Original subtitles

I am now joined by a very distinguished guest,

someone that's truly a pleasure to have here in the studio with me,

and in your televisions, Mr. George Fulsey, Jr., our editor.

Welcome, George.

Thank you very much, Eli. It's great to be here.

George, you were stuck in a room with me for, God,

eight weeks, 12 weeks. What was that like?

Well, during that period, I was actually passing a kidney stone.

It's hard to really figure out which was more difficult.

Yeah, it was a different kind of pain.

You were just getting it from all sides.

But George is a very, very experienced and superb editor,

as well as producer, and he's been a studio executive.

And I just think it's incredible that you went from editing the movies

The Ringer and The Pink Panther to Hostel.

And I should ask you, other than our friendship,

what in the hell made you want to be a part of this project?

Well, actually, the real reason I agreed to do the movie was that,

besides the fact that I needed a job,

was that my son, who had cut Eli's first movie,

Kevin Fever, was not available,

and I actually didn't cut into the idea of having Eli go outside the family.

But what really convinced me to do the movie was that I usually don't do horror films.

Well, that was American Werewolf in London.

That's right.

I did American Werewolf.

And then you produced.

And I mean, I guess you, did you edit on some of that, the transformation or other things?

I edited the transformation sequence, but most of the editing on American Werewolf was done by Malcolm Campbell,

who had been my assistant and became our editor.

But the reason I really was attracted to this project was that,

unlike movies like The Exorcist, American Werewolf, Alien, even Cabin Fever,

there's always an outside force, either supernatural or an alien or a werewolf,

or something that forces you to go into a state of suspended belief in order to buy the premise of the movie.

I mean, nothing is clearer than The Exorcist,

where you have to believe this little girl was possessed by the devil or the movie becomes ridiculous.

In this case, you don't have to believe anything.

All you have to know is that human nature is often extremely dark.

And that's what attracted me to the movie.

This movie is about human nature and how definitely evil people can be.

And there's good and evil in the world, and this movie confronts it.

And I thought that you, you know, you really sort of articulated it when you said,

you know, because you had cut a lot of exploitation movies,

and specifically blacksploitation movies in the 70s,

and you said you felt like this was not so much an exploitation movie,

but a movie about exploitation.

Well, at any time that you can go into a room and kill somebody,

for a fee, you can go into a room and do anything you want to do to that person before you kill them.

And there are people that, unfortunately, are attracted to this

and have the wherewithal and the money and the depth of their human spirit

to pull that kind of thing off and get away with it.

Now, what percentage of those people are working in the studio system in Hollywood?

I would say about 106%.

Now, we should also say that for some of you, you film historians out there would know this,

but for other people who might not know,

George's father was one of the greatest cinematographers of all time

and shot many, many, many great, great films.

And so you grew up on, you grew up in the movie world and on sets

and you've, you know, sort of with camera and producing.

What is the most, what's your favorite thing to do?

What do you enjoy most?

What aspect of production?

Well, I really enjoy the editing process

because you are actually kind of making a movie with your bare hands.

It was a little bit more that way when we worked in film.

Now we do it electronically, but for me, it's just a better tool.

My dad was a cameraman for, on staff at MGM for 26 years

and shot about 180 movies.

And I decided early in my career that it would be probably a mistake to compete with that.

And I didn't want people giving me jobs because of my name.

And so I decided I'd see what film editing was like and I knew nothing about it.

But I enjoy it.

But interestingly enough, the most, my favorite part of filmmaking,

and I don't get to do it very often,

is when I get kind of invited out on the set to sort of advise and help.

And Eli did a very nice thing.

I got in the middle of, two weeks after we started shooting Hostel,

I got kind of forced by 20th Century Fox to go down to Australia

to deal with some problems they were having on a Little Mermaid movie

that's coming out in April called Aquamarine.

And Eli was nice enough to let me go for about five and a half weeks

down to Australia to straighten this out.

And I was on the set the entire, actually for 50% of the shooting days,

sitting side by side with the director and helping her.

But you were on the set of this children's mermaid movie during the day

and at night in Australia, you'd go home,

you were cutting Josh's torture sequence, is that right?

Oh, yes.

That was a long sequence, so it took me a while to do that.

And I found that the contrast between the two little girls in the mermaid

and the horrible torture sequences in Hostel were actually refreshing.

Refreshing.

Well, what I thought was so cool was that, you know, you came out to Prague with us

and you were there and you're such a trooper.

I mean, there were, you know, you'd see crew members and people saying,

oh, I'm tired of complaining.

But, you know, we were shooting out all night till 2 in the morning

and George, you were right there with us at every minute, you know,

right there at call, right through wrap.

And what's so helpful about having your editor on set,

which is a luxury I didn't have on Cabin Fever,

was, you know, I remember we were shooting outside the hostel thinking,

okay, I want to get them here and I want to get a shot.

Do you think it's worth going across the street to get this wide master establishing?

And you kind of looked at me and you looked at the shot

and you're like, absolutely, get that shot.

Or, you know, I could say, okay, do you think I need a close-up of Jay

in this one shot or Derek or is the two shot enough?

And you're like, we're fine in the two shot.

We got it in that.

You have coverage in the reverse.

And so, I mean, a lot of the times I've pretty much cut the movie.

You know, you've cut the movie in your head before you start shooting it

when you're shot listing it.

But, you know, it's always a question of time where you think,

okay, do I need this shot here?

Can I get away with this?

And it was so great to have you there because, you know,

it's better to have a discussion now or we can do something about it

rather than later in the editing room.

That's always the danger of when the executives in the studio are seeing dailies.

It's always after the fact.

You're going to see them at least a day after they shoot and maybe two.

By that time, you may be on to a different location.

And if you want to change something, you've got to go back.

On Aquamarine, we had a lot of weather problems in addition to other issues.

And we had to go back into locations.

And then you've got to match stuff and the lighting was different.

It just gets really difficult.

You really, doing it right the first time is just an amazing advantage.

And to say about how Eli did this movie, my dad, when he was working at MGM,

he would shoot maybe six movies a year.

And they would average 30, 35 days of shooting at each one.

And, you know, it was everything.

It was a well-oiled machine.

Everything was organized and it had all the equipment and the scripts and the sets were all everything.

And, you know, actors were never late.

There was never a problem.

You just, it was a business.

And, you know, to make the movie that Eli has made here for the amount of days that he had to shoot it,

it, I mean, I'm pretty, pretty happy with the way this turned out.

This is, this is, I think he feels that he got the movie he wanted.

And clearly when I read the script, the vision of the movie that I had in my mind,

trying to see what I would do, but then working with the stuff that Eli shot,

it's very, very close to what I thought we should get.

And I'm very happy with it.

Yeah.

Which is, it's great that you, it's important to have people that feel like you're all making the same movie.

And this, you know, this was, we're just kind of watching here now, this shot outside the hostel.

There it is.

It probably won't even be in sync.

It'll be in a different point.

Right.

But, you know, you've cut so many of my favorite movies, but films like Kentucky Fried Movie and Animal House,

and then you produce Trading Places, and you, we were cut Blues Brothers.

I mean, so many of these movies, the Landis films, this is certainly influenced by American Werewolf in London.

Sure.

What do you think of this kind of modern style of editing where everything is so flashy and so quick,

and you're aware of the cuts happening, this sort of, I guess it's been termed MTV-style editing versus classical-style editing.

What is your opinion on that?

Do you think it's better or worse, or do you think it just matters for the story?

Well, I think it really matters what kind of movie you're making in a movie like Hostel that's got a very strong story.

My feeling is that if you walk out of that movie saying, gee, wasn't the editing great, this is a disaster for me.

I want the movie to play, I want you to be swept up in the movie, compelled by the story, the acting.

I don't want you to see my cuts.

I don't even want you to think they're cuts.

I just want you to be pulled into the story and to call attention to editing with flashy, fancy stuff.

I find this doesn't go very far.

You get very, it just takes you right out of the movie after a while if you're playing tricks.

This movie doesn't need this.

There are almost no, there are visual effects, but they're very subtle things that we've done here to enhance the situation.

There's no robots or giant mothras or whatever flying around.

It's a very, very straightforward, almost like a dialogue movie.

The only, the big action sequences are when they run over the girls and Alexei or the wonderful scene.

This is one of my favorite scenes of the movie when the street kids decide to help Jay Hernandez character.

And kill the car.

And kill the car.

Now, what was, what's more difficult for you?

Cutting like a dialogue scene, you know, like in Alexei's room or in the pub with the girls or the scenes, the running over and the kids smashing the car?

I mean, how do you approach?

Well, the scene where the guys, where Jay Hernandez and Jennifer Lim run over the three evil people in the movie, that scene is, you know, is really, it's pretty, it's scripted and it's, you know, there's an order to it and it works that way.

But the scene where the scene where the kids destroy the car and kill the thugs that are chasing them, that's a much more free form.

