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"FacebookPinterest\n\nHere&amp;amp;#x2019;s something you may know about Justin Theroux: He asked Jennifer Aniston to marry him, and she said yes. (Feel free to pretend you only know that because your girlfriend told you.) Here&amp;amp;#x2019;s something else you may know, but probably don&amp;amp;#x2019;t: The actor-screenwriter-director, whose skinny-downtown-biker look gets tons of love in the more fashiony corners of the Internet, is one of the best-dressed men in America right now.\n\nThe rest of you? You&amp;amp;#x2019;re forgiven if you&amp;amp;#x2019;re coming up blank. Despite a career that was singular and varied long before he met Aniston (and is about to get even more multifaceted), Theroux remains easy to be only vaguely aware of. There was his hilarious turn as a bearded hippie scoundrel in Wanderlust, an atrocious comedy that he almost made worth watching; dramatic roles in a pair of David Lynch films (Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire); and even the odd part in a historical epic (he played John Hancock in HBO&amp;amp;#x2019;s John Adams). In many of these films, though, you see him and yet you don&amp;amp;#x2019;t. Despite his ridiculous handsomeness, he disappears.\n\nDON'T MISS THIS\n\nFacebookPinterestundefined\n\nFacebookPinterestundefined\n\nFacebookPinterestundefined\n\n&amp;amp;#x201C;He&amp;amp;#x2019;s a Ken doll,&amp;amp;#x201D; jokes Lost-co-creator Damon Lindelof, who cast Theroux as the lead in his pilot The Leftovers, a super-naturalish series for HBO. &amp;amp;#x201C;But he&amp;amp;#x2019;s Every-Ken. Astronaut Ken. Interior Designer Ken. I&amp;amp;#x2019;d be lying if I didn&amp;amp;#x2019;t say there&amp;amp;#x2019;s a part of me that wants to strangle him. But in terms of what he can do as an actor, say his name and people are like, &amp;amp;#x2018;Oh, that sounds familiar.&amp;amp;#x2019; He could be much bigger than he is in terms of notoriety. The reason he&amp;amp;#x2019;s not is by design. It&amp;amp;#x2019;s his choice.&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\nThe thing is, you&amp;amp;#x2019;re more familiar with his work than you realize. Did you know, for example, that Theroux not only co-wrote Tropic Thunder but came up with the film&amp;amp;#x2019;s most memorable scene? &amp;amp;#x201C;That &amp;amp;#x2018;Never go full retard&amp;amp;#x2019; speech is a great example of Justin&amp;amp;#x2019;s genius,&amp;amp;#x201D; says Ben Stiller, his co-writer and friend of twenty years. &amp;amp;#x201C;It just, like, flowed out of him. When we&amp;amp;#x2019;re writing, he&amp;amp;#x2019;ll get an idea and just kind of go off.&amp;amp;#x201D; Theroux, who is a nephew of the famous writer Paul Theroux, also wrote Iron Man 2 and co-wrote Rock of Ages, directed the 2007 Billy Crudup film Dedication, and is co-writing Zoolander 2 (again with Stiller), which he will direct, too.\n\nSo please, cool it with the lame &amp;amp;#x201C;Mr. Jennifer Aniston&amp;amp;#x201D; jokes\u2014Justin Theroux is nobody&amp;amp;#x2019;s boy toy, with forty-two years in the rearview mirror of the motorcycles he loves to ride around New York and L.A. (He has four bikes in his collection.) Here, thirteen more things you almost certainly don&amp;amp;#x2019;t know about one of Hollywood&amp;amp;#x2019;s most versatile players.\n\n1. Twenty-five years ago, no one\u2014especially not Theroux himself\u2014would have predicted he&amp;amp;#x2019;d become a writer. Stiller may refer to Justin&amp;amp;#x2019;s &amp;amp;#x201C;genius&amp;amp;#x201D; now, but when Theroux was growing up in Washington, D.C., he was far from an A student. &amp;amp;#x201C;That&amp;amp;#x2019;s still my least favorite thing to hear,&amp;amp;#x201D; Theroux says. &amp;amp;#x201C;Someone saying, &amp;amp;#x2018;Don&amp;amp;#x2019;t be stupid.&amp;amp;#x2019; &amp;amp;#x201D; Diagnosed with ADHD, he had the habit of making trouble and ran through a bunch of schools when he was younger. &amp;amp;#x201C;I could not keep my mind on one task,&amp;amp;#x201D; he says. When he tried, &amp;amp;#x201C;it was like trying to bite down on a tennis ball&amp;amp;#x201D;\u2014by which he means, impossible. &amp;amp;#x201C;You go, &amp;amp;#x2018;Okay, I&amp;amp;#x2019;m going to try.&amp;amp;#x2019; Then the toe starts tapping, your hand moves, next thing you know you&amp;amp;#x2019;re grabbing a pencil, breaking it, and throwing it.&amp;amp;#x201D; Worse still, Theroux couldn&amp;amp;#x2019;t read. He didn&amp;amp;#x2019;t finish a book, beginning to end, until he was in high school. &amp;amp;#x201C;Reading was tough,&amp;amp;#x201D; he says. &amp;amp;#x201C;Like, insurmountable.