that and you should to! We need to have this cult classic that has influenced so many filmmakers to be released as it should’ve been! So call Lionsgate at 310-449-9200 and ask for Joe Drake and/or Steve Beeks and tell we need the Director’s cut of Cabin Fever now!
Some of you might think I post a little too much on Eli Roth and the reason for that is my admiration for what he did with Cabin Fever. Years ago I was working for a horror movie director that was on the down and down, and whenever I was ready to quit Hollywood because I was beginning to think that everyone was like him, I would put in Cabin Fever and my faith was restored. What Eli did with this movie and the special features on the DVD blew me away so much so that it was the movie that kept me from not walking away from the industry all together. Eventually I stopped working for that guy, but I have not turned by my back on the biz. I just learned to respect those who honor this business (like Eli) and the rest well… So thank you El Roth for creating a movie that was so inspirational to me and so many others! After last night’s screening, I saw I wasn’t the only who felt the same way there are many more like me.