That was shot.

That was a hard scene to cut.

That was a very hard scene to cut.

Because it's almost like you have too many options.

Well, we, not only that, not only do you have too many options, but there's a philosophical side to the scene where you've got to decide, are we playing this for silly?

Are we playing this for danger and scary?

How is it going to work?

And Eli had a shot of this, the one ringleader kid is sitting up at the top of the car chewing the bubble gum.

And he's the transition from when Jay sees the bubble gum and then he sees the, we cut to the kid and he's chewing the bubble gum and then the thugs come up.

But the end of the scene is a shot where this kid hands the gum to one of, this little kid who, you know, couldn't kill an ant.

But he's, you know, couldn't kill anything.

But, you know, the guy gives them this piece of bubble gum, like, good boy, good job, you know, it's great.

And it just, it gets a big laugh of the audience, but it makes them feel that the kids really got it and really understood, you know.

And it's kind of a hopeful thing for me because the kids understand the difference between good and evil.

They don't know Jay Hernandez's character from Boo.

And they probably know these thugs that are chasing them.

But what do they do?

They side with the Jay Hernandez character.

Interesting.

You know, whoever gives them the most gum.

That's right.

They're mercenaries, those kids.

Yeah, no, that was, that was a very, I don't know, it was a tough scene to cut because it just went on so long.

And we felt we were getting too far away from, from Jay's character.

But, um, now, I was pretty methodical in the editing and going through every single take before I make a cut.

Do directors normally do that?

Was I weird?

Or do they just, or do you normally do your pass and they make notes?

Or does everyone director, you've worked with a lot of different directors.

So do they all have their own style?

Everybody's a little bit different.

I've actually never done it the way that we did it.

But, uh, because of the, the Avid and making it so easy to do it on the Avid.

Um, and I, I, you know, I was a little kind of not sure in the beginning when we started doing it that way.

But then I realized, my gosh, this is, we're going to go through every take of every line in the context of how it would play in the scene.

And get the very best stuff that we can get every time.

And Eli is never going to feel like, well, I should have gone back and, oh, why didn't I do that?

Or what about this?

A couple of times we'd go back and see someone, oh, let's try this.

But very, very rarely.

And usually after you get into the second or third preview, you tend to go back through the movie and start looking at everything after the movie's been cut.

But this way, we had the bulk of the movie cut exactly the way we felt was right, right from the start.

And I, that was, that was good.

That was good.

You, you did the first video editing ever, didn't you?

It was the first movie that was ever cut, that was not cut on film.

Well, I think it might have been.

It was a movie called Norman Is That You with Red Foxx and Pearl Bailey, directed by George Slaughter.

And he had decided that in order to get Red Foxx to do the movie, they'd have to shoot it on videotape.

And I tried to convince George that this was like trying to fight Muhammad Ali with one hand tied behind your back.

But we went ahead and did it.

And, uh, nightmare.

That would be, uh, probably the way I would describe that.

But we finally ended up, I actually bought my first camera.

How long did it take per cut?

It took, uh, to make an edit on the videotape in those days, it took 18 minutes.

For one cut?

That's right.

One cut.

So, uh, so we, uh, we ended up finishing it on film.

I bought a cam and we put the cam up in the Thalberg building and George and I cut it up there and with handles.

I mean, in 18 minutes, you could almost cut an entire scene if you were working fast.

Unbelievable.

Just unbelievable.

But, you know, and the picture did okay.

It looked very, very strange.

We actually had to degrade some of the, uh, we shot a couple of scenes on film because the light level was too low to shoot on videotape in those days.

So when, of course, the scenes came on film, cut up against the videotape, it was like night and day.

Yeah.

So we actually had to degrade the film to match it.

To match the videotape.

Well, I'm human and it's not my nature.

This guy, uh, Jan, uh, Flossack.

Flossack.

Who plays the Dutch businessman.

Who plays the Dutch businessman is, is a guy that, uh, I didn't realize this because he was so kind of charming on the set and seemed to be so, you know, with it.

I didn't realize that he was not completely fluent in English.

Barely.

He barely spoke any English.

And the performance that this guy gives, he is just really, really good.

And all the performances makes it very much easier for me when I don't have to worry about, well, I've got to cut around this or why doesn't she say that line right or what happened there?

And, oh, God, here's another mess I've got to fix.

You know, the performances in this movie are very, very solid.

And, uh, it was, it was, I mean, Eli and I had, you know, a couple of choices on almost every line, which way to go.

It was tricky sometimes to get, you know, very subtle nuances in the performances.

Certainly with Derek Richardson and Jay Hernandez, you know, Aether, you kind of know what take you're going to use.

It's like when he gets the joke, he gets it.

But those other guys give you so many different variations in the dramatic stuff.

Well, Aether's Icelandic, you know.

Do you prefer cutting comedy or drama or does it not matter?

Does it matter?

It doesn't matter.

I, I, uh, I actually wish people would give me more dramas to cut because I enjoy doing that.

But, uh, you know.

It's after Cheaper by the Dozen and Pink Panther and Rick, you're like comedy guy.

Yeah, well, I've all, you know, with Animal House and Blues Brothers and all those.

I like cutting musicals.

I, I don't get to cut them very often, but I love cutting music.

And, uh, I, uh, I like, I like cutting drama.

Um, but comedy is, is, is kind of the trickiest because of the timing and the looks and the little subtle things that you can make.

You can really make something up almost out of nothing in comedy that you wouldn't really try to do in drama sometimes.

See, I get very impatient during editing because I have the movie completely in my head and I want to see it exactly the way I shot it.

And then if it's not cut exactly the way I had it in my head, it's like, you just feel like it and it's like wrong and I feel like I can't sleep at night.

And am I just crazy or is that a normal thing that directors go through?

I think, uh, crazy.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

You know, I went, when I was working with John Landis, I'd cut a scene.

If there was one cut that was off, he would go off kilter.

So we'd fix that one thing and everything was fine.

And, but it was just, he, directors and we had a pretty good relationship in the editing room.

We never, we never, I mean, we fought in the editing room on the artistic level.

We never, we, he never yelled at me or got mad at me in the editing room the way you do.

Yeah.

Just kidding.

And, but he, he was, um, you know, good directors like John and Eli have a very, very strong idea.

Of how a scene should play, what it should look like, how it should be cut.

And when anything is off a little bit, even in your first pass through it, um, you know, they, they tend to be knocked off base.

And, and, and, you know, you just got to say to them, okay, okay, we'll fix it.

You know, it's not the end of the world.

And I think that you're really.

It's the plastic art.

Yeah.

You're really great at, um, you know, if the scene's not working that I've shot, I get so depressed.

I go, oh my God, it sucks.

I thought it was going to be scary.

And how come it's not working?

And you're like, no, we'll get it.

We'll get it.

We just got to get it right.

And then you can just one little cut or taking two frames here and there.

And all of a sudden it's completely different scene.

And it's really actually, I do enjoy it.

I don't hate the editing room at all.

Oh, you shouldn't.

You're very good at it.

And I love it.

I love it so much.

And I love music editing in particular.

Um, but you know, it's, it's frustrating when you see something in your head, you shoot it,

you cast it, and then it's there and it's not working.

And it's like, it's, it's like, I can't sleep at night when that happens.

Well, we had a very, uh, tight budget in post on this movie and we had no music editor.

So I was, uh, you know, we were working like from 930 in the morning till 8 or 830 at night,

which may not sound long for some of you young guys, but for an older guy like me, it's quite

a long day and, and it's very, very intense, very intense work.

And I wasn't really, uh, up to, uh, then staying for another two or three hours at night.

Like Eli was in order to, to put music into the, some of the scenes that we had cut.

So we were getting ready for a preview.

All the, all the music and most of the sound effects were done by Brad Wilhite, my assistant

and Eli and Eli cut almost all of the, of the music when we got ready for a preview.

So that's, uh, you know, the advantage to that is that you've got the director who really

knows the movie and knows the, the style and knows the feeling that he's trying to get in

the music is doing it himself.

And it, it, it took a, it took a toll on Eli because he spent so much time doing it.

But at the end of the day, we got a very, very good mix for the preview and very commensurate

to what the movie was.

It was representative of what the movie ultimately turned out to be.

Yeah. I mean, when you're scoring Brian Richards is a music editor and he did a fantastic job

and he works with Nathan Barr and edits all of Nate's music and, you know, helped us get

the music for the coffee house scene, you know, there were, you know, and he really is terrific

with music and cutting stuff in, but kind of when you're getting the movie ready, you're

going to show it to an audience.

You, you know, I, I, I like to be very hands-on and I like to do everything and I just enjoy

it. And I enjoy finding music.

