In Conversation with Louis Theroux

03 June 10

Watch Louis Theroux talk about his documenatry career interviewing extremists, addicts and celebrities in a live interview at Brighton Documentary Festival.

Documentary maker Louis Theroux discusses his critically acclaimed body of work
Discover the complex process of building chemistry with documentary subjects
Find out how he feels about putting extremists and taboo subjects on film

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On 19 February 2010, BAFTA turned the mic and camera on documentary maker Louis Theroux at SEE: The Brighton Documentary Festival. In a revealing interview with Safraz Mansor, Theroux divulges the tricks, complexities and humourous side of his trade in front of a live audience.

Best known for making documentaries that get to the heart of the world’s most fascinating lifestyles and controversial human behaviours, Theroux has developed a reputation for his faux naïve interviewing style and catching his subjects off guard.

In this exclusive interview Theroux explores his approach by affirming the necessity for any journalist to assert a posture of assumed ignorance. He goes on to explain how he applies this style to each of his subject, whether it be oddball celebrity or deranged fanatic.

Theroux also talks about the responsibilities and complexities that come with dealing with extreme views and presenting them in an acceptable and often lighthearted or comic style.

Plus, find out more about how his success wasn't planned after a "directionless" youth and how his on-screen persona came about largely by chance.

I didn't grow up thinking of myself as a comic person as in 'I've got glasses and quite a big nose...I'm quite humerous looking!'

About Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux is one of the UK’s best known documentary makers. His subjects have continued to diversify over the years, all the while remaining true to a way of working that is uniquely his own. His documentaries offer rounded portraits of the inhabitants, resisting easy judgements and giving us a nuanced picture of worlds in which people do questionable things for very human reasons.

His career has gone from strngth to strength since his first series launched in 1998, Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends. In his 2000-2002 series, When Louis Met, he achieved greater recognition by moving into the homes of obscure celebrities such Jimmy Saville, Paul Daniels and the Hamiltons.

In recent years he has turned to more serious and often disturbing themes, such as Louis Theroux: Behind Bars in which he immerses himself in life at San Quentin Prison, California and Louis Theroux: Paedophiles in which he spends time meeting patients at a Paedophile rehabilitation centre in the US.