Louis Theroux reveals one 'horrific' subject that was too 'extreme' and 'unsafe' to cover
Theroux couldn't make one documentary "out of fear"
Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere is one of his most chilling documentaries yet – but there is one “extreme” subject he couldn’t face.
That’s not to say Theroux has ever shied away from frightening and disturbing situations. He has interviewed neo-Nazis, Jimmy Savile, addicts, prisoners, and last year, he spent time filming in the occupied West Bank.
His latest documentary, Inside the Manosphere, puts him in the orbit of some of the internet’s most controversial influencers. While they’re clearly inspired, in part, by Andrew Tate, he doesn’t appear in the doc.
So, the question is: is there any topic he wouldn’t go near?
Louis Theroux wanted to do