And I know exactly what cue, I have a very large, uh, collection of soundtracks and music

scores. And, you know, I have a very, very clear idea of exactly what cue needs to go

where. And, you know, driving to the editing room every day, I was listening to soundtracks

like the grudge and, you know, the shining, the exorcist and just finding different music

pieces. And when you find that one piece of music that just fits perfect, all of a sudden

the scene works and it's so much scarier and, um, you know, it's, it's great. It's

very satisfying. And you, and George is so experienced. He's such a veteran, you know,

producer as well that he knew that, uh, you know, he helped really get Sony to get us mixing

on the biggest stage, the biggest stage there, you know, he helped, you know, he knew the people

to talk to and figured out how to work it within the budget and when we should push the studio

for more money. And, and we did, and we wound up mixing with Oscar winning mixers on the

biggest stage that they've ever done a screen gems movie at. And, uh, it was, it really makes

a huge difference. And that's why, you know, for George, we say he's like the godfather of

the production. He's not just the editor making cuts. You know, he's someone who's there in

the shooting, going through our budget saying, you guys are light here. Uh, I wouldn't worry

about that there. I think you need this here. And then, you know, the, the studio can steamroll

you as a young filmmaker, if you don't know what you're entitled to and what you can get

and what can be done. And sometimes I'd propose an idea and I'd say, well, what if we want

to do this? And they, you know, some people would freak out, go, we can't do that. We can't afford

it. And then George would go, well, actually we can, if we do it here, here, here, here,

and here. And I've already made the phone call and it's already set. And then it's not that they

didn't want to do it. It's just that people, you know, kind of don't know how to do it.

But George is so experienced. He really helped us get great deals all over.

Well, in the, in the studio's defense, they, they tend to, to look at a movie based on

its budget. And they tend to scale everything towards that. And, you know, just because a

movie was shot in a foreign country and shot on an extremely efficient system, and you didn't

throw any money away, doesn't mean that you can't elevate that movie to where it really

should be commensurate to what the vision of the director was in the first place.

And so that's really what we, we did was we just were able to convince the studio in kind

of subtle ways to, to try to allow us to elevate the music of the movie and doing a full orchestral

score as opposed to the synthesized score and, and doing a really big, full, full on mix in

a big, sound mix in a big editing, in a big sound mixing room, which, you know, I would have

always wanted to do no matter what. But they, the fact that Eli had the movie cut so well

in the beginning, I think gave the studio a tremendous amount of confidence that, that they

could, that they could spend some extra money and, and really elevate the movie. And it worked

out great.

Yeah. And, and I will say that that's really, you know, Clint Culpepper.

Absolutely.

At Screen Gems. Clint, Clint was amazing. And, you know, he was also smart enough to bring

in Lionsgate to release it theatrically because he knew how great Tim Palin, the marketing director

was, who I worked with on Cabin Fever. I loved him. He's an incredible, incredible artist and

marketing genius. And, you know, and Clint understood how to sell this movie and what the

movie was and what it was capable of being. And he really, you know, it's like, I had, this is my

first time dealing with a studio where all of a sudden, you know, Cabin Fever was on my own and

they bought it and released it. But here, you know, the studio's coming in the editing room. And I was

very freaked out about that. But Clint was great. And I realized very quickly that every

suggestion he made was a really, really good suggestion.

He was extremely helpful in the editing room.

Extremely helpful in the editing room. And, you know, you know, we previewed the audience

and the ending wasn't working. And Clint was one who felt like he really felt like why it

wasn't working. And he said, let's just shoot it. We don't have to use it. Let's shoot it and

see what happens and try. And, you know, and I said, you know, we're going to, I'm going to shoot

it and I'm going to shoot it a great version of it. I'm not just going to do some half-assed

version. If Clint wants me to shoot this, okay, it's not the ending I originally came

up with, but let's make it great. And I liked it so much better.

Yeah.

So, you know, then it's like I'd really been very collaborative in working with him. And,

you know, I felt like he was only trying to make the movie better than when we said, you

know what, we want to record with a score with an orchestra in Prague. We want to do a

big sound mix. He stepped up and gave us the extra money to do it. And there's a lot

of things to do with the photography. We could, you know, there's this whole process now

called the digital intermediate where you scan your negative, you color correct in a

computer and then you output. Whereas, you know, traditionally you time it in a lab and

you have a very limited range. Well, we kind of did a hybrid here where there were certain

scenes, like the scene in the brothel, you kind of can't get it to look that way photographically.

We had to scan that scene into a computer to give it that blacklight feel. And he gave us

the money to do that. And, you know, also the visual effects, you know, so there are certain

scenes where some, for some reason in the color, the blood looked a little orangey and we could-

A little fake. A little fake. Yeah. We could go in some scenes, you know, and it's just not any

faulty effects, guys. It's the photography. We didn't shoot camera tests on blood. We didn't

have time or money. So, you know, we got to scan those and do that stuff digitally. So they're about

probably 10% of the shots. We got to do digital color correction. Um, and they were, they were really

terrific. Yeah, it's, uh, the photography is very, very good in the movie. And it, you know, you can

always make a case for doing a digital intermediate. All cameramen love to do it because they can fix

everything. But, uh, you know, there's a point where it's just, uh, not cost effective, especially

when you have a movie that's as solidly put together photographically as this one is.

How is it going right from Pink Panther to this violent movie? I mean, that's, is, or do you just

see it as one movie for another? Oh, uh, you know, we, we spent a lot of time editing and working on Pink

Panther. And, uh, I, you know, it was, it just, I, I liked the variety. I never, you know, cutting

aquamarine, uh, and I wasn't cutting aquamarine, but working on aquamarine in Australia, cutting

hostel at night on the weekends. Um, it just, when you're doing the same thing day after day after

day for a long period of time, it gets kind of stale. But in this case, it was, it was, uh, it was

fun. I, I, I, I like it. I like doing, I like, I don't like to be typed. Like I'm just good

at cutting comedy. I like to think I can do a lot of different things. Sure. And, uh, you

know, we'll see. What advice would you have for young people that want to break into the

film business? Cause you are someone who has been a survivor. A lot of people don't last

very long in the film business. And here you are, you've been doing it, you know, for over

40 years and you're still at the top of your game and cutting big studio movies. Uh, what

advice would you have for young filmmakers out there? Well, you know, in the old days,

it would have been, uh, get a job as a projectionist so you can see lots of movies. Now, of course,

everything's on, uh, the internet or on, on DVD, but looking, looking at movies, going to see

how the successful movies work and why is very, very, very important. Probably the most important

thing is just going to lots of movies. When I was a kid, my aunt, who was a writer secretary

at Warner's while my dad was a cameraman at MGM, we'd go to the movies every weekend and usually

a double bill. Of course, the features were shorter than there were 85, 90 minutes. You'd

see two is three hours. And, uh, so you'd saw three or four movies a weekend, weekend after

weekend, after weekend. So you're, you're looking at a couple of hundred movies a year. You're

going to see, you know, it just, it just gets in your, under your skin, you know, and the rhythm,

you know, the rhythm, the editor that taught me, Henry Berman, who cut, uh, Gunga Din and I worked

with him and he did Grand Prix and he won an Academy Award for that. He, you know, he, he, it's all

about the rhythm. You know, you make a cut on the rhythm, you don't even see the cut. And what I did

basically with John McTiernan, we were talking about that very thing. And the editor, Frank

Uriasti, who had done Die Hard One. And I knew, uh, his uncle, I guess, uh, Frank, who was a music

editor at MGM when I was just starting out. And he had said to McTee, the, I think the classic line

about film editing, which was, it's all music. And once, once you have that concept in your mind,

every scene has its musical rhythm. And once you, you know, that's why when, when you're

trying to speed a scene up, it's very hard to do it because you're actually imposing an

artificial rhythm on the actors in the scene. The best way to do it, if you want to speed

the scene up is to either shoot it at 22 frames and harmonize it so they don't sound like chipmunks

or actually take it and digitally re, remake it at a quicker speed. Because if you, if you try to force

the cuts and make and, and cut before the end of a line and play lines over, it, it begins to look

like a mishmash. And then because the scene doesn't play and you don't, you're not in the scene,

the scene seems to play longer.

Let me ask you one, one other subject I do want to ask you, that's subject of testing,

testing movies. Every movie now goes through the national research group where they show to an

audience and things get scores and got to get the scores up. What do you think of this process of

testing? Is there any value or legitimacy to it?

There's definitely value to it. My only criticism would be that not, every movie is different and not every

movie is going to score high. On Cheaper by the Dozen, we got scores in 94 and 96. Just completely ridiculous numbers.

Yeah, Cabin Fever, we got a 19. It's out of a hundred, yeah.

Yeah, a 19.

But they don't, if you make a good horror movie, you're supposed to feel like shit at the end.

Yeah.

And so people don't write excellent. They feel bad.

You're not going to feel good at the end.

Yeah.

Everybody's dead.

And the highest compliment you can give a horror movie is don't see it.

