As you may or may not be aware, Eli Roth is on the cover of FFWD this week. That's because there's an interview with him in the paper. There is also a review of the film he's being featured for. Both of these things are awesome because they are both products of my brain, and my brain is awesome. 

Though I'm sure someone as intelligent and generally lovely as you will have already inferred that the quotes published in interview pieces are actually culled from a much longer transcript, there are some idiots over there--yes, just right over there--who need to be spoonfed the information like baby birds who refuse to eat with anything but a spoon. Who also eat information. 

Anyhow, this is all just inane preamble to my posting this transcript of my talk with Mr. Roth, who was nearly as lovely and charming as you. It should go without saying that you should probably see the film before reading it--as we, y'know, talk about it--but we must remember the idiots. You remember, the ones over there.

And without further pointlessly stupid ado... Transcriptitron go!

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K: Having worked extensively behind the camera, do you find it difficult to give up that level of control to work in front of it?

I knew what I was getting into. I didn't go into the project expecting to control it. I wanted to be in Quentin's hands. I wanted to learn. I said, if I'm going to go through this as an actor, then I have to be an actor. Though I have to say it was a little strange at first because my instinct was to say okay 'now we're going to do this, we're going to do that.' But part of the fun was being on the set with Quentin and seeing him work. And then at one point he asked me to shoot Nation's Pride, the film-within-a-film, so I got to get that urge to direct out--I had my hands full between acting in the part and directing the second unit. I was working seven days a week, but I loved it. Being fully committed in a role for Quentin, it was interesting to see what we did differently and what we did similarly.

K: Did you learn anything from him?

I learned so much from him. I'd already learned so much from him as a writer, but working as an actor I saw a lot of things he did that I wanted to bring on to my sets. I really understood what it felt like when you [as an actor] don't feel like you've gotten something right, but everyone else wants to move on, and the director's saying 'no, let's move on, it's great,' but you know you can do it better. With Quentin, we're really close friends, so there's no bullshit between us. If he wants to do it again, he'll tell me, and if he wants to move on, that's what we'll do.

One thing that's so great about Quentin is that if you ask him for an extra take, he'll give it to you. As long as you've given him what he wants, you can say to him 'can I get one more?' and that's where you can do that performance you feel is your best. Another thing I want to say is that Quentin told me that actors are always best off-camera. And I told him it's frustrating when you feel as though you're doing your best when you're reading the lines with him off camera, and he said “every actor feels like that.' Often, if he feels like you're really giving him something incredible off-camera, he'll turn the camera back around. So, what that did was: Everyone off-camera was just as strong off camera as they were on camera.

K: I think that shows. More than any other Tarantino film, the performances are really stand-out in this one. Christoph Waltz, who you mentioned, I thought was particularly good.

Well, thank you, but I think that a lot of that comes from the fact that Quentin was working with this world-class cast of European actors who were so hungry to give it everything they had, because they knew this was their moment to be in a Quentin Tarantino movie. Everyone was trying to make their part a classic. Even if it's Brad [Pitt] in True Romance [written by Tarantino] as Floyd, or Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction—there's no such thing as a small part in a Tarantino movie. All of them are just so juicy. Every moment has the potential to be a classic cinema moment.

For me, it was great to have a front row seat to watch people like Christoph Waltz work, or even guys like Micheal Fassbender or August Diehl in that scene in the tavern. To see Brad and Dianne Krugger. Right from the table read, we knew it was something special. We were all having a great time enjoying each others' performances.

K: Were there any language problems when you were all hanging out between takes?

No, we all spoke English—everyone spoke English—and I speak some French, and we all learned a little German. But the film is very much about the common language of cinema, and Cinema is the one thing that binds everything in the world. You see that with Hickocks being a film critic and Bridget being a movie star, and getting in a conversation about movie characters in the tavern. It's all about the power of cinema, and that was reflected off-camera as well. When we all sat down we all spoke English—some of them didn't—Martin Wuttke, who played Hitler, he didn't speak English but between takes, when he was dressed as Hitler he would do the Pulp Fiction dance for the whole crowd. It was one of those things where, even if you didn't speak English, he still spoke the language of cinema, so he would make a movie reference and we all loved it. And then we'd take a picture of him holding flowers and being silly—we were having a great time on the shoot. It was a great time.

