Biography for
Roger Avary More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Birth Name

Mini Biography

Having been overshadowed by former co-worker Quentin Tarantino during the early 1990s, film maker Roger Avary finally established himself with his 2002 adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel The Rules of Attraction (2002). Avary was born on August 23, 1965 in Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada, but grew up in Arizona in the United States. After briefly attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Avary drifted to nearby Manhattan Beach, California, and in the 1980s worked as a video store clerk. He became friends with fellow employee Tarantino. The pair often collaborated on stories. The stories eventually became screenplays, and the two often swapped material (which they might have later regretted). Around this time Avary wrote an 80-page script titled "The Open Road." Although never made it into a film, parts of this script were used for various bits and pieces that added up to classic scenes in future collaborations.

It was not until 1992 that their first film was released, Reservoir Dogs (1992), for which Avary did some background writing. Though initially panned by a some critics (most notably, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel), the film resonated with audiences and won awards due to a level of artistically-penned nihilism not seen on the silver screen at the time. The amount of blood and violence defined Avary and Tarantino's early careers.

Meanwhile, True Romance (1993), a film written by the pair and originally to be directed by Tarantino, was sold off in order to finance Reservoir Dogs. Unlike with the earlier film, True Romance had a larger portion of the film influenced by Avary's writing, but he was left uncredited by Tarantino. It was not the first - or last time - this happened. It was in 1994 that the pair really took of career-wise. Avary's directional debut, Killing Zoe (1993), was released. Dark, sexual, and violent, it won several independent cinema awards. But the film was compared too often to the works of Tarantino (who co-produced it), mostly because it came out around the same time as the pair's most famous work, Pulp Fiction (1994). The stories in the film - about a boxer, two hitmen, and their boss' wife - earned the duo an Academy Award for best original screenplay and it won the Palm d'Or (best film) from the Cannes film festival.

After 1994, Avary and Tarantino went their separate ways artistically. They seldom discuss their divergence, though Avary hints that it has to do with how much creative juice they suck from each other. Even though he was now an Oscar winner, Avary spent the tail end of the decade doing mostly script rewrites and polishes. He received a chance to direct once again when Lions Gate Films bought the film rights to the Ellis novel, The Rules of Attraction. Being more faithful to the book than most adaptations, Avary was still able to insert his own style into the film that made critics take note of how different he could actually be from the grimmer Tarantino. The opening of the film even featured an in-joke about Killing Zoe (1993) being "wrongfully considered a Quentin Tarantino film."

Since then, he has been putting some finishing touches on two film scripts for other directors while working on another adaptation for an Ellis book, Glamorama.

Trade Mark

Often shows silent films on TV in his films.

Wild, crazy, hyper-kinetic energy on film.

Frequently casts legendary porn star Ron Jeremy in bit parts.

Frequently works with Eric Stoltz.

Frequently uses composers tomandandy.

Trivia

Met Quentin Tarantino at a video store called Video Archive they both worked at in the 1980s.

Though Quentin Tarantino received credit, it was actually Avary who conceived the Top Gun (1986) gay reference speech that Tarantino used in Sleep with Me (1994).

Wrote a script entitled "Pandemonium Reigns" which was never produced, but significant elements were later used to make Pulp Fiction (1994).

Wrote a script for a fifth "Phantasm" movie called "Phantasm's End". It came close to being made by series creator Don Coscarelli and starring Bruce Campbell. Finding the funding was the only issue.

A direct descendant of pirate/marooner Henry "Long Ben" Avary.

On Jan. 14, 2008, he was arrested in Ojai, CA, on charges of DUI (driving under the influence) and manslaughter after an automobile accident in which one person was killed.

Was attached to direct the film version of Neil Gaiman's novel "The Sandman" at one point.

Personal Quotes

[on Quentin Tarantino] I've realized that I can't hang out with him. I talk with him, and he just sucks stuff from me.

[on Pulp Fiction (1994) and all the inspiration and effect it had] In some ways, I think "Pulp Fiction" hurt cinema in a very, very minor, small way. It did a massive amount of good. But it also made it impossible to make a movie even remotely like it without someone comparing it to "Pulp Fiction".

[on the film adaptations of Bret Easton Ellis books Less Than Zero (1987) and American Psycho (2000)] Those two movies have stripped away his literary devices, and the filmmakers are just trying to tell the story. If you strip away Bret's devices, you strip away his themes - they're part and parcel of each other.

[on the characters in The Rules of Attraction (2002) and them as people] Bret Easton Ellis is a social satirist; I consider myself aligned with how he does things. Bret doesn't write about that which he loves about the world, he writes about what disgusts him. You'd be a disturbed individual if you came out and said, "I love these characters".

[on Quentin Tarantino doing his Top Gun (1986) speech in the film Sleep with Me (1994)] Important lesson learned. Intellectual properties can be taken from you if you put them in the air. Result is to never speak to anyone else ever again and withdraw from society. Keep few friends and speak to them rarely.

[on the detractors of The Rules of Attraction (2002)] It does not matter to me if you hate the movie. What matters to me is if you are ambivalent. Anybody can do "thumbs up, thumbs down". That's the real problem with film criticism today. It's been reduced to "I like it, I dislike it". Criticism should be more of an examination of exactly why a film makes you feel the way you feel.

[on Ron Perlman] Ron Perlman is a giving actor, with no pretensions. He's wonderful to work with, full of ideas, and a truly gifted actor. When he came onto the production of Mr. Stitch (1995) (TV) the set literally lit up. Working with him was one of the bright moments of my career, and I would work with him again in a hot second. This must sound like I'm going overboard, but Ron has such an elegant, wonderful and bright personality that I honestly don't think it's an exaggeration. I mean, how often can you say that you're a better person for having met someone?

Browse biographies section by name

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z