• Won a Student Academy Award in 1995 for his N.Y.U. thesis film Restaurant Dogs.
• Spent six years researching a project for director David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti that will be written for Broadway.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.”
• 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.”
• Son of Dr. Sheldon and Cora Roth, brother of Adam and Gabriel Roth
• Does incredible voice impressions, and will often entertain his cast and crew during long camera setups with imitations of everyone working on his film.
• 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.
• 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.
• Cannot stand the sight of real blood, saying it makes him sick to his stomach. Movie blood, however, has no effect on him.
• 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.
• Is deathly allergic to cats, and cannot be in the same house as them.
• 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.
• 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.
• Is red/brown and blue/black color blind in low light.
• 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.
• Put on 35 pounds of muscle for the role of Donny Donowitz, The Bear Jew in Inglourious Basterds (2009).
• 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.