Justin Theroux covers the October issue of GQ. Well… that’s interesting. His career hasn’t really been going like gangbusters since he got with Jennifer Aniston – for the most part, he hasn’t been working and he’s just been following Jennifer around to her various vacations and jobs. He did manage to score an HBO pilot called The Leftovers, but we don’t know if it’s going to be picked up. He plays a sheriff during the apocalypse. Is that what he’s promoting in GQ? Not really. He’s mostly promoting his relationship with Jennifer. Because I guess they needed to do SOMETHING about all of those rumors that Brad was about to win an Oscar for producing 12 Years a Slave. I will give him this – the photoshoot is decent! You can see GQ’s slideshow here, and you can read Justin’s interview here. Some highlights:

Justin Theroux on how his relationship with Jennifer Aniston has changed his life:
“It’s a bit like going to a slightly different altitude, you know?” he says. The paparazzi—“I call them photojournalists, actually,” he says—can be a drag. And “when I get complimented on the street because I’m having twins”—that’s weird, too.

…on the interesting items Aniston wouldn’t let him keep in their home:
“I have these beautiful wax-museum pieces—handmade, from the 1800s—from a museum of curiosities. They’re just these open mouths, with tongues, and in the throats are different stages, labeled, of syphilis and gonorrhea and whatever.” He pauses in a way that makes clear his betrothed drew the line at gonorrhea. “Those definitely found a great place in my office in L.A.,” Theroux says. “They weren’t going to be above the fireplace anytime soon.”

…on being terrible at sports:
“That’s one of the things Jen loves about me.”

…on the animals that he and Aniston adopted with their new house:
The many-million-dollar Bel Air mansion he and Aniston just bought came with its own poultry: six chickens. “We inherited the chickens from the previous owners,” Theroux says. “They were like, ‘Of course we’ll get rid of the chickens,’ and we said, ‘Are you crazy? Don’t get rid of the chickens. That’s half the reason we wanted this place.’ ”

…on the type of footwear he cannot stand:
“There’s these guys you see just walking through SoHo with big mops of hair, wearing flannel pants and flip–flops on their way to Montauk. And you think, ‘Who the hell are you? What do you do?’ F–king surfboard on the top of the Range Rover. 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’re comfortable. Lots of things are comfortable. I could put myfeet in kneaded dough and walk down the street. That’s comfortable, but I’m not going to do it, you know? Ridiculous.”

…on growing up with ADHD:
“That’s still my least favorite thing to hear,” Theroux says. “Someone saying, ‘Don’t be stupid.’ ” Diagnosed with ADHD, he had the habit of making trouble and ran through a bunch of schools when he was younger. “I could not keep my mind on one task,” he says. When he tried, “it was like trying to bite down on a tennis ball”—by which he means, impossible. “You go, ‘Okay, I’m going to try.’ Then the toe starts tapping, your hand moves, next thing you know you’re grabbing a pencil, breaking it, and throwing it.” Worse still, Theroux couldn’t read. He didn’t finish a book, beginning to end, until he was in high school. “Reading was tough,” he says. “Like, insurmountable.”

…on the belief that fun pays:
“Whenever I’ve done anything where I feel like, ‘Oh, it would be smart to do that,’ it’s always been a mistake,” he says, looking back on the perils of overthinking professional decisions. “Whenever I do the ‘Oh, it would be fun to do that,’ it’s always paid dividends.”

Ben Stiller on Justin Theroux’s creative genius:
“That ‘Never go full retard’ speech [in Tropic Thunder] is a great example of Justin’s genius,” says Ben Stiller, his co-writer and friend of twenty years. “It just, like, flowed out of him. When we’re writing, he’ll get an idea and just kind of go off.”

He loves him some Nicorette gum, especially the Cinnamon Surge flavor.
“I’ve been on it five years, I have zero desire to smoke, and I don’t want to tear my flesh off. I wish I owned stock in Nicorette. I love Nicorette. Best invention ever.” He pops it constantly during our time together, and at one point goes off, as Stiller says he’s wont to do, on a flight of fancy about becoming a Nicorette pitchman: “Don’t you think it would be great to do a bunch of Nicorette commercials? Just, like, me in the desert, kind of Marlboro Man–style, driving a fast car, pulling over, looking at the sunset. Dissolving in ecstasy. Can’t you see it? Me blowing huge Nicorette bubbles. ‘I love it with coffee, with cocktails.’ Or, ‘It goes perfect with anything—sadness, despair.’ ”

[From GQ]

I’ll give Justin some credit – he’s a more interesting interview than his lady love. Jennifer’s interviews are like watching paint dry. I can feel Justin’s mind hopping from topic to topic, trying to say something interesting and soundbyte-y. And it worked. He’s a good interview. But I think he basically got the cover of GQ because he’s banging Aniston and that’s it. GQ has always been Team Aniston, did you know that?

Photos courtesy of Sebastian Kim / GQ.