Trivia

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 shared nearly all the profits from the enormously successful Cabin Fever (2002) with his cast and crew members, who took very little pay up front in order to get the film made.

He filmed The Green Inferno (2013) 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, Roth's 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 (1980). 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.

He got his idea for Cabin Fever (2002) 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 cannot stand the sight of real blood, saying it makes him sick to his stomach. Movie blood, however, has no effect on him.

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 (2002) on his own skin-curdling experiences.

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

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 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 was the inspiration for the character Eli, the aspiring porn director, in the film The Girl Next Door (2004). One of the writers was friends with Cabin Fever (2002) 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 does incredible voice impressions and will often entertain his cast and crew during long camera setups with imitations of everyone working on his film.

Quentin Tarantino called Roth "the future of horror" in the May 2004 issue of Premiere magazine, a year before Roth made Hostel (2005), which Tarantino executive-produced.

He is quoted as saying that movie series should never surpass two installments and movies such as The Godfather Part III (1990) and Alien³ (1992) should never have been made. True to his word, he has directed two "Hostel" movies, and has no affiliation with Hostel: Part III (2011), apart from a writing credit for conceiving certain characters. He also wrote a sequel for his hit Cabin Fever (2002), but the screenplay remained unused.

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.

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.

He was fired by director Martin Brest on Meet Joe Black (1998) 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.

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 Tesla's 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 friends with director Chloe Nicole, aka Chloe Nichole, who directed the Cabin Fever X-rated parody Sex Fever (2003). Chloe had visited the Cabin Fever (2002) set during shooting, and then directed the sexy spoof without telling Roth. In Sex Fever (2003), Chloe spoofed Roth's character Justin, making her director's cameo as a lost hiker, just as Roth did in Cabin Fever (2002). Roth was flattered that she made the film, but was disappointed he was not invited to visit her set in return.

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

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 Roth's favorite writer Stephen King.

He put on 35 pounds of muscle for the role of "Donny Donowitz", The Bear Jew in Inglourious Basterds (2009). Roth also learned to cut hair for the role from producer Pilar Savone's father, Umberto Savone, at his salon, "Umberto", in Beverly Hills.

His favorite movie is Cannibal Holocaust (1980), whose director, Ruggero Deodato, appears in his own film Hostel: Part II (2007). Another of his favorites is the British cult horror classic The Wicker Man (1973).

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

During the filming of Inglourious Basterds (2009), Roth only wore period-style Ted William's jerseys off set to stay in the mindset of Donnie Donowitz.

When he worked as a production assistant for Howard Stern on the set of Private Parts (1997), he worked the late shift from about 11 pm to 7 am. During this time he spent rewriting and reworking the Cabin Fever (2002) script because he says it was "problematic at best".

He has never lost money on a film. Cabin Fever (2002) recouped 15 times its budget theatrically, Hostel (2005) recouped 20 times its budget theatrically, and Hostel: Part II (2007), Roth's biggest budget film to date, recouped triple its budget theatrically.

He owns an Icelandic horse named Bara, which 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.

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

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 a huge fan of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen. While filming Cabin Fever (2002), Roth played the Olsen Twins's film Holiday in the Sun (2001) on a continuous loop in a screening room to give the cast and crew "artistic inspiration".

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

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

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 Roth's name guarantees a built-in audience.

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

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 different zoos and people who purchased them as pets (in Mexico it is legal to do so).

He rewrote Death Wish (2018) 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 formed production company, Raw Nerve, with film directors Scott Spiegel and Boaz Yakin, which focuses on producing horror films.

He earned his Screen Actor's Guild card working as an extra on Barbra Streisand's The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). Though uncredited in the film, Roth appears in several scenes as Streisand's favorite student and was featured multiple times in close-ups. During shooting, a producer told a then 22-year-old Roth that he looked like Streisand's 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.

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

He was originally approached to be the voice of the computer trivia game "You Don't Know Jack," but turned it down to write Cabin Fever (2002).

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 Bombolo's name.

He gave an expert commentary on Troma's DVD release of Blood Sucking Freaks (1976).

He won a Student Academy Award in 1995 for his N.Y.U. thesis film Restaurant Dogs (1994).

He was attached to direct Baywatch (2017) 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 is the brother of Adam J. Roth and Gabriel Roth and son of Sheldon Roth and Cora Roth.

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

Attended film school at New York University with Jerry O'Connell.

Was honored at Fondazione Prada in Milan in December 2023 for his work. After the talk, Roth screened "Thanksgiving" and selected Juan Piquer Simon's "Pieces" (1982) to pair the film with, as a nod to his favorite childhood slasher film.