And Christoph Waltz is amazing. He's so unbelievably smart. And he's so friendly. He's a true intellectual and such a great, great guy. And he's finally getting his due. He's been working in German television for 30 years and has been acting, but has never been properly recognized for the talent he has. Everyone felt like this was their chance and they wanted to make the most of it.

K: So there was a sense amongst the cast where it was like “Oh my God, we're working on a Tarantino movie.”

Everybody said that. Everybody. We would all look at each other and say “can you believe we get to do this?” Brad [Pitt] would say that too. When he was shooting on the set he'd look at us and say “this is a gift. Parts like this don't exist. So to be able to play this part is a gift.” We all felt that way.

There are other movies that Quentin has worked on where actors have said “now that I've been in a Quentin Tarantino movie I can do anything," but for us, this is it. The ultimate experience is being in a Tarantino movie. So as an acting experience, I felt like I really had to give it everything I had, really throw myself into the part 100 per cent. To, basically, be the dream actor I wanted on my set.

It was a really different experience from directing. I really had no idea how much more difficult acting was from directing, at least for me.

K: That's strange. The perception is typically that directing would be more difficult, seeing as there's so much more responsibility.

Directing is difficult, directing is exhausting and difficult and it presents many, many, many challenges, but I think that my personality is naturally suited to directing. I love it, and I live it and breathe it, but I also do love acting. But acting is a very painful experience, especially when I'm doing a scene where I have to beat a guy to death with a baseball bat or shoot the Nazis—I never wanted that to just be a scene of a guy going crazy with a bat because he enjoys killing. I wanted you to be able to feel how really, really tortured this guy was, and feel the pain and look into his eyes and think he's possessed. And in order to do that, you have to conjure up really horrible things from your life—the most painful memories and experiences of your life have to be right there under the surface like they happened an hour ago. And at the end of the day, when the shooting is done, even though the scene is fake, the emotions that you're feeling and the things that you're thinking about are totally real.

So if you think of the most painful breakup—a horrible, horrible upsetting breakup where you feel like you don't want to go to work the next day, you can't just make that go away. It's all there, under the surface. Sometimes it would just take days to come out of it. I didn't want to be around anyone. It was exhausting.

[At the end of the film, which takes place in a burning theatre] we were also in a real inferno. It was controlled, but we were covered in gel, and there were guys with fire suits and extinguishers at our feet. But really it was myself, Omar [Doom]—the other actor—Quentin on the crane and the two fire safety guys. Quentin and the fire guys were in fire suits, and the flames burnt out of control. They thought it was going to be four hundred degrees centigrade and it went up to twelve hundred degrees centigrade. We got charred.

I was there for almost a minute, and the fire marshal said that if I was there for another fifteen or twenty seconds, the structure would have collapsed. But we knew the shot was great so it didn't matter.

K: It's a very surprising finale.

Yeah, it was a very difficult ending to shoot, but I loved it. It was exhilarating to watch it for the first time with an audience at comicon in San Diego. They went crazy, burst into applause and gave us a standing ovation.

People came up to us afterward, just shaking, and they told us they had fantasized about it. It was exactly what they had been fantasizing about since they were kids, and to see it was—I made the joke that it was kosher porn. It was porn for Jews. Everyone has had fantasies, just as they have about taking down the 9-11 hijackers. Everyone has wanted to go back in time and destroy the most evil people who ever lived. Changing history liberates you, it makes the film more relatable. I think it's important to tell historical stories, but when I was a kid growing up, all I was thinking was “Use the Force.” I pick moments of inspiration from fictional stories.

K: Changing history is really one of the only ways to make it surprising. It's very bold.

I think it's one of the ballsiest American films ever made. But you go, “why didn't anyone do this before?” Even though the history's false the characters are still so real because they're speaking in their own language. It puts in relief all of these other movies where people are supposed to be German, but they're speaking with this affected German accent. They're speaking English.