Yeah.

That's like, oh, it's too scary. You don't see it.

So you get no definite recommends.

So you get definite recommends and then they freak out that your scores are low.

Yeah.

It's like, no, people will still go see it, but you can't quantify that on a piece of paper.

Unfortunately, the testing process with the numbers and the way they do the stats,

tends to give the studio something concrete to look at and feel that they can judge your movie

based on how it did in this demographic, that demographic, whatever.

And they've got a real number there that says these are the numbers.

And there is definitely validity to those numbers.

That being said, there is nothing that really can replace the way the movie plays in the theater.

You sit there. You don't sit with the executives.

You sit in the middle of the audience and you just see how your movie is playing.

When we ran the first preview of Hostel, even with the old ending, that audience was absolutely riveted.

And it told me that we were going to be successful because I could just feel the way the audience was with these guys

and how they were riveted by the movie.

And if you don't have that, if people are wandering around, they're on their Blackberry, they're fooling around,

you know that you just don't have them.

And even with the ending that was kind of a downer, we really, you know, we played very well up to that.

Yeah.

Have you ever been nominated for an Academy Award?

I never have.

My dad was nominated for 14 and never won.

So they don't seem to, you know, nominate comedies like actors like Steve Martin.

I don't think Steve has ever been nominated for an Academy Award.

But Animal House is in, like, the Library of Congress and the historical record of, you know, greatest American films ever made.

So, you know, the Oscar, but it's still one of these cultural landmarks.

So I think maybe Hostile could change that, don't you?

Well, that would be poetic justice if Hostile ever got nominated for an Academy Award.

And I wouldn't hold my breath, boys.

Yeah.

Well, George, thank you so much for joining us for the commentary.

It's a pleasure, Eli.

I'm happy to do it.

And, again, I'm very proud of doing this movie, and I'm very happy that I had the opportunity to do it.

Yeah, it's my pleasure.

I look forward to the next one, whichever member of the Fulsey family may edit it.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

We have a very special guest joining us on the DVD all the way from Austin, Texas, the one and only Harry Knowles.

Welcome, Harry.

Hey, how are you?

I'm very well.

How are you, honey bunny?

Sugar plum?

Well, you know, I'm just laying here stroking myself to the sound of your voice as usual.

Well, please do not stop stroking.

Just because it's being recorded will be rebroadcast all over the world.

In fact, I encourage it.

Awesome.

So, Harry, is this your first phoner commentary for a DVD?

This is my first phoner commentary.

Actually, this is only my second commentary that I've ever done.

The first was on that, you know, other film, Old Boy.

Yeah.

Yeah, that one.

Yeah.

I think I saw that one at a festival, maybe.

Yeah.

Dude, so this movie, as I've said numerous times, started with our very first conversation ever, which is, my God, like three and a half years ago or something.

Yeah, I believe it was all because of Kurtzman writing the letter saying that I should be in contact with you about cabin fever.

Yeah, it was either Howard, I think it was Bob Kurtzman or Howard Berger wrote a letter because we had no money.

We were out of money on cabin fever and those guys had seen a rough cut and they said, you should tell Harry about this.

And they wrote you an email and just that we should meet each other.

Specifically, they said, this is the best film K&B has worked on since Evil Dead 2.

Which is kind of crazy.

And like really, really wrong for them to even say that, but it's a wonderful compliment.

Well, I mean, we got on the phone and, you know, I just think that I think that was like a five hour phone conversation, if I remember, where we deviated into, well, what you were trying to do with cabin fever, talking about flesh eating virus.

And, you know, then we started talking about the most fucked up things we've ever found online.

And that's where I told you the unfortunate night that I began to see how I could kill somebody.

Now, that was one of the things that really stuck with me.

I remember, you know, we were talking about that guy who set up the hunting in Texas.

And I thought the most disgusting thing was those two Japanese girls vomiting in each other's mouths in the bathtub.

But then you told me about this site.

How the hell did you find that?

I remember, God, it was a long time ago.

But, you know, I think sometimes the deviant, you know, personalities of, you know, just, well, myself and people like you.

Yes.

We sit around and we try to think of what's the sickest, most perverted thing we can think of.

Right.

You know, I mean, a lot of times when you try to find, you know, these sorts of deviant things, you don't, you just don't find anything.

Right.

You know, I mean, you sit around and, you know, I mean, you can find, you know, scary or deviant things in just about every city on the globe via online now.

And I was just searching for, you know, well, is there a place where you could pay to kill someone?

And at the time, I haven't been able to get the site to come up for about two years now.

Yeah.

But it was a place in the Philippines, I believe.

Yeah, I think it was Thailand or the Philippines, one of those places.

Yeah.

And essentially, the way it was pitched was that the victims were people that willingly gave themselves over to the thing because part of the money you would pay allegedly would go to the families.

So it wasn't so much a, you know, captured person, at least as they were putting it out there.

I mean, you know, how would you ever know?

I mean.

They were putting it like, yeah, of course, they were spinning it like it was some sort of demented life insurance policy that you were triggering, no pun intended.

Yeah, absolutely, and that the extended families of these people would be taken care of for the next five years because you paid to kill this relative of theirs, which was just about the most disturbingly, just, Jesus, what a creepy thing.

Let me ask you this, because we talked about this at the time.

Do you think it was real?

And do you think it really matters that it was real?

Well, it could have been a situation where, you know, they, I mean, what idiot would ever go through with it to begin with?

Just because the sort of people that, if it were real, if you showed up with $10,000, what to keep them from taking you and then contacting your family to get and extort more money, you know, while they torture you?

I mean, I'm thinking at this point, you know, what sort of qualms would somebody have about hurting somebody who traveled across the world to kill somebody?

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Um, you know, ultimately, uh, it, it would take, um, uh, uh, bigger balls than I think either of us have to actually find out.

Well, I remember, you know, when you first told me, I thought, we thought, God, that'd be an incredible documentary.

Like, what if you could find someone that was going to do this or someone that had volunteered for it?

But it was so clear that if you got close to them, then why wouldn't they just take you out?

No, I mean, it, it, it just, it, it doesn't, I mean, you know, I, I, I think, I think everybody sort of has, um, you know, just a series of sort of kill fantasies that they have.

I mean, that's, that's one of the reasons the horror film industry is, you know, always done so well is, you know, at some point we do project ourselves as a Jason or a Freddy or, you know, one of those types of characters.

But, you know, this, where, you know, the thing that's really pervasive, it's just the idea that you can, you could travel to a place where nobody knew who you were, where nobody really, uh, you would never see another set of eyes that would remind you of the guilt of what you had done.

And that, and that it's just a vacation thing for just, you know, a bit of money that you could experience something as horrifically disturbed as this.

It's a, it's an incredibly pervasive concept.

Do you think it's real?

And do you think that there is a place in the world that's like this?

I mean, because, because the website.

I think if you contacted the right, wrong people, you could get anything.

You know, I mean, you look at enough Russian torture sites, you know, you begin to wonder, well, why would they have to fake it?

Right.

Right.

Well, that, that was my point was, you know, I kept thinking, well, what, what's real is that website?

It's just that, that somebody conceptualized this.

That's what disturbed me is that they recognize that there's somebody out there that would, that would have a need for this kind of thing.

So, Harry, let me ask you this.

Do you think that such a place in the world exists where you can pay to go and kill somebody?

I think absolutely.

It's not a place that I think you can really find online.

I think what you would have to do is, you know, find, you know, travel to a really shady area.

You know, like, if you take a look at, you know, the conceit of, like, the Russian mafia or what they do with those, like, torture porn, you know, websites.

If you start to contact those people, of course, the problem is, is the second you start contacting those people and you start getting into, you risk dying yourself.

So, ultimately, I think you would have to be an incredibly secure, perverse person.

And if you were already at that level, why wouldn't you just turn into a murderer for real?

You know, I mean, like, not in some secure environment, why go through all that trouble?

And I think what it is is I think anyone that wants to pursue, you know, that sort of fantasy, I think at the same time they would have the conceit to just, you know, follow someone around and, you know, take the opportunity for free.

Where do you think we are with horror movies right now and where do you think they're going and how do you think the public is going to respond to Hostel?

First of all, I think Hostel's brilliant.

I think you did a fantastic job on it.

Thanks, Eric.

Two, you know, the screening that we had at Fantastic Fest went absolutely amazing.

You know, when it played, people kind of just gave up on the festival.

I mean, it was sort of like, screw seeing anything else, let's talk about this.

And everybody went outside and basically had the conversation of, do you think that's real?

You know?

Which is awesome.

That's kind of what, that's what, that's like the, what you really, really hope for is that people come out of the movie talking about it, you know?

Absolutely.

I love how successful horror is being right now.

You know, you take a look at Lionsgate and you see a movie like Saw 2, which personally, while I didn't love the movie, I love that it did the business that it did.

