Interview with Joe Eszterhas

Beating the Devil

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Joe Eszterhas is the legendary, notorious screenwriter of films such as Basic Instinct (1992), Sliver (1993) and Showgirls (1995). A former journalist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Rolling Stone magazine, he has published several non-fiction books, including Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse (1974), American Rhapsody (2000), and Hollywood Animal (2004). His latest book is The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter As God (St. Martin's Press).

Q: Why do you write?

A: Because I have to. I hear voices and I see images and I see stories unfolding inside my head. And when one desperately wants to come out, I have no choice.

Q: What are you reading right now and why?

A: I brought a James Ellroy that I'd read before called My Dark Places. I read an interview with him and I realized how much I like him as a writer. I've never claimed to be normal, but I suspect that Ellroy may be less so than I am.

Q: There's a scene in your autobiographical movie Telling Lies in America in which one character debunks the myth of George Washington. Is that what you're doing with this book?

A: Yeah I am. The first part of the title is a reference to The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. I laughed my head off when I read that. When I started thinking of the tone of this one I thought that was perfect. The second part of the title of course comes from the fact that screenwriters have been screwed over for so many years; I thought it would be funny to say that the screenwriter is God. You have to understand that the book is hyperbolic.

Q: What is your writing schedule like?

A: I'm very intense with it. I start working in the morning, I break for lunch; I go back to it in the afternoon. In the later afternoon, I walk five miles and I spend the rest of the day with the kids and [my wife] Naomi. Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night if it gets too intense. It's like I'm hearing voices. I wrote Basic Instinct in 10 days. I heard these voices in my head and I was literally striving to keep up with the voices. Usually I write a rough draft with a pen and paper, or a manual typewriter. I have this collection of manual typewriters. I have about a dozen of them left; I pound the keys with two fingers. After a couple of scripts they fall to pieces.

JOE ESZTERHAS
Age: 62
Birthplace: Csakanydoroszlo, Hungary
Education: Ohio University
Favorite song/piece of music: "Sympathy for the Devil," by the Rolling Stones
Biggest literary inspiration, author: William Faulkner or Tennessee Williams
Biggest literary inspiration, book: The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner or East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Most memorable book from my childhood: Michael Strogoff, by Jules Verne
Book re-read most often: All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
If I could only retain one book on a desert island, it would be: The Bible
Book I've read lately I'd recommend most: No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy
Most meaningful line from any book or poem: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." - Dylan Thomas

September 18, 2006