That's always sort of bothered me. It wasn't really until Private Ryan that we had German's speaking German. In Schindler's List there are some scenes where the German's speak German, and I found those scenes to be the most effective.

K: It helps that all the German roles were played by German actors.

Oh, for sure. There were many actors who wanted to be in the film, but Quentin was like 'I want the German's to be German, the French to be French, and I want a Jewish guy from Boston so I'm casting Eli.'

K: I'm curious how much input actors were allowed to have in their roles. You've touched on it a little bit, but I was wondering if you were treated any differently because of the respect he has for you as a writer and director?

When Quentin was writing the screenplay, I almost became a kind of Jewish technical adviser. I became a sounding board for him when he'd be like “how do you think a Jew would feel in this situation or in that situation” and I told him if he really wanted a Jewish perspective he should come to my passover seder. That's where we tell the story of the Jews, back from when we were slaves up until now, and we always talk about the Holocaust. I think that gave him some real insight to the Jewish psychology of never forgetting. During the writing process, he was often checking in with me. When it came to writing and shooting, you had to be letter perfect. You had to do it absolutely word for word the way it was written with every single inflection. Once you've done that, in the rehearsal period, you could ask Quentin to tweak things or change things, but you've got to read it exactly the way he has it written.

Then, when we're shooting—for example—the scene where I'm beating the guy to death--after I've beaten him, I told Quentin that I wanted to do a little rant on the things a guy from Boston would say. He trusted me and knew that I had researched the character. I told him that I had some ideas and I tried them out and he loved them. But you do have to be careful when you do that—you can't just do it to try and get more lines, because he knows when you're doing that. But it was because I think he trusts me as a writer that he gave me a little more leeway.

K: I noticed during that beating scene you went on a rant about Baseball...

They were all references someone from Boston would understand. It's exactly what the guys in Massachusetts say after they beat someone up. They make reference to whoever the hot Red Sox player is at the time. And [my character] is speaking in such a thick Boston accent and making such specific references to Boston landmarks that really only anyone from within a five mile radius of Fenway park would truly understand it.

The idea is that... there are certain references in the movie not everyone is going to get, but you know he's just ranting and bragging and going crazy. That's enough for a general audience to understand, but not everyone is going to. Our script supervisor was from Boston, and he understood every word, but he was the only one.

And Quentin was cool with that. I explained to him that Landsdowne street was the street right outside the baseball park, and when you say you 'hit it to Landsdowne street' people know you hit the ball so far that you hit it out of the park and it landed on Landsdowne street. It's a very specific baseball reference, which is what that character would have said.

We spent six days in the ravine shooting that scene, and Quentin had me in the back of that cave just waiting and waiting and waiting to come out, so I was like a tiger all chained up, salivating to go. We'd almost get up to that part and then it would be 'cut, come back tomorrow.' So I was just working myself up into this frenzy, so by the time I came out of the cave I was just ready to explode on the guy.

K: At the start of the film, it incorporates a little Jewish mythology with respect to the story of the Golem. Was that your input?

No, no, no, no, no. My input was mostly when he was writing the last chapter. I don't meant to imply that I influenced the writing of the script or suggested anything, but that was sort of where he wasn't sure where to go with the ending. He had already written the first four chapters. The idea of the Golem—well, I said to him 'are you sure you don't want some huge six foot seven guy to do this?' And he said no, that the idea was that with the way the story of the Basterds had spread you expect the huge, 300 pound guy, and then a relatively normal sized guy comes out. He didn't want me to look weak, but he didn't want me to look like one of those guys from Transformers or anything either. Just a regular guy who's just a strong guy. It was to show how successful the Basterds had been in striking fear into the hearts of the Nazis. The rumors had spread so out of control that they believed he was a Golem.

K: Because Tarantino's films are so densely packed with homage, was there any “required viewing” for the actors before you began shooting?