Simply because I love the horror film industry so much.

Right.

It needs to have hard R movies doing well.

Absolutely.

It's good for everybody.

Yeah.

And I mean, let's face it, I'm, I'm currently working on doing one of my own, you know?

And I, I think the A horror film, which is the, the over budgeted studio horror film, I think, I think it's stuck on the remake route probably for the next several years.

Um, I mean, all you got to do is just take a look at just the shared number of, uh, remakes that are put into, you know, into the grindhouse of, you know, bad ideas.

Um, but I mean, the thing that I really like about what's coming out of Lionsgate right now and coming out of a specific group of, uh, of filmmakers is,

it's the idea of taking horror and making it hurt, making it horrific, making, making horror horrific.

Absolutely.

Because I mean, I, I, I think what was going on in the nineties was people were trying to make horror really fun, you know?

And, and, and, and, and, you know, I, I think every, everybody that was a horror fan was dying a little bit during that period, just because it was, it was truly fetishized, you know?

And, and, and, and, and, and, uh, I don't think that the horror in, in, in hostile at its toughest is meant to be enjoyable.

I think it's meant to shock you and affect you because you spent so much time building the characters.

That's the sort of thing that you're just, that not enough people are doing and that I hope to see you continue to do.

Well, thanks, Harry.

I, I appreciate that.

And, but, you know, the, the concern is, do you think audiences want that or do they just want body count movies with characters that you don't know, that you don't give a shit about, that just get killed off right away?

I know that the genre fans and the horror audiences that were at Fantastic Fest, um, they wanted to see it again very badly, you know?

And I know that a good 70 to 80% of the submission forms for, uh, but num-a-thon were all people that wanted to see hostile, many of which had already seen it, including my girlfriend.

That's awesome.

Um, and the reason that I, uh, you know, didn't let them see it again is because, well, I, I just, I can't repeat myself, you know?

No, no, no.

We, we discussed that.

We said, would it be Fantastic Fest or button-a-thon?

And we, you know, you wanted Fantastic Fest, which is awesome.

But I think that if the marketing is working on the audience out there, that once they get in to see the movie,

they're all going to be very pleasantly surprised because, you know, there's a certain level, I, I think to a degree you build on the idea of, you know, in, in horror movies,

oftentimes people write characters that you want to see get hurt or get killed.

And at the very beginning of this movie, I think everybody kind of wants to see these guys get killed.

Yeah.

No, they're not that likable right off the bat.

But then you do a very evil thing, a very correct thing by having us understand them and little bitty vignettes of them reacting to things they think are wrong that we also think are wrong.

Thereby making the characters feel and believe the same things that we believe.

That's making us like them.

And at that point, by the time you get to the last characters, it really is emotionally involving.

At that point, I think that's the universal that audiences that come into the movie will embrace and take on as something that they love.

Or at least I hope so, because I certainly want more movies as hard as this thing.

Thanks, man.

Me too.

Well, Harry, I just want to say thank you so much for your support, both for Cabin Fever and for Hostel.

And let's just get it on the record.

If, like, terrible reviews came in, even though we're friends, you'd still put them up, right?

I look forward to, you know, really horrible reviews that make fun of you.

Because generally, I get a really hilarious text message or phone call from you where you're going,

God, what did I do to these people?

Yeah.

And then we laugh a lot.

Why do you think people, like in the talkbacks, want to kill me?

Like, it's not like they don't like my movies.

Like, they want actual blood.

Where do you think that comes from?

Am I that just unlikable, that repulsive, that obnoxious?

Where do you think it comes from?

I think that because you realize very much that if you don't promote yourself, nobody else is.

And, you know, there's a huckstering to what it is we all do.

You know, I'm a shameless self-promoter.

But at the same time, I promote everything that I love.

And you're very much the same way.

Yeah, absolutely.

You're somebody that, it's not just, ooh, Eli Roth, Eli Roth, Eli Roth.

It's actually more, Takashi Miike, Chun-Luk Park, Quentin Tarantino, you know,

just all these different areas and people that you love.

Lucky McKee, you know, Angela Meadows, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know.

And the thing that happens so often, especially when you do interviews with, like, you know,

magazines like Vangoria or, you know, Bloody Disgusting or all these different sites,

so many of the people tend to want to edit out everything that isn't relevant in their minds

to the subject at hand, which is Eli Roth and whatever film you're making.

So, oftentimes, the stuff that has you talking about, you know, the influences and the love

and, you know, giving credit where your influences come from,

sometimes that stuff gets left out because they don't feel it's as important to the subject at hand

and it ends up coming across as just pure self-promotion.

Right.

It's really hard to fight.

I don't think that a lot of those critics out there, you know,

and I'm not talking, like, mainstream because I'm talking just fanboy critics,

I don't think a lot of them believe the genuineness of it, you know.

I mean, I think that they think that the reason you call me is to, quote, get good coverage.

Yeah.

But in reality, it's because we like to geek out about this shit, you know.

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for lending your voice to our commentary, Harry,

and for being such a supporter of me and of cinema and really making it, you know,

you're the guy that really helped level the playing field for everybody.

You know, you really helped make the...

No, it's true.

I mean, movies like Hostel or Cabin Fever, you know, May, everything, you know,

the survival of these movies, you know, depends on if people go see them.

And your site is the one thing that everyone really, really listens to,

and you help us get our voices out there.

So it's really... you've really done a tremendous thing for cinema.

All right.

Thanks, Harry.

Until next time.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

I am joined now by the lovely Barbara...

Nidelyakova.

Nidelyakova.

Now, for all the people at home, could you just repeat that just to make sure that they know how to say it?

Nidelyakova.

Did everybody get that?

Nidelyakova.

Is that right?

Yes.

Okay.

It only took me five months to learn that.

So Barbara plays Natalia in the film.

And, uh, Barbara, what was your reaction the first time you read the script for Hostel?

Uh, I find this script is, uh, original.

And, uh, I got a little bit scared.

And I was thinking,

if it's really possible that people can do it at Shatter.

And what was the reason why you wrote it?

Um...

And I remember talking to you about it

and having to actually, uh,

you know,

sort of explain myself about why I wrote all these things about Slovakia.

And, uh, Barbara, we should say,

grew up in Slovakia.

In Banska Bistrica?

Right, yeah.

Yes.

Took me five months.

Um, so when you read the script,

having grown up in Slovakia,

what did you think about what it said about life there?

I see the script that, uh, described my country a little bit different.

It's not, not really like that.

It's not scary.

And, uh, people don't kill each other for bubblegum.

But when you were a kid and you wanted bubblegum,

how did you get bubblegum?

Uh, buy in a store.

You buy in a store?

But if, if you wanted to kill somebody for bubblegum,

was that, was that something that other kids did?

Or did I just completely make that up?

I don't know.

I think you completely made it up.

Yeah.

No, she's right about that.

Um, Slovakia is a really nice place.

And one of the reasons that I picked Slovakia

was I felt like Americans really don't know

the difference between Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Now, English is not your first language.

No, it's not.

It's, uh, what do you speak?

Slovakia and Czech.

Now, how long have you been speaking English?

It's about two years and a half.

Now, I think your English is incredible

for someone who's been speaking

only for two and a half years.

Thank you.

Um, when you're acting in a movie,

it's difficult enough to act in your own language.

How is it acting in another language?

It is a little bit different

because, uh, I have to,

I can't be just focused on acting.

I have to think about, uh,

what to pronounce the inch, pronunciation.

Pronunciation.

Yeah.

Pronunciation.

Pronounce-eation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, uh, think about it.

Think about it, uh, out of language.

Think about a sentence.

So do you, so you read the Czech script first, right?

You read it in Czech and not English.

Yes.

And when you do the scenes,

when you're rehearsing it in your head,

do you rehearse it in English or in Czech?

In English.

In English.

In English.

Um, what was it about the character of Natalia

that interested you in being in the script?

Like, you, the script had a lot of violence.

Everything that happens is graphically described.

Why would you want to be in a film like this?

I like the idea of being in a horror movie

and, uh, uh, I like, uh, Natalia.

It was a new experience for me

that usually the part of what I have done before

was, uh, nice girls or a naive.

So this was something new

and, um, uh, um, I just wanted to try that.

Was it more fun playing the good Natalia

or the evil Natalia?

For me, it was more interesting to be evil Natalia.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Did you have, uh,

you drew on personal experience from that?

Uh, that's what helped me do this part.

It was actually my real experience

what happened to me before.

And, um, because that scene,

you know, the scene that we should read in the audition,

I should say that when Barbara walked in,

I mean, you probably had 400 girls that we auditioned.

Nobody, nobody came close to Barbara, uh, for Natalia.

And it, we, the scene we auditioned was the pub scene.

Do you remember that?

I do remember that.

That was, that was, like, the first thing.

Because originally you came in to read as Vala,

the desk girl.