&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n2. Which, not surprisingly, led him down an arty path... He studied drama and visual arts at Bennington College, then moved to New York with a vague plan to make it as an artist. Some kind of artist. To help pay the rent, Theroux used to paint murals on the walls of Manhattan&amp;amp;#x2019;s hippest clubs (the Palladium, the Limelight). He no longer paints for money, but Stiller says Theroux remains &amp;amp;#x201C;a visualist,&amp;amp;#x201D; and that informs his sartorial aesthetic. On the day of our interview, he&amp;amp;#x2019;s wearing black AllSaints jeans, black scuffed vintage boots, a black Kelly Cole T-shirt, and a gold revolver pendant (a gift from Aniston) around his neck. It&amp;amp;#x2019;s looks like this that have made him a mainstay on fashion sites such as DenimBlog, Denim Therapy, and, of course, Denimology. (Not to mention GQ.com.)\n\n3. ...and eventually to an extremely arty apartment. &amp;amp;#x201C;There are things I love in here that I couldn&amp;amp;#x2019;t sell for ten cents at a flea market,&amp;amp;#x201D; he tells me as we tour the Greenwich Village pad he bought more than a decade ago, a three-bedroom that now serves as his New York office. A few examples: four wooden tongue depressors that his friend Amy Sedaris decorated with googly eyes and beards made of fake fur (&amp;amp;#x201C;They make me fucking laugh&amp;amp;#x201D;); a photograph of a man, eyes open and alert, with a piece of rebar through his head (&amp;amp;#x201C;He crashed his truck&amp;amp;#x201D;); a Haitian barbershop sign depicting four tidy hairstyles (&amp;amp;#x201C;Hand-painted. Beautiful&amp;amp;#x201D;). Then there are the medical curios\u2014the antique glass syringe, the huge plastic ear marked with reflexology pressure points, the candy dish of human teeth. &amp;amp;#x201C;I know a dentist who saves those for me,&amp;amp;#x201D; he says, nodding at the pearly molars on his coffee table. &amp;amp;#x201C;People often think they&amp;amp;#x2019;re little mints. &amp;amp;#x2018;Don&amp;amp;#x2019;t eat the teeth!&amp;amp;#x2019; &amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n4. He&amp;amp;#x2019;s terrible at sports. &amp;amp;#x201C;That&amp;amp;#x2019;s one of the things Jen loves about me.&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n5. He&amp;amp;#x2019;s a gentleman farmer. Well, sort of. The many-million-dollar Bel Air mansion he and Aniston just bought came with its own poultry: six chickens. &amp;amp;#x201C;We inherited the chickens from the previous owners,&amp;amp;#x201D; Theroux says. &amp;amp;#x201C;They were like, &amp;amp;#x2018;Of course we&amp;amp;#x2019;ll get rid of the chickens,&amp;amp;#x2019; and we said, &amp;amp;#x2018;Are you crazy? Don&amp;amp;#x2019;t get rid of the chickens. That&amp;amp;#x2019;s half the reason we wanted this place.&amp;amp;#x2019; &amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n6. He&amp;amp;#x2019;s learned a lot from David Lynch. &amp;amp;#x201C;There&amp;amp;#x2019;s a million, trillion superlatives I can use to say how much I love that man,&amp;amp;#x201D; Theroux says.\n\n&amp;amp;#x201C;He&amp;amp;#x2019;s the most fun director to work with\u2014one of the most joyful men I know, contrary to what most people think of him. If he called me and told me his movie was starting tomorrow and asked me to be in it, I would do it. For free.&amp;amp;#x201D; Lynch has been a mentor, Theroux adds, not just professionally but also philosophically. &amp;amp;#x201C;He embraces when things go wrong\u2014he&amp;amp;#x2019;s an amazing lesson in pivoting. He uses this expression: &amp;amp;#x2018;If you&amp;amp;#x2019;re like stone, you&amp;amp;#x2019;ll crack. If you&amp;amp;#x2019;re like water, you&amp;amp;#x2019;ll drown. But if you&amp;amp;#x2019;re like sand, you just sink into it.&amp;amp;#x2019; &amp;amp;#x201D; He pauses. &amp;amp;#x201C;I may be getting that wrong.&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n7. He loves him some Nicorette gum, especially the Cinnamon Surge flavor. &amp;amp;#x201C;I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve been on it five years, I have zero desire to smoke, and I don&amp;amp;#x2019;t want to tear my flesh off. I wish I owned stock in Nicorette. I love Nicorette. Best invention ever.&amp;amp;#x201D; He pops it constantly during our time together, and at one point goes off, as Stiller says he&amp;amp;#x2019;s wont to do, on a flight of fancy about becoming a Nicorette pitchman: &amp;amp;#x201C;Don&amp;amp;#x2019;t you think it would be great to do a bunch of Nicorette commercials? Just, like, me in the desert, kind of Marlboro Man&amp;amp;#x2013;style, driving a fast car, pulling over, looking at the sunset. Dissolving in ecstasy. Can&amp;amp;#x2019;t you see it? Me blowing huge Nicorette bubbles. &amp;amp;#x2018;I love it with coffee, with cocktails.