JUSTIN THEROUX HEARD BUT NOT SEEN IN NEW ROLE
American actor is the voice of villain Lord Garmadon in ‘The Lego Ninjago Movie’
Back in the day, the young Justin Theroux knew what he wanted to do: star in movies and television shows. The only trouble was, he couldn’t figure out how to get his foot in the door. Then he landed a summer job in Los Angeles and got some good advice from someone who ought to know: Oscar-winning writer/director/producer James L Brooks.
“I was a production assistant at Gracie Films for James L Brooks,” Theroux recalled. “One day he asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I said, ‘I want to be an actor.’ Brooks told me, ‘Go to New York, where the competition will be better, and only come to Los Angeles when you’re flown here.’”
Theroux took that advice and headed east, paying his dues with small theatre jobs and finally earning his stripes on Broadway before again turning his eyes toward Hollywood.
“For so many years I felt the support of New York,” he said, “where the actors truly root for each other.”
Now 46, Theroux long since has made himself known to Hollywood, starring on HBO’s The Lefto
vers and on the big screen in The Girl on the Train
(2016). He spent this summer in Budapest, among other places, filming The Spy Who Dumped Me with Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon.
Before then, however, Theroux will be heard — but not seen — as the villain in The Lego Ninjago Movie, opening in the United States next Friday. He voices the evil Lord Garmadon, who strikes terror in the plastic hearts of six young ninjas who are trying to defend their island home, Ninjago, from the attack of Garmadon’s monsters.
By night these square warriors are being trained by an old ninja master named Wu (voice of Jackie Chan). By day they are ordinary teenagers who must navigate the rough terrain of high school. Meanwhile Lloyd Garmadon (voice of Dave Franco) is also on a quest to find out the truth about his father.
The voice cast also includes Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Olivia Munn, Kumail Nanjiani and Michael Pena.
“What can I say about my character,” Theroux said with a laugh, “except that he’s the worst guy in the world?”
All right, how does one achieve that level of evilness through voice alone?
“I’m around a lot of horrible, horrible people,” Theroux joked.
“The truth is, I had a blast preparing to be this arch enemy of those poor ninjas. The real key was trying to figure out exactly what he sounded like, which required creating a little backstory for him.
“I figured that Garmadon is simply a complete and utter narcissist. He doesn’t give one thought to how anyone else feels, because it’s his world.”
It had been some years, the actor admitted, since he’d thought about the Lego universe.
“I know I played with Legos as a kid, and I’ve stepped on quite a few, which hurts,” said Theroux, who grew up in Washington, DC. “I just hadn’t heard anything about the Ninjago story. Apparently all you need to do is talk to any parent of a young child and they can tell you everything about Ninjago, because it’s that popular. Or you can talk to any 10-year-old. “You could say I’ve been properly educated now.” There’s also an animated television series, Nin
jago: Masters of Spinjitzu, in which actor Mark Oliver voices Garmadon.
“I was told that the key to the character is the maniacal laugh,” Theroux said. “It helps, when you’re recording, to put your hands on your hips and then lower your voice until you get the perfect ha-ha-haha. I practised enough that other people around me just had to try it. I thought they were with me and not making fun of me.
“I’m just trying to beat Will Arnett’s deep voice as Batman. He sounds so commanding.”
For the fight scenes in the movie, Chan’s own stunt team actually helped the animators and directors Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan get the moves right.
“They choreographed the movie, shot by shot,” Theroux said, “so the animators could work off real moves.”
The voice actors had a few days when they recorded together, he noted, which isn’t always the case.
“That time was like the improv Olympics,” Theroux said. “Everyone want nuts and really ran with their characters. It was a free atmosphere and a case of, ‘What if I tried it this way?’ Words were just flowing, especially with Fred around.
“Dave Franco and I also got together to do a lot of our recording. So much came out of just bouncing off each other. The script came in very tight, but, with Dave and the director there, you couldn’t help but start riffing off each other. If something wasn’t working, we could go back in and try it again.”
Recording took place in the course of a year, which allowed the actors to see bits of the film as it progressed.
“It’s unreal to hear your voice coming out of this >>
>> Lego guy,” he said. “The animation in these films is stunning.
“What I really enjoy is that the humour transcends age groups. These movies somehow find a balance and play equally well to my friends in their 30s and 40s or to kids who are five or 10. Everyone finds something different.”
That Theroux has a second career as a screenwriter, with credits that include Tropic Thunder (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Rock of Ages (2012) and Zoolander 2 (2016), should be no surprise. Growing up in Washington, movies were a nice escape but reading and writing were encouraged. He comes from a long line of writers, including his mother, essayist/author Phyllis Grissim Theroux, who also worked for The Washington Post. His father is corporate lawyer Eugene Theroux.
Nonetheless, from an early age Theroux was fixated on acting.
“I travelled to London, where I saw plays that left me transported,” he said. “It was just deeply affecting. I didn’t know how I’d end up working in that acting world, but I had to be a part of it.”
He began acting in high school, and graduated from Bennington College with a degree in visual arts and drama.
“I remember an acting teacher told me that technique was important,” he said. “She said, ‘You have to learn this like you’re a plumber learning how to do that job.’ I also learned that acting is a deeply personal thing that you have to feel.
“Above all, your job is to communicate the story.” Theroux made his film debut in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), but his big break came when he was cast by David Lynch in the neo-noir mystery Mulholland Drive (2001).
“I put together one of those tapes and sent it,” Theroux recalled. “It was just me answering a lot of questions. A few months later I got a call saying, ‘David would like to meet you in Los Angeles today.’ Yes, they flew me in that day. That afternoon I was at David’s house talking to him. That night I had the role.”
Theroux stepped off the plane looking unruly, dressed in black and with his hair wildly awry. Lynch kept that look for the film.
His other films include American Psycho (2000),
Zoolander (2001), Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
(2003), Wanderlust (2012) and The Girl on the Train
(2016). He also directed the romantic comedy Dedication (2007). On television he’s played Joe on Six
Feet Under (2003-04) and John Hancock on the HBO miniseries John Adams (2008).
Most recently he starred on HBO’s The Leftovers (2014-17) as a chief of police and father of two who finds himself living in a new world after a global event called “Sudden Departure,” during which 140 million people around the world — 2% of the global population — disappeared.
It was an action role, and Theroux said that he went to the emergency room at least once per season.
“I broke my nose and got stitches,” he said. “I broke a finger and snapped a tendon. Once I was doing a stunt with a guy. I was supposed to run him against an elevator, he was supposed to move his arm, but instead he hit me in the nose and then dragged his fake gun accidentally across my face. More stitches.” Upcoming projects include the Netflix series
Maniac, with Jonah Hill and Emma Stone, due in 2018. It’s based on a Norwegian series revolving around the fantasy worlds of patients at a mental institute.
Theroux and Jennifer Aniston met in 2011 on the set of Wanderlust (2012) and married in 2015. They live in Los Angeles and, he said, “like to live under the radar”.
That isn’t always possible, given that former
Friends star Aniston has been a favourite of the paparazzi for the past couple of decades. If the two see a movie, they usually duck in at the last minute after the lights have gone down.
No word on whether they’ve seen The Lego Nin
jago Movie, but Theroux has — and with some young Lego fans.
“It’s fun because the younger ones don’t know it’s my voice,” the actor said. “I’m sure there are some older people who won’t know either, because I usually don’t run around yelling, ‘I’m going to conquer the world!’”
He laughed. “Really,” Theroux insisted, “I don’t!”