Yeah, yeah.

I was, uh, I was thinking just about this small part.

I was afraid of a little bit nudity.

Yeah.

Well, that was, that was one of the first things we discussed

was sort of the nudity

and how we were going to shoot it

and what we could show and what we can't show

as we recall.

Um, no, we, that's, that's one of the things

you, you certainly have to do

and should do with your actors

is discuss exactly what's going to be photographed

and how it's going to be done.

And, uh, you know, the nudity was a big concern,

but, um, you know, we talked about

how it was part of the story

and how it was necessary to lure the guys.

Um, but then, you know,

it was that pub scene that you read.

And I remember in the audition you read it,

it was really, really terrifying.

I thought that you really just understood it right away.

And that was probably,

that was the first time you read that scene.

That was the first time, yeah.

So how was it working with the guys?

How was it working with Derek and Jay and Athor?

Uh, uh, there was a really, I have to say,

really good actors.

And that's what make it easier to act with them.

And it was a lot of fun.

Uh, I enjoyed it.

What scene was the most fun to shoot with those guys?

The most fun was, uh,

I liked, really, the scenes with the Jay.

Scenes in a car, in a factory.

And, um,

most fun was probably

disco and this.

The scenes where you're fucking with the guys in the disco.

Yeah.

Where Josh gets drunk

or where you and Jana are talking in check?

When me and Jana are talking in check.

Yeah.

That scene, I don't know,

it was,

it was kind of frightening.

It felt like maybe you had done that before.

And there's a guy in front of you

and you're talking in another language

and they sit there kind of clueless

and don't really know how to feel about that.

Mm, maybe.

Maybe.

It's possible.

Um, so Barbara, I should say,

uh, you work in the theater in Prague

doing marionettes.

Yeah.

I'm doing marionettes for

a couple years,

maybe five years.

And we actually called Barbara

the puppet master on set

because she kind of pulls the strings

and controls everything.

Um,

how come you think,

why do you think,

why is marionette theater so popular there

and how come we don't have it

here in the United States?

Well, this is, uh,

this is more,

most for tourists,

for Italian people,

English people really like that.

and it's like a classic opera Don Giovanni.

Um,

we play this game for a couple years,

so it's not that exciting for me.

It's getting to be old.

I actually went to see Don Giovanni in Prague

and, um,

I almost made it through the whole thing,

didn't I?

What was,

what was the most difficult stuff to shoot?

Was it the nudity?

It was a nudity.

Were you guys,

were you guys?

I was more scared of that,

but finally I didn't,

I didn't think that was so hard.

Yeah, it's,

well,

I remember it was one of those things

where actually the,

sort of the moment building up to shooting

was far worse than anything we shot.

Like once we shot,

it was just like,

felt like we were filming any other scene.

Yeah.

Um,

and I thought you guys,

you know,

it's difficult.

It's very difficult

because for,

certainly for girls

and for anyone in a love scene

where,

you know,

acting on film is not natural.

You're not behaving the way

you would normally behave

and you have to position your body

a certain way

and you've got to hit the light

to look right

and tilt your head back

and put your shoulder to the left

and on top of all of it,

make it look natural

and don't be nervous.

And that's not easy to do.

No,

and it was the first time for me

and I remember in the beginning

I was just thinking that,

uh,

how much I'm showing

and it's,

uh,

who is going to see that

and then finally

I just forgot about it

and I tried to get into the scene

and not,

don't think about nudity

and just think about it

to be there.

And I thought you,

I thought you guys did a great job

and there's certainly that moment

where you look over at Yana

and she looks at you

and you kind of,

that,

that for me is the moment in the movie

where you start to realize

that maybe these girls

aren't as nice.

Maybe something's going on.

Maybe something's going on.

Um,

so your death scene,

how was it watching yourself

get run over?

I like this scene

and I like,

uh,

how's the scene looks

and I think it looks really good

and what's,

how do you feel

when everyone cheers

when you die?

I feel good.

I feel that's,

for me,

it's mean that

the people

really,

really hate me

and they're supposed to.

So it feels good.

So when people

come up to you

and they say

they absolutely hated you

and you were a horrible

fucking bitch,

that's like a compliment.

That's like a compliment.

Exactly.

What are,

now,

this is your first time

in America?

Yeah.

And,

uh,

Barbara and I just did a tour

to a number of cities.

What were your favorite cities

to visit?

Um,

I really like Chicago,

Washington,

Boston.

Are there any things

that you remember

specifically about the screenings?

I mean,

how did it feel

watching it

with a,

with a live audience

of strangers?

Um,

I think it's really different

that every city

was different audience

and I think most,

uh,

biggest,

uh,

reaction

what I saw

was in Toronto

but it was the first time.

Yeah,

it was the first,

the crowd was wild.

Yeah.

That was the,

the midnight screening

in Toronto.

Yes.

People were going crazy

and they were plotting

and everything.

They really went nuts

when you got run over,

especially when the second car

hits you.

What do you think

people in Slovakia

are going to think

of this movie

when they see it

and all,

like,

the ridiculous stuff

I made up

about your country?

I think they're going

to have,

uh,

fun to watch this

and,

uh,

I don't know,

maybe some people

are going to really

believe it's like that.

And what would you

have to say

to those people

who believe

that it's really

like that?

They just should

come to visit Slovakia.

What's the main

tourist attraction

in Slovakia?

What's the main

thing to do there?

It's, like,

really beautiful

mountains

and, uh,

so many tourists

come to Skye

there and,

um...

Lots of spas,

hot springs,

those types of things.

Those type of things.

There are, too.

So you live in Prague now,

but you're going to be

moving to Los Angeles.

Yeah.

Are you excited

to live in America?

Yeah,

I'm very excited.

I think it's going to be,

like,

not really easy to step,

but, um,

it's going to be...

I'm so excited

about a new experience,

and...

Would you...

It starts a totally

new life here.

Would you do

more horror movies?

I had a great time,

so why not?

Well, I would say

that you were

absolutely

the dream actor

to work with.

I mean,

Barbara is someone

who shows up on set

and is always there,

just so excited

to be there,

happy to be there,

and you really

came prepared.

I mean,

when we did

those scenes,

you know,

sometimes actors show up,

they don't know their lines.

I mean,

you had really,

really rehearsed it

and thought about it,

and I know that

it was very,

very difficult

because you're doing

a scene completely

in another language,

and sometimes you might

not understand a word

or understand a phrase,

but, uh,

but you really did

a superb job with that.

Thank you.

And you also like

getting covered in blood,

and that's the key thing

that I look for

when I'm casting

an actress,

is, uh,

how are they going to be

when you're covered

head to toe in blood

and lying on the cobblestones

and getting run over

by a car?

Uh,

Barbara and I went

to the Citrus Film Festival.

Uh,

we went with Quentin

and Greg Nicotero

and Elvis Mitchell.

What was it like

being thrown

into geek culture?

Because you didn't even

really know the word geek

before you,

before you came here.

How was that?

That was a really

crazy experience

to be between

these people

for six days.

And, uh,

they,

these people

are really obsessed

with the movie

and talk about it

and keep talking about it

like 24 hours

and then again and again.

And I just felt sorry

that I kind of

joined a conversation

that I really have

no chance

to,

to understand

and, uh,

talk,

talk about the movies

with them.

Is there anything else

you want to say

about the production

or the shoot

or this whole experience?

Yeah,

I want to say

that production

and everybody

was so great

and, um,

I wish we can work

again together.

I think it was like,

uh,

especially really great people

when we met.

Yeah,

I felt really lucky.

We had a really,

really,

really good crew,

the cast,

and,

and it was one of those things

where I remember

the last day of shooting.

Um,

I don't know

if you were there

at Bonitza.

I remember you came by

when we were shooting

and, um,

we wrapped

and we finished

and we finished early

because we were

ahead that day

and everybody

was still kind of

hanging out.

And people started

wrapping out,

but normally

when you wrap

on a movie,

like,

before you even

finish shooting,

the crew members

have left.

You're done at

one in the morning

and it's just like

you and four other people

and everyone's

kind of disappearing

and they're getting

drunk at the bar.

But I remember

very clearly

when we wrapped

and, uh,

Jay and Aethor

dumped freezing cold

champagne on my head

and I went upstairs

outside and it was

still light out

and everyone was

just kind of

hanging out

and didn't really

want it to end.

And people were

really,

really sad

the shoot was over.

And even the Czech

people had said

they'd sort of

never seen that

happen with a crew

before.

Yeah.

The first time

we watched this movie

we watched it

with your mom.

What was her reaction

seeing, you know,

seeing the nudity

and the sex

and you manipulating

guys and looking

like a drug addict

and then eventually

getting run over

and seeing everybody

cheer?

How did you feel

about that?

I prepared my mom

for something like

that.

So, uh, she

wasn't that

surprised.

