We haven’t covered The Emotive Eyebrow Known As Justin Theroux in a while. He’s been around, although not very visible since the Oscars. He was in Rome working on Zoolander 2, then he’s been in Texas (I think?) working on Season 2 of The Leftovers. And Justin got invited to The Hollywood Reporter’s annual pre-Emmy roundtable of lead actors, or interesting dramatic actors on TV or something. The other actors at the roundtable: Timothy Hutton, Jon Voight, David Oyelowo, Clive Owen and Bob Odenkirk. It doesn’t really seem like Justin fits in that group? Is The Leftovers considered a favorite for anything at the Emmys? Anyway, you can read the full piece here – the entire time, I was just waiting for Voight to say something about Angelina and then Justin would have to pretend to clean his nails or something. But that didn’t happen. Instead, it was a decent enough roundtable and it seemed like all of the actors respected each other and got along. Here are some highlights from Justin’s part:

Justin on the benefits of doing 10-episode seasons: “Thankfully, most of our shows here are 10 or 12 episodes, which is manageable. I did a network cop procedural once. The volume of work that we had to do for 24 episodes was crushing. You’re not loving the material, you’re showing up at 4 a.m. on a Monday, leaving at 4 a.m. on a Friday. You’re cycling through your bag of tricks so much that you fall into bad habits. The 10- to 12-episode season is [better]. The writers aren’t being forced to crank.”

Justin on seeing himself as a character actor: “It’s valuable for any actor to always think of himself as a character actor. The minute you start trying to assume a “leading man” or “leading woman” role, your sandbox starts to shrink and you start to get into the confines of a really strange space. We’ve all seen it happen — it creates this terrible gravity where the material starts to play to the actor’s comfort zone and eventually you’re painting inside the lines to maintain whatever perception or awards [pedigree] you’ve built up.

How he chooses projects: “It’s a gut thing for me. If it’s something comedic, I’ll check with my friends who also write. But I’ve definitely made mistakes when people say, “You should do this,” or “This is a great director. I know the part’s not what you want but you should do that.” I’ve rued many days on set where I’ve been like, “Why did I say yes to this?” I made a lot of mistakes as a younger actor, signing up for plays I’m stuck doing for six months. I’ve been in many sad situations. That cop procedural [made me want to] hang myself. My character said shit like, “Chief, you’re going to want to hear this!” You go, “Oh, I can’t.”

What he would do if he wasn’t an actor: “Probably keep writing. I’m not good at other things. I’m not a very bright man.”

[From THR]

I think full 22-26 episode network seasons are fine as long as the ensemble is strong enough and it’s not just one actor or actress doing the heavy lifting for every single episode. With The Leftovers, not only is it a 10-episode season, but Justin is surrounded by a very big ensemble, right? Anyway… there are some complaints about Justin’s inclusion in this roundtable, but he didn’t say anything too silly or embarrassing. I got the feeling that when he dropped his faux humility – “I’m not good at other things. I’m not a very bright man” – the other guys were like, “ugh, whatever.” And yes, Justin was always a character actor. It wasn’t until he got with Jennifer Aniston that suddenly we were supposed to buy him as a leading man.

Photos courtesy of THR.