Theroux chats about new series ‘The Mosquito Coast’
During the two-and-a-half decades that Justin Theroux has been acting on stage, on TV, and in film, he’s also kept his hands in areas of producing and writing (He co-wrote “Tropic Thunder!”). But acting has always been his mainstay. Filmgoers will know him for his parts in “Mulholland Dr.” and “On the Basis of Sex,” and TV fans will be familiar with his roles on “Six Feet Under” and “The Leftovers.”
He takes on both producing and starring duties on the upcoming Apple TV+ series “The Mosquito Coast,” which is extremely loosely based on the novel by his uncle Paul Theroux, and was made into a 1986 Peter Weir film starring Harrison Ford.
Theroux, 49, spoke about the series during a Zoom call from his New York home, which he shares with his pit bull terrier Kuma.
Q: How did this project begin?
A: (The production company) Fremantle and Apple struck a deal with my Uncle Paul and decided to make it a series. I heard about it around the time they started gearing up for it, and I thought, “I’m an actor, I’m available.” So, I raised my hand and said I wanted to read the script and meet with (script writer) Neil Cross. The scripts were fabulous and the meeting with Neil was fabulous. So, it just worked out.
Q: Was Paul involved in the creation of it?
A: Sure. He wrote the source material, and he’s a producer on it, so he was checked in with periodically. We wanted to make sure we had his blessing to make some of the changes that we made, and he was more than thrilled with them.
Q: I’m glad you brought up the changes. The book is kind of a low-key adventure about a family who leaves the U.S. for a new life in another country. So was the Harrison Ford film. But this series is a thriller about a family on the run from the government who gets into even more trouble in another country. What exactly happened here?
A: There were a few things. We didn’t want to do a straight retelling of the book or frankly, a remake of the movie. But Neil made a couple decisions, early on, with the understanding that there’s going to be much more real estate and runway ahead of us. He knew he needed to find a different propellant to push these characters through the story. The one thing he was an incredibly good guardian of was protecting my character, Allie Fox, making sure that we stayed true to exactly that ideology, that mindset. We made a few tweaks within the family; we made the mother more of a participant, when in the book and the movie she never even had a name; she was just referred to as mother. So, changes were definitely made. Neil sort of refers to it as the prequel. Not a traditional prequel, in the truest sense of the word, but that eventually, as we start landing in some of the places that we land, we will start threading bigger elements of the book throughout.
Q: Wait, so this is just season one? A: Yup. We haven’t been greenlit for a season two. But in a perfect world, you will get much more, if Apple decides they like us, and so far, all indications are that they do.
Q: Allie Fox is very smart, an inspired inventor, a loving but irresponsible husband and father, and doesn’t have anything good to say about the American way of life. Tell me a little more about him.
A: I sort of think of Allie Fox as the classic American antihero. He’s conflicted. He’s not one of these windswept, chisel-jawed good guys, in the traditional sense. He lives by an ideology, and forces his family to live by that ideology. And they’re unlike any family that I’ve ever met. They’re completely unplugged, they don’t have televisions or cell phones, they don’t absorb pop culture in any way. They essentially live off the grid. They are the product of his upbringing. Now, if we’ve done our job correctly, Allie will come across as, by turns, charismatic and wonderful, and also at times infuriating and unlikable.
Q: Did you find that because you also have a track record as a writer, you were given some extra leeway when you had suggestions?
A: Yeah. I’m an executive producer on this, and I’ve deputized myself as a guardian of our story. If anything, being a writer has given me the ability to step back from the piece as a whole and understand what’s best for all characters, not just being focused on my own. I was lucky that Neil let me have a seat at that table, to give notes and thoughts and shepherd a few of the ideas of our show.
Q: Is it true that you bumped into Harrison Ford while you were filming the series?
A: I did. It was coincidental. We were filming in Mexico, and he turned up in Mexico for some work, and ended up staying at the same hotel as me while we were shooting “The Mosquito Coast.” So, we arranged to have dinner. A little private room was set up for us, we got together, and we had a blast. He’s the best kind of actor because he doesn’t necessarily want to talk about acting (laughs). He likes to talk about flying and carpentry and other things he’s doing. So, we skipped most of the acting talk. We did talk a little bit about “The Mosquito Coast,” but it was mostly focused on what a wonderful time he had shooting it.
The seven-episode series “The Mosquito Coast” premieres on Apple TV+ on April 30.