Yes and no. Quentin's stuff is certainly packed with homage, but I think most films are. Quentin's just the most open about it. I think that Quentin is actually so original that when people see something great they just assume it's from another movie. In that way, his reputation for homage has almost worked against him. When I saw him picking his shots and working his way through a scene, it was purely coming from his own creative instincts. But we did watch movies. He screened movies for the whole crew. There was a movie he screened to me, called Dark of the Sun with Rod Taylor [known as The Mercenaries outside of the U.S]. The ending, in the theatre, is very much from Dark of the Sun, and I think he takes two or three other cues from it. It was a really, really brutal, incredible film. And, of course, The Dirty Dozen. We'd all seen that.

Of course, there was the Nazi propaganda films as well. He'd screen those, and that was the only requirement. He wanted us to watch movies like The Eternal Jew, which he had a sixteen millimeter print of. He was like 'I want you guys to see what you're up against.'

K: Was that difficult at all?

No, I think it's important. My grandparents got out of Russia, Austria and Poland. Anyone who didn't get out was killed, and it's important to know how that happened and why it happened. Plus, I was making a Nazi propaganda film and I wanted it to look like one of those films. It's history, and you have to know what people are capable of and how that happens so you can prevent it from happening gain.

K: This was the first WII movie I've ever seen that empowers Jewish characters in an active way, giving them a certain measure of control when other films simply position them as victims, and the atrocities committed against them as the reasons for other people to fight on their behalf. Is this the case, as far as you know?

Certainly. I remember growing up, and watching a movie where there was a highjacker, and they highjacked a Hillel plane and they got revenge and took down the highjackers... And I remember watching holocaust movies where you just want the Jews to stand up and fight back. It's like, 'why didn't they just fight back and kill everybody?' I just couldn't understand that. Of course, later on in life you learn that these people were starved in train cars and half delirious and there were kids whose parents were shot in front of them. And they were all put together with people who spoke many different languages so that nobody could communicate and they were all turning on each other... That was part of the reason why it was so satisfying to make a movie about Jews kicking ass.

That was actually a joke on set, while we were filming. We kept making reference to Knocked Up, where they talk about Munich as 'jews kicking ass.' While we were shooting we were like, 'this is the movie those guys were talking about in Knocked Up. This is a movie about Jews kicking ass.' I'm very aware that this is the movie that you hope will redefine Jewish masculinity in movies. I hope it will show another position, namely that we're not just a bunch of nerdy comedians—which I love. Granted, I'm certainly one of those too, but there's more to us.

K: So that was openly discussed during production?

Sure, yeah, I mean, Quentin talked about that. He was actually the first person to make the Knocked Up reference. He said this is the movie those guys would be talking about.

Quentin also said 'I'm throwing it down for every movie after this set in WWII. Something is going to look strange about a character not speaking their own language post-Inglourious Basterds.

K: Even in that first scene, when it does eventually switch to English, it's a really big deal. Christoph Waltz' Hans Landa pays excruciating attention to the etiquette of switching away from the other character's native French.

It's such a laugh. It's so funny. You think he's doing it as a device, that he's switching to English and the rest of the movie is going to be that way, but then he switches back to French and you realize there was a purpose for it. It's really clever.

K: That whole opening sequence is, despite the murder, is actually very funny.

Oh, it's hilarious. It's all about Landa. Christoph is so good. He's so terrifying but also so charming. He is very funny, and it's that nervous, uncomfortable tension. You realize that everything he's doing is part of this calculated thing to psychologically break down the farmer.

K: I'd be surprised if someone didn't throw some sort of award at Waltz for Landa [He's actually already won the Best Actor award at Cannes --Ed].

Oh, he deserves an Oscar. I haven't seen a better performance in a movie in years. He's so charismatic and so terrifying and so funny. We knew it was Landa's movie. We knew it right from the read-through. You knew it in the script, that that was the role. And it couldn't have gone to a better actor. Or a nicer, more deserving actor. He was really, really ready for it.

K: The Internet seems to think your role was originally intended for Adam Sandler. Is this true?