&amp;amp;#x2019; Or, &amp;amp;#x2018;It goes perfect with anything\u2014sadness, despair.&amp;amp;#x2019; &amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n8. He wants to plan your next bro-cation. &amp;amp;#x201C;The best way for guys to communicate is just don&amp;amp;#x2019;t talk to each other for nine hours,&amp;amp;#x201D; he says. &amp;amp;#x201C;That&amp;amp;#x2019;s why I like long motorcycle rides. It&amp;amp;#x2019;s a great way for guys to socialize and not socialize. At the end of the day, you basically recount the bullshit adventure you just had to each other\u2014all of the same exact shit you just saw\u2014and it&amp;amp;#x2019;s endlessly fun. It&amp;amp;#x2019;s kind of a rinse-and-repeat cycle. You get on your bike, put on your music\u2014you&amp;amp;#x2019;ve created a long playlist\u2014hit play, and go.&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n9. He believes that fun pays. Especially when it comes to his career. &amp;amp;#x201C;Whenever I&amp;amp;#x2019;ve done anything where I feel like, &amp;amp;#x2018;Oh, it would be smart to do that,&amp;amp;#x2019; it&amp;amp;#x2019;s always been a mistake,&amp;amp;#x201D; he says, looking back on the perils of overthinking professional decisions. &amp;amp;#x201C;Whenever I do the &amp;amp;#x2018;Oh, it would be fun to do that,&amp;amp;#x2019; it&amp;amp;#x2019;s always paid dividends.&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n10. He does not, however, believe in flip-flops. &amp;amp;#x201C;There&amp;amp;#x2019;s these guys you see just walking through SoHo with big mops of hair, wearing flannel pants and flip&amp;amp;#x2013;flops on their way to Montauk. And you think, &amp;amp;#x2018;Who the hell are you? What do you do?&amp;amp;#x2019; Fucking surfboard on the top of the Range Rover.&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n11. Or Tevas. &amp;amp;#x201C;I have a real issue with the makers of Tevas. Not only should there never be Velcro on any shoe; there should not be Velcro and neoprene on a shoe. Then there definitely should not be Velcro, neoprene, and some sort of beaded Indian print. I know: They&amp;amp;#x2019;re comfortable. Lots of things are comfortable. I could put my feet in kneaded dough and walk down the street. That&amp;amp;#x2019;s comfortable, but I&amp;amp;#x2019;m not going to do it, you know? Ridiculous.&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n12. Being on the arm of one of the most famous women in the world has been, well, an adjustment. &amp;amp;#x201C;It&amp;amp;#x2019;s a bit like going to a slightly different altitude, you know?&amp;amp;#x201D; he says. The paparazzi\u2014&amp;amp;#x201C;I call them photojournalists, actually,&amp;amp;#x201D; he says\u2014can be a drag. And &amp;amp;#x201C;when I get complimented on the street because I&amp;amp;#x2019;m having twins&amp;amp;#x201D;\u2014that&amp;amp;#x2019;s weird, too.\n\n13. Like any man giving up his bachelor pad to cohabitate with his lady, he had to make some tough choices. When I ask if he remembers the scene in When Harry Met Sally\u2026 in which Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby move in together and she makes him get rid of his wagon-wheel table, he interrupts me mid-sentence. &amp;amp;#x201C;I can see where this is going,&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\n he says. &amp;amp;#x201C;My wagon-wheel table is my syphilis throats.&amp;amp;#x201D;\n\nI&amp;amp;#x2019;m sorry, what?\n\n&amp;amp;#x201C;I have these beautiful wax-museum pieces\u2014handmade, from the 1800s\u2014from a museum of curiosities. They&amp;amp;#x2019;re just these open mouths, with tongues, and in the throats are different stages, labeled, of syphilis and gonorrhea and whatever.&amp;amp;#x201D; He pauses in a way that makes clear his betrothed drew the line at gonorrhea. &amp;amp;#x201C;Those definitely found a great place in my office in L.A.,&amp;amp;#x201D; Theroux says. &amp;amp;#x201C;They weren&amp;amp;#x2019;t going to be above the fireplace anytime soon.&amp;amp;#x201D; He pauses again, considering what he&amp;amp;#x2019;s said, how he&amp;amp;#x2019;s said it, and who he&amp;amp;#x2019;s talking to. As he thinks, he smiles. &amp;amp;#x201C; &amp;amp;#x2018;The syphilis throats are my wagon wheel,&amp;amp;#x2019; &amp;amp;#x201D; he repeats. &amp;amp;#x201C;That should be on the cover!\n\namy wallace(@msamywallace) is a GQ correspondent."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/justin-theroux-cover-interview-october-2013>