The Aughts (and The Aught-Not- Haves)

2009.

It’s hard to believe, even now, that all of this happened in 2009.  It seems unreal, yet we were pushing ourselves so hard and moving so fast I think that the only way to do it is to just somehow blindly believe it can be done and make it work.  We wrapped “Basterds” in the middle of February, and by May we were in Cannes.

This was the Cannes Film Festival I had been dreaming about.  I arrived and saw a 3 story poster that said “Eli Roth is a Basterd,” right in between Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger, on the side of the Carlton Hotel.  I said that I was going to pay for the best suite in the hotel, and they put me in the Bertolucci suite, with a balcony right next to my poster.  I could go out there in my bathrobe and wave to people as they put it together that I was the Basterd on the poster.  It was too much fun.

I arrived several days early to take meetings at the marketplace.  Eric Newman, producer Marc Abraham and I had a horror film called “Cotton” ready to film, and we had been pre-selling territories based on the script and my name.  StudioCanal, the company that had financed and released “Mulholland Drive” all those years ago, was selling the film, so I met with distributors, all of whom saw the giant three story banner of me on the Carlton Hotel.  We sold territories for double our estimates.  People were very, very excited about the film.  All those meetings I had years ago were paying off.  I had been the market and knew what to expect, and knew exactly who the distributors were because I had traveled to their countries to do press when they released “Cabin Fever.”  For example, the company that bought “Cabin Fever” for Italy bought “Cotton” for Italy.  Quentin’s advice from years earlier was still paying off – go everywhere, meet everyone, do as much press as you can.

Finally, we had the “Basterds” premiere at the Palais.  The screams were deafening.  I had never experienced anything like it.  Not “Mulholland Drive,” not “Death Proof,” nothing came close to this.  There I was on the red carpet with this magnificent cast, and I was one of the stars.  This was my moment, and I was ready for it.  We all had the best time that night.  It was like a scene out of a movie – a dream on top of a fantasy wrapped in a mirage. I slept for maybe an hour and then had more press all the next day.  I went to the Hotel Du Cap the next night for the Amfar benefit that night on an hour’s sleep in two days.  I thought about how all those years ago in 2001 I could barely get in there, and now I was on the red carpet posing for photos.  We auctioned a screening of “Basterds” and a dinner, and we raised $87,000 for AIDS research.  The cast “elected” me to be the spokesperson, and after Harvey  Weinstein put a bat in my hands I went right into Bear Jew mode and told them to “open their fucking wallets or I was gonna crack their fuckin’ skulls in.” It worked! I stayed through the end of the festival, and watched Christoph Waltz take the Palme for best actor, sitting nearly in the same seat where I saw David Lynch take the Best Director prize eight years earlier.

The rest of the summer I spent writing, working on “Cotton,” and doing press, holding down the fort at Comic-Con while Quentin and the rest of the international cast held premieres in Berlin and London.  Opening weekend the film was a triumph: we opened at $38 million dollars, and to date the film has made over $300 million worlwide.  It’s Quentin’s biggest hit, and his most critically acclaimed since “Pulp Fiction.”  I felt like it was a rebuilding year for both of us, and his putting me in the film opened up a whole new world of fans who are now discovering my films for the first time.  Thanks to “Basterds” “Cabin Fever” is getting a director’s cut release on Blu Ray in February.  And on December 15th, the “Basterds” DVD came out, with my complete cut of “Nation’s Pride.”

I somehow started the decade alongside Naomi Watts in front of the camera for David Lynch and ended it alongside Brad Pitt for Quentin Tarantino.  I never planed on being in front of the camera, but they knew I could do it and that was the push I needed.  David and Quentin have been the two most wonderful friends and mentors, and get me to do things I never would done in a million years without their encouragement.  If there’s one thing I learned this decade it’s that every artist needs a mentor, someone to give that kick in the ass or light a fire under you when you’re hesitating.   Someone you believe in and really respect who just simply says: You can do it.  You’ll be great. I believe in you.

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Gallery: Photos From Eli Roth’s Decade

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.