He’s back with three more documentaries soon.
Impartial, honest and emotive. They’re just three traits that can help explain why Louis Theroux is arguably the finest documentarian around, but there’s another attribute that we all admire about him.
He’s fearless.
Over the course of his distinguished broadcasting career, Theroux hasn’t shied away from dealing with some tough subjects and very scary people.
For example, over the years, we’ve seen Theroux dealing with neo-Nazi’s, sex offenders and murderers.
Earlier this week, we brought you news about his new documentaries that will be airing on BBC 2 on October 8th, but ahead of his return to our TV screens, Theroux has been speaking about some of his previous work with Vice.
We wouldn’t blame you for thinking that Theroux is completely fearless, but he has revealed the only time when he was genuinely worried for his life.
“Touch wood, I’ve largely been quite lucky. The situations that have been the most frightening tend to be off camera, because you haven’t reached that trust level where you feel comfortable starting to film, or the situation has broken down to the point where you no longer feel comfortable filming. One of the most nerve-racking moments I had was doing the alcohol documentary, Drinking to Oblivion, and we were in a south London flat” said Theroux.
That particular documentary aired in April 2016 and in that feature Theroux spends some time at King’s College Hospital in London where he immerses himself in the lives of patients that are in the grips of alcohol addiction.
Speaking about the worrying encounter, Theroux adds: “There was a guy that was mentally ill and another guy that seemed emotionally unstable, and we were going to shoot a sequence, and it became clear that this is not going to go well, and the mentally ill guy was going, “I’m not having that fucking camera anywhere near me,” so I said, “It’s fine, mate, we’ll just quietly go,” then one of them put their arm around my neck as though to throttle me, and the other one said, “Oi, if anyone’s going to do him then it’s going to be me,” and I remember just thinking, ‘Wow, he’s going to snap my neck.’ He was ex-Army, too, which suggests that he might actually know how to do that. I don’t remember how we got out of there, and not a frame of film was shot. I got out and thought, ‘That was ridiculous.’ It’s one thing to be on location in the West Bank or Lagos and to feel nervous, but the idea that I was going to meet my dreary demise in a social housing estate in south London, close to where I grew up, just felt all wrong.”
On a similar note, Theroux has previously talked about the one subject that he wouldn’t film a documentary about.”I would have been very curious to see what was going on in the Islamic State. I find religious extremism really bizarre, but also fascinating. But, I think it was mainly fear that prevented me going over there. I’ve seen too much about journalists being taken
“I would have been very curious to see what was going on in the Islamic State. I find religious extremism really bizarre, but also fascinating. But, I think it was mainly fear that prevented me going over there. I’ve seen too much about journalists being taken hostage and being beheaded, so I steered clear of that one,” he said.
We can’t wait to have him back on our screens.
