Eli Roth

He won a Student Academy Award in 1995 for his N.Y.U. thesis film Restaurant Dogs .

He spent six years researching a project for director David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti that will be written for Broadway.

He got his idea for Cabin Fever when he was in Iceland and contracted a case of a flesh-eating disease. The now infamous shaving-legs scene in the bathtub is based on when Roth shaved his face and layers of skin came off while having the disease.

He was the inspiration for the character Eli, the aspiring porn director, in the film The Girl Next Door . One of the writers was friends with Cabin Fever editor Ryan Folsey , and spent time in the editing room, secretly writing down everything Roth was saying. Roth found out about this when several actors he knew auditioned for the film, and told him there was a character named Eli who spoke exactly like him. Roth confirmed this with the writer, who was promptly kicked out of the editing room.

He is friends with director Chloe , aka Chloe Nichole, who directed the Cabin Fever X-rated parody Sex Fever . Chloe had visited the Cabin Fever set during shooting, and then directed the sexy spoof without telling Roth. In Sex Fever , Chloe spoofed Roths character Justin, making her directors cameo as a lost hiker, just as Roth did in Cabin Fever . Roth was flattered that she made the film, but was disappointed he was not invited to visit her set in return.

He suffers from psoriasis, a genetic, non-contagious skin disorder which can have crippling effects. When Roth suffered his first attack at age 22, his skin was cracked and bleeding so badly that he could not walk or wear clothes. He based many of the events in Cabin Fever on his own skin-curdling experiences.

He paid for his student films by working as an on-line sex operator for Penthouse magazine, back when only doctors and scientists were on the Internet. Subscribers paid $30 an hour to have sex with Roth and his N.Y.U. friends, thinking they were gorgeous Penthouse models. Roth claims that these experiences inspire many of the characters he writes today.

Quentin Tarantino called Roth "the future of horror" in the May 2004 issue of Premiere magazine, a year before Roth made Hostel , which Tarantino executive-produced.

He is a huge fan of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen. While filming Cabin Fever , Roth played the Olsen Twinss film Holiday in the Sun on a continuous loop in a screening room, to give the cast and crew "artistic inspiration.".

When he worked as a production assistant for Howard Stern on the set of Private Parts , he worked the late shift from about 11pm to 7am. During this time he spent rewriting and reworking the Cabin Fever script because he says it was "problematic at best.".

He is the brother of Adam J. Roth and Gabriel Roth and son of Sheldon Roth and Cora Roth.

He shared nearly all the profits from the enormously successful Cabin Fever with his cast and crew members, who took very little pay up front in order to get the film made.

He does incredible voice impressions and will often entertain his cast and crew during long camera setups with imitations of everyone working on his film.

He was fired by director Martin Brest on Meet Joe Black for being an "untalented stand-in." Roth later worked on the film as a production assistant, but was hidden from the director, put in the basement of the studio, where he turned the air conditioning on and off between takes.

Although his films are frequently advertised as such, he reportedly does not personally take the "film by" or "an Eli Roth film" credit because he believes that people should be able to distinguish your work from the film itself, not the opening titles or poster. He believes filmmaking is a collaborative process, and feels the credit disrespects the people who brought their own creativity to the project.

He owns an Icelandic horse named Bara, who he keeps on the horse farm in Selfoss, Iceland, where he lived when he was 19.

His father Sheldon Roth is a world renowned psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and a professor at the Harvard University medical school. His mother Cora Roth is a painter who shows her work at the O.K. Harris gallery in New York City.

He was originally approached to be the voice of the computer trivia game "You Dont Know Jack," but turned it down to write Cabin Fever .

He spends every summer at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York. Roth claims that the beautiful old hotel, built in 1869, is a continued source of inspiration for scary ideas. Other guests of the mountain house include Roths favorite writer Stephen King.

He cannot stand the sight of real blood, saying it makes him sick to his stomach. Movie blood, however, has no effect on him.

He is an expert on the relatively unknown scientist Nikola Tesla. Roth owns copies of every known letter Tesla ever wrote, including rare letters to Teslas family and to financiers when his projects fell apart. Roth shares similar obsessive compulsive disorders that Tesla had, and has said he feels a strange connection to the forgotten scientist.

He is deathly allergic to cats and cannot be in the same house as them.

He is a member of the unofficial Splat Pack, a term coined by film historian Alan Jones in Total Film magazine for the modern wave of directors making brutally violent horror films. The other Splat Pack members are Alexandre Aja , Darren Lynn Bousman , Neil Marshall , Greg McLean , James Wan , Leigh Whannell and Rob Zombie.

The total combined production budget of Eli Roths first two films is $6 million dollars. The total worldwide theatrical gross of Eli Roths first two films is well over $100 million dollars. With DVD sales and rentals, the total revenue generated by Eli Roths first two films is over $200 million dollars. (Source: boxofficemojo.com)

He was voted "Most Fit Director" in the June/July 2006 issue of Mens Fitness magazine, which ranked the "25 Fittest Guys" in various professions.

He was voted by fans into the Fangoria Magazine Hall of Fame in June 2006 after directing only two films, the fastest of any director ever to receive that honor.

He is red/brown and blue/black color blind in low light.

He writes all of his scripts longhand, a practice he started on the advice of Quentin Tarantino. Roth writes in a handwriting so illegible that only he can read it in case he loses his notebook.