And, uh, finally

she said that she

really enjoyed it

and she really

liked this movie.

I thought your mom

was really cool.

She was a good

sport about that.

I think it's funny,

I, you know,

when you're writing

the movie, I look

at the, uh, I look

at the gore and the

eyes getting cut out

and all that kind

of stuff and I

think, oh, this

is my favorite scene.

This is going to be

the most fun to shoot.

And, and somehow

in editing the movie

and watching the movie,

my favorite stuff

is watching you

and Jay Hernandez

in the car.

And that scene

where you offer him

gum and say

too bad for you

and the way you

manipulate him

in the pub.

I think that your

performance there

is just so spectacular.

Yeah, thank you.

That scene, it's like,

uh, it's not violent

but it's so weird

and it's so, like,

mysterious, I think.

Yeah.

That, that scene

for me is, is my

favorite scene of yours

where you're talking

about the art show.

Because there is

that moment where

he says, where

are my friends?

And, uh, you just

kind of turn

and you just decide

you're completely

fucking with him.

But that scene,

I remember we rehearsed

a lot with Jay

in the trailer

with Jay and Yana

and talked about,

you know, trying to

make it feel like

you're on drugs

but not act like

you're a drug addict.

and just, you kind of

couldn't tell if they'd

been up all night.

But I love how you

and Yana are just,

you know, you're still

kind of, like,

keep up the routine.

Like, when he comes

in, you're like,

ah, she says,

have a drink.

And you're like,

hello.

Like, you guys are

kind of still trying

to put on your sexy,

charming face

even though you

completely look like shit.

How was it?

I should say

it took a lot of makeup

to get Barbara

to look like a drug addict.

You know, that didn't,

you know, people say,

oh, that scene

where they don't have

makeup on is really scary

but actually, you know,

the scene in the spa

is where you barely

have any makeup on.

But the scene in the pub,

it took about three hours

to do that makeup.

How was it looking

that disgusting?

For me,

I just as help

to feel this weird way

also look like that.

Just help my character.

And I didn't have

to care about it

if I eat or something

and makeup and hair.

So it was kind of like

easy and...

You actually gained weight

for those last scenes.

You put on weight

so by the time

you actually walk

into the factory

when you're standing there,

it was just a little bit.

It was just a few extra kilos.

Yes.

And I think

it's a health character.

It does.

I remember a lot of people

have told me that,

you know,

when they first see it,

oh my God,

the girls are so beautiful,

they're so sexy,

which is we want

the audience to get seduced

the way the characters do.

And then by the end

of the movie,

they just think

you look disgusting.

They hate you.

They want you to die.

And you're not...

It's very rare

to find actors

that are as beautiful

as Barbara is

that are willing

to make themselves

really look disgusting

slowly over the course

of a film.

And I thought

you just did a great job

of bringing out

some really dark,

ugly side

or finding some other

character that you'd met

in life

and bringing your own

personal experience

to that.

And you really,

really made it scary.

Thank you.

I just wanted

to make that

feel this way

and be there

and...

You did a good job.

Of all the screenings

that we've gone to,

we've been to Toronto,

went to Iceland,

Sitges,

around the country.

What's been the most fun

for you so far?

What's been the highlight

of this entire experience?

Um...

I think

Putnam-a-thon.

Putnam-a-thon.

Yes,

we went to Putnam-a-thon

in Texas.

Yeah,

and I...

What was that like?

That was like

24 hours

watching movies

and...

It was...

I just cannot handle it.

I'd be honest

that I went to sleep

for a little bit.

But I think

it's a...

It was a great experience

and these people...

To see them

in the morning

so exhausted,

it's fun.

Yeah.

And that was...

I mean,

Sitges had kind of

warmed you up.

It was spread

over a few days.

But Putnam-a-thon,

you were trapped

in a room

with, you know,

240 other geeks

and you loved it.

You really embraced it

and I thought

that was really fun.

I mean,

they don't do stuff

like that

in the Czech Republic

or Slovakia,

do they?

No.

We don't do that.

Why aren't people

obsessed with movies

over there

the way they are

over here?

Why are people

obsessed with a movie

here?

Yeah,

why does that

not happen

in Prague,

do you think?

It's just

a different style

of life.

They don't have

so much time

to watch movies

a lot,

working so hard.

Well,

Prague,

you know,

there's so much

activity in life

and you can stay out

all night

and here everything

closes early.

Yeah.

it's just a different

mentality.

Well,

Barbara,

thank you for

doing the commentary

and I'm very excited

to work with you

again and I would

highly recommend

to anyone

to cast this girl.

I think she's

fantastic and I think

you're going to have

a very long career

ahead of you.

Thank you very much.

My pleasure.

Not just working

with puppets.

All right,

we are now joined

all the way

from Iceland

by the king

of swing

himself,

Æthor Gudjinsson.

Welcome, Æthor.

Thank you,

mister.

Hello,

how are you,

honey bunny?

I am excellent,

all the way

from Iceland.

What's going on

in Iceland today?

How is it?

It's warm,

nice,

bright sunshine.

You know why?

Why is that?

Because I shine.

Because you shine.

Now, Æthor,

let's talk about

how we met

and how this role

came about for you

starring in Hostel

because this is your

first starring role.

Right.

I went to Iceland

with Cabin Fever.

Yes, you did.

And my friend

EC was distributing

the movie

and EC said,

my friend Æthor

is going to meet up

with us.

Right.

But actually,

he did speak to me

before you came

and he did ask me

to participate

and take care of you

while you were here.

Or help him out

in a way.

And you did

take care of me, Æthor,

as you have taken care

of so many others

in Iceland.

Okay, that's good.

Now, how was it,

you know,

we had such a fun time

that week.

We went all over.

We went snowmobiling.

We went to the Blue Lagoon.

And we just became

really good friends.

And I thought

it would be really fun,

you know,

to write this part for you.

Mm-hmm.

Did you think

that I was completely

full of shit

that I wouldn't do it?

What was your reaction

when you first saw

that I actually did it?

In the beginning,

I thought

you were completely,

you know,

full of shit.

And when I saw the script,

I thought to myself,

well, he went pretty far

in that joke.

Yes.

And look how far

the joke has gone now.

Yeah, the joke

has gone too far.

Way too far.

Way too far.

So, yeah,

so when you first

read the script,

you know,

I remember

that you actually

thought that

you almost didn't know

if I was serious

about casting you.

And then I held

another casting session

in Iceland

and we had a bunch

of people coming in

and reading

for the part of Ole.

Mm-hmm.

But, you know,

obviously the character

was inspired by you,

but, you know,

I went much farther with it.

But we sat down

and you came up

with a lot of those

phrases.

I think a lot of the dialogue

definitely feels like you

and your personality.

Well, I'm so, yeah,

that's right.

And I'm so happy

that you didn't let me

to do that

because you said, like,

you know,

what does feel best

for you?

How would you like

to see the character?

I mean,

how would a European character

react to that?

Et cetera, et cetera.

So, you really, like,

you know,

what do you say?

Cut me loose.

Yes.

Well, it's hard to

contain you, Aethor.

Nor would I want

to try to.

What?

To contain you.

To keep you, like,

locked up in some

kind of cage

that I think, you know,

you're like a wild

stallion and you

must run free.

Well, you know,

what you said to me

after was that

this is one of the

reasons why you want

me in that role

because you're such

a creative character,

you said.

And that's a good

compliment.

Thank you, Mr.

Mr. Honeybunny.

Mr.

Aethor, we should

have everybody know

that he is a

fantastic singer.

And, you know,

and the fact is,

I have,

they say I have

a good voice,

but I just don't

know how to use it.

Well, let me see yours.

So that's how I started

to study my opera singing.

And, yeah,

and we actually

worked that into

the script,

like when you're

singing

And the Russian song

and was one of the

ones you learned.

Yeah, none of that

was in the script.

That was all stuff

that we wrote

that we wrote

with Aethor.

Now, Aethor,

this was a very,

this must have been

a very difficult

shoot for you,

having sex with all

those different girls

in those scenes.

Oh, I hate you

for that.

I know.

I will pay you later.

I will get you,

you son of a bitch.

I know,

for doing that to you.

I'm really sorry.

How did you prepare

for those roles?

It took, you know,

years of experience.

So, yeah, that's it.

How was it working

with Derek and Jay?

I mean, for someone

who has, you know,

this is your first

starring role

and really first acting

other than

at a music school,

how was it, you know,

with guys like

Jay Hernandez

and Derek Richardson?

Yeah, like Derek

is one of the nicest

guys I've ever met

in my life.

He's a very open-minded

character and I've been

telling him, you know,

my perspective

of his life

and how,

what he should do

as an actor.

And I really just,

you know,

I think,

I hope that this film

will, you know,

do his kickoff

in his career.

Yeah.

Because I think

he's a really,

really good actor.

Yeah.