Well, Quentin started this eight years ago, and I think he had Sandler in mind. I don't know if it worked out because of Funny People or just because Quentin wanted to go younger with it, or with someone who there were no preconceived notions of—at least not as an actor. But I don't know much about that. I think he always has people in mind when he's writing roles, but I'm just thrilled he picked me. I may never get this opportunity again. So if this was it, then I wanted to give a performance of a lifetime. So every scene I was giving it everything I had, doing everything I could to create a classic screen character.

K: Getting back to your film-within-a-film, Nation's Pride. How long did the final cut end up being?

It was five and a half minutes. Quentin gave me three days to shoot. I did one day in the the town and two in the tower. I had my brother Gabriel fly out, and he had a small part which was cut, but which Quentin might use in the prequel. We shot it in two days, and I think we got 130 set-ups, using daylight hours. I remember that Quentin would be really excited when he got twenty, and I would be like, 'I got sixty five.' He was so happy he gave me a third day in the tower. After he saw what I had, he was like, you're doing a great job, go nuts, I've got other things to worry about. I cut it, and I wanted to give him more than he would ever use. It isn't linear—it's just five and half minutes of different dramatic moments and beats and scenes, and I think he probably used forty five seconds of it total. Still, I wanted it too look right. It had to impress the Furer. So when we were shooting we were like, 'come on, Hitler's going to see this, guys!'

We shot it with that aspect ratio... I really wanted it to look right. The style of acting, all that. We wanted it to look just hammy enough so that it would look like it was from another era. We had them holding dust so that they would slap their chest when they'd get shot, so there would be a little dust cloud... It was great. We had a great time shooting it.

The first time we showed it was to an audience of 300 extras, and there were all these Nazis screaming and cheering at it, and I went to Quentin and said 'what have we done? We've started the fourth Reich'

K: Your Hostel films and Inglourious Basterds both commented in some capacity on the the ways in which violence is presented in film. Has this ever been the topic of a conversation between you and Tarantino, and if so, do you find that your philosophies differ in any way?

To us, it's like a painting. It's brushstroke on a canvass. There is no violence in cinema. It's a representation of violence. To me, violence in cinema is the same as violence in a story. Cormac McCarthy is the most celebrated author in America and his books are incredibly violent. So, that's just how I look at it. It's fake, you know it's fake, and you're just involved with the story.

In the Hostel films, people are going for those scenes that are all about pushing the envelope. And that does comment on it in a few ways, in that the audience is complicit in the violence because they've paid to see it, just the same way the people in the films have paid to kill people. I wanted to push it far enough that—when the girl's eye gets cut out [in Hostel pt. I], I wanted to let that go just far enough on the side of over-the-top that people could enjoy it and cheer. The violence in Inglourious Basterds isn't lingered on in the way it is in the Hostel films. To us, it's just another tool in the storytelling.

K: I guess what I'm referring to there is exactly what you're talking about when you say that the Hostel films make the audience complicit in the violence being perpetrated against the characters.

Well, yeah, the audience are these guys who are paying to go to these factories. I wanted to punish the audience just for a second. Where they should feel guilty for a moment, saying 'I can't believe I paid to see this.' But then I move on, and at the end I reward them with a really fun scene of violence when they're cheering for it again. But even knowing it's fake, it's about pushing them to that repulsion of violence, but ultimately hungering for it and cheering for it. It makes them think afterward, 'do I have it in me to do something like this?' Which is one of the points of those films: Anyone, if they're pushed far enough, is capable of violence.

K: And Tarantino, in Inglourious Basterds... To me it seemed as though the violence is obscured or looked away from for so much of it, and then at the end when he reveals that the whole movie you've just watched is his version of an American propaganda film, then the violence becomes much more gruesome and much more intense—far less disguised by the inherent glamour of cinema. It's a very similar sort of comment.

You know, that was never discussed, but I think you're right. I'm sure there are many connections we've never thought about, and that's obviously one of them. Both of us are drawn to each others' films and violent cinema, the terror of violence in real life, using violence to terrorize—there's a lot of similarities between our approaches.

I don't like films that lecture. I like films that promote thought.