He is considered one of the most profitable directors working in film today. Both of his first films earned over five times their production cost at the box office opening weekend. Neither film boasted major stars, proving that Roths name guarantees a built in audience. (Source: Boxofficemojo.com).

His favorite movie is Cannibal Holocaust , whose director, Ruggero Deodato , appears in his own film Hostel: Part II . Another of his favorites is the British cult horror classic The Wicker Man .

He gave an expert commentary on Tromas DVD release of The Incredible Torture Show .

He formed production company, Raw Nerve, with film directors Scott Spiegel and Boaz Yakin , which focuses on producing horror films.

He suffers from asthma and is very allergic to cigarettes. Roth does not allow smoking anywhere near his sets and, if an an actor smokes in a scene, Roth must be at a monitor far away from the set.

He has never lost money on a film. Cabin Fever recouped 15 times its budget theatrically, Hostel recouped 20 times its budget theatrically, and Hostel: Part II , Roths biggest budget film to date, recouped triple its budget theatrically.

He put on 35 pounds of muscle for the role of "Donny Donowitz", The Bear Jew in Inglourious Basterds . Roth also learned to cut hair for the role from producer Pilar Savone s father, Umberto Savone , at his salon, "Umberto", in Beverly Hills.

He received an Art Award at the 2011 Ischia Global Film and Music Festival, and sang his acceptance speech. Roth had not planned on singing, but the band started playing during the awards ceremony, and he was called on stage during the music. Roth dedicated his award to his favorite Italian comedy star, Bombolo , and got the crowd in Ischia on the beach chanting and singing Bombolos name.

He was the guest of honor at the 2011 Neuchatel International Film Festival.

He is quoted as saying that movie series should never surpass two installments and movies such as The Godfather: Part III and Alien should never have been made. True to his word, he has directed two "Hostel" movies, and has no affiliation with Hostel: Part III , apart from a writing credit for conceiving certain characters. He also wrote a sequel for his hit Cabin Fever , but the screenplay remained unused.

During the filming of Inglourious Basterds , Roth only wore period-style Ted Williams jerseys off set to stay in the mindset of Donnie Donowitz.

He filmed The Green Inferno in an Amazonian village with no electricity or running water, only accessible by motorboat. The village was so remote the natives had never before seen a movie or television. To get permission, Roths producers brought a generator, television and DVD player and explained to the entire village what a movie was. The film they showed was Cannibal Holocaust . The natives thought it was a comedy and agreed to let Roth and crew film there. Nearly the entire village signed up after the screening to play cannibals.

To qualify for the Green Inferno, Roth would only see actors who agreed to get yellow fever vaccination and film in deep amazonian jungle with no bathrooms, surrounded by tarantulas, snakes, and venomous frogs who could kill you on contact. After filming was completed, the cast and crew were then de-parasited.

His family is Ashkenazi Jewish (from Austria, Poland, and Russia).

He earned his Screen Actors Guild card working as an extra on Barbra Streisand s The Mirror Has Two Faces . Though uncredited in the film, Roth appears in several scenes as Streisands favorite student, and was featured multiple times in close up. During shooting, a producer told a then 22-year-old Roth that he looked like Streisands son with Elliott Gould. Streisand requested Roth be brought back for several more scenes, later at a Giacomo Puccini concert she attends with Jeff Bridges , where she waves to Roth in the balcony. The clips are available on Youtube.

He rewrote Death Wish with Dean Georgaris in three weeks. Bruce Willis and MGM were so happy with the new script the film was then green lit and production began in July, 2017.

He was attached to direct Baywatch for one year and wanted to make it an absurd comedy with Richard Kelly writing the screenplay with him. The project stalled out at Paramount and Roth and the producers parted ways on very friendly terms, with Roth taking a "Co-Producer" main title credit for his year of work on the film.

He works with the "Black Jaguar White Tiger" animal rescue in Mexico City, Mexico. The foundation has saved over 500 endangered lions, jaguars and tigers from zoos and people who purchased them as pets (in Mexico it is legal to do so.).

He is a shark activist and conservationist and dives regularly with them for the Discovery channels "Shark Week." He began hosting "Shark After Dark" as an opportunity to learn about sharks and get up close with them. Roth wants them to know they are peaceful, shy, intelligent animals and not at all how they are portrayed in movies.

I am very lucky to have good people around me to bounce ideas off of.

They bring out the best in you.

Cabin Fever was this crazy ride, as most of you know. It was all totally,built through Internet and word of mouth, and we made it for a million,and a half bucks, and it wound up doing like over 100 million dollars.

Failure, in my book, is someone who lives in the safety of their laptop,taking shots at those who actually achieved what they have been unable,to do.

[on shooting of Hostel (2005) in the Czech Republic] The thing,that is wonderful about shooting in Prague is that there is such an,incredible wealth of talent. We are probably the only American movie,that has gone in and used a local crew and a Czech DP. Every other,movie that shoots there brings in their own crew and department heads.

[on Hostel] "Thats how I feel about what is going on in Iraq. There are,people that just want money and people are being sacrificed for it.

For a long time, I had a crazy girl dating habit.

Natural disasters are terrifying - that loss of control, this feeling that something is just going to randomly end your life for absolutely no reason is terrifying. But, what scares me is the human reaction to it and how people behave when the rules of civility and society are obliterated. .