Now, how was it

having no acting experience,

really acting in a scene

with guys

that are very well trained?

It was great.

I just, like,

you know,

I picked up

so many things

from them,

how they do it

and how they prepare,

you know,

the whole thing.

And, like,

Jay, I mean,

he's the most

experienced guy

in the group.

Yeah.

But he's, like,

totally, you know,

so easy about it.

Yeah.

And so,

you know,

like, when we did

the rehearsal with you,

I was just, like,

you know,

picking up things,

how they do it,

et cetera, et cetera.

I think Jay

is a born actor.

And, I mean,

he's obviously

becoming more

and more known

in this industry.

And I learned

some tricks.

So,

and the thing is,

like,

when I took the role,

I decided to

not go into any,

you know,

or acting lessons

or anything.

You know,

there are so many people

who came to me

and said, like,

you have to go

to an acting lesson.

You have to do that.

You have to do it.

And I just thought to myself,

no fucking way.

I'm going to do it my way.

And I thought that

that's one of the things

that I think is great about it

is that I knew that,

you know,

I think that directing

is 90% casting,

that if you cast

the right people

in the roles,

so little directions required.

They understand it.

And I thought

you did an incredible job

of really just stepping in there

and making it look

easy because

after the first screenings,

you know,

we had a focus group

and they asked everyone,

you know,

who was your favorite character?

Who did you guys like?

And they said,

what did you think of Oli?

And every single hand went up.

It was like 100%

across the board.

You know,

people really,

really responded to you.

And I think that's just

your natural ability.

And that is so funny to hear

because, you know,

I didn't feel that way.

But you helped me out

in a lot of things

and you told me like,

okay,

this is the moment

where you should feel like this

and this is the moment

when you should feel like that,

et cetera, et cetera.

So,

you know,

you helped me

and it did help me

to know you

from the past

because you could like

relate things to,

different things we went

through together.

Now,

a year ago,

you had,

you know,

Quentin Tarantino

is just,

you know,

the guy who made Kill Bill.

He's one of your favorite directors.

And then,

and then now,

here we are

and we went to Iceland

and we're,

you know,

riding around

on your four-wheeler

and he's producing a movie

that you're starring in

and you guys are signing autographs

together

and doing press conferences.

How has that been

getting involved

with Quentin for you?

It is just so great

because Quentin,

he did surprise me so much.

He's just like,

I mean,

he has all those talents.

He's so talented.

And then he is,

at the same time,

at the same time,

he is so funny to be around.

He's so relaxed.

He is so humble.

He's just so thankful

for everything you do.

He's just like,

you know,

ask you questions.

Is it okay if I do that?

And,

I mean,

people in his position,

I mean,

you know,

some people

that would never be

like he is.

He's so like,

he's so patient

with his fans

because he's like

a rock star.

It was just unbelievable

to see people react to him.

They just came running.

They wanted a photo.

They wanted an autograph.

They just wanted to talk to him.

And he was just so polite

and so,

you know,

humble about it.

It was almost unreal.

Now,

normally in Iceland,

people are pretty cool

around celebrities.

I think celebrities

go to Iceland

because they know

they won't get bothered,

but people kind of went crazy

when Quentin was there.

Oh,

yes,

I've been telling people

that if I came there

with a leading rock star

of a band,

some rock band,

I mean,

they would never get

the same reaction

as he did.

That's awesome.

How did it feel,

you know?

I think it's Gabe

trying to call me.

Oh,

it's my brother

trying to call?

Well,

you can take the phone

and tell him

that you're doing

the audio commentary

with me.

Yeah,

let's talk about the news.

Now,

we did a press conference

in Iceland

and,

you know,

I talked about how

it was time for Bjork

to move over.

She's had a good run.

But I really would like

Athor to be the most famous person

from Iceland

from now on

and Athor made a joke

and Quentin made a joke

saying,

oh,

yeah,

he's like,

Jackie Chan,

kind of the way

Jackie Chan's

the most famous person

from China.

And then on the news,

the newscaster

said it was like

a complete straight face

that it was declared

that Quentin Tarantino

said that you're

the new Jackie Chan.

Yeah.

It was just,

you know,

the people's reaction

in Iceland,

they were so funny

because people,

they really loved you guys

for like how relaxed

and enjoyable

you guys were

because I think

when people think

about Hollywood,

they think it's just like,

you know,

people in suits,

making decisions,

making really movies.

But,

you know,

from my experience,

it's just like

weeks of fast and fun.

Yeah,

of course.

And making a movie

at the same time.

Now,

you're in Iceland,

you have 17 different

businesses going on

and now you come

to Prague

and all of a sudden

you have makeup

and hair

and assistants

and everyone's

treating you

your movie star,

you have your own room,

everything's paid for.

Then you have to go

back to Iceland.

What was it like

the day after

the movie shoot ended?

I would describe it

in one word,

depression.

What happened?

What was that like

when you go back

to Iceland

while everyone else

is still in Prague

making the movie?

It was just like,

you know,

I thought I had

a great life back home

but,

you know,

you get the kind of,

you know,

you get like,

you get spoiled out of it.

They're like,

you have assistants

in left and right

asking you about this,

you know,

can I get you something?

You know,

don't forget this.

I'm going to take you home.

And they even,

you know,

walked me over the streets.

Yeah.

So,

you know,

just to take care of me

and you get,

in a way,

spoiled,

spoiled,

but you know

it's going to end

and you just try

to end till it

when it lasts.

And what about

the festivals?

What was it like

for you

at the Toronto Film Festival

because you came up

and did a Q&A

with me and Barbara

and,

you know,

that's a big thing.

You'd never,

you know,

you really put yourself

out there in the movie

and got up in front

of those fans.

How was it

seeing the movie

with an audience?

And also,

I want to know

how you felt

about going to the premiere

in Los Angeles.

You know,

to go and see it

with audiences

is just like,

it's great.

I mean,

you don't know

what to expect.

But like,

when you see it

the first time,

you're just like

looking at yourself

and you're criticizing yourself.

So the more you see it,

the more you like it.

And like,

when I went to L.A.

last week

and I saw it

and then I really,

really,

really liked the movie.

I liked it so much.

And it was great

and it's strange

to like,

after the premiere

in L.A.

to have people

come up to you

saying like,

April,

I think you're so great

in that movie.

It's just like,

it's so weird

to hear people,

you know,

react on your acting.

Yeah,

but it's funny,

but it just goes to show

that if you're

in the right role,

you really honestly,

acting,

if you can be natural

and be relaxed

and lie,

like acting

is one of those professions

where if you're

in the right role,

you don't have to have

trained,

you can just do it.

You can throw

yourselves in it

and I think you proved

that and did an

incredible job.

But the thing is,

it is,

you know,

a kind of hard,

it is very hard

to do a comedy role.

It is,

it is so much harder

than I thought it was.

Yeah.

Because like,

to wait in your trailer

for like two or three hours

and then all of a sudden

you have to like

jump in the set

and you have to be

in a great mood

and you have to be

like the,

you know,

party animal

or like the guy

who's always in a good mood,

it is hard.

Yeah,

because if you're tired

or you had a,

and you'd be thinking

about something else

and to know that

this will be burned

on a film

and it will go worldwide.

It is not easy.

But the thing that is great

was you looked like

you were having

such a fun time doing it

and that is the thing

I know with you

is that,

you know,

you love being

the center of attention

in a very positive way.

You know,

when you walk,

you really are the guy

that kind of lights up

the room

and you love it

when all eyes are on you.

I think you shine that way.

Are people starting

to recognize you?

Are you known

as the guy from that movie?

Are you a celebrity now

in Iceland

or is it just like

it was before?

No,

I'm not a celebrity

but I've noticed

that, you know,

some people,

they have started

to know it

and not many

but like yesterday

I met someone

in a store

and he said like,

I know you

from somewhere.

I was like,

yes, from where?

I don't know.

So I guess

they will like,

you know,

recognize me more

when the movie

will be shown

than especially

when it goes to DVD.

Will Hoffman

go on TV?

Probably.

I mean,

maybe television

in prisons.

I don't know

if it will go

on network TV

but it will be

on cable TV.

In prisons?

Yeah, somewhere.

All right,

well,

Athor,

thank you so much

for joining us.

It was really

a pleasure

to have you

on the DVD

and it was

so much fun

to work with you

and honestly,

it didn't really

feel like work.

It just felt like

we were hanging out

and we happened

to have some

cameras there.

Oh,

same thing over here.

Bye.

Goodbye.

All right,

we're good.

No, thank you.

I prefer to use

my hands.

I believe people

have lost

their relationship

this woman.

They do not think

this is something

who gave a smile

so I would not

go hungry.

I like to have

a connection

to something

that I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

All right.

All right.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Oh, Jesus.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

No, man.

No, man.

I don't know.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I get a lot of money for you.

And that make you my bitch.

Thank you.