Justin Theroux: the tabs are ‘bread & circus for a certain segment of the population’
Here are some photos of Justin Theroux biking around NYC without a helmet throughout the month of May. He’s been in NYC for most of the month. Sure, he’s probably filming The Leftovers. I’m sure that’s why whenever we see photos of him, he’s biking around Manhattan like he doesn’t have a care in the world. And that’s why he’s back to spending time with people like Terry Richardson. I actually have a new conspiracy theory about Justin and Jennifer Aniston – you know how she usually waits to announce a breakup when she’s finished promoting something? I kind of wonder if Justin is doing that now – he’s promoting The Leftovers, and when his promotional work is done, maybe we’ll hear that engagement is off? Just a theory.
Speaking of The Leftovers, Justin has a new interview with the Los Angeles Times – you can read the full piece here. I actually sort of liked the interview – the vibe I get from Justin is that he’s a pretentious hipster, but he’s self-aware enough to actually try to subvert the pretentious hipster vibes. Some highlights:
JT on his career: “I’m more of a character actor in a way.” He says he’s avoided being pigeonholed only because he’s “terrible about making calculated choices” about his career. “It’s served me well to be more fluid in my approach — just to do the next thing that makes you happy and is satisfying.”
His favorite kind of character: “I love to play people who are way more confident than they are intelligent.”
He comes from a writer-heavy family: His mother is essayist Phyllis Theroux (she once wrote a piece for the New York Times about how her son, looking “a little like Nathan Detroit,” took two dates to the eighth grade formal), and his uncle is the bestselling travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux. But Theroux sees little in common between their “really smart” work and his own. “I don’t do what they do at all, nor could I.”
JT “comes across as highly disciplined”: He shows up early to our meeting, has a tendency to break his sentences down into lettered bullet points and his major vice appears to be a compulsive Nicorette habit.
He isn’t concerned about his tabloid persona as Aniston’s fiancé: “I acknowledge exactly what it is: bread and circus for a certain segment of the population. There are many, many worse things.”
Justin handles the fame/relationship questions with more grace than Jennifer. If she had been asked about her tabloid persona, she would have whined about it and tried to convince us that she doesn’t play any games in the press. At least Justin didn’t try to play it that way although he does basically say that the only people interested in his relationship are the peasants. The peasants who he hopes will watch his show. Oh, and I do believe that Justin is probably a lot more disciplined than his hipster façade gives away: he seems like he’s probably tightly wound in real life. I wonder how he deals with “let’s get high and talk about New Age stuff” Aniston?
He also talks about The Leftovers, describing his character as a “washing machine on spin cycle that just starts to become unbalanced.” The piece reminded me that this is not Justin’s first attempt at a TV series – he also did a year and a half on The District a decade ago. Anyway, Justin says he’s happy to return to HBO and that the show leaves plenty of time for him to write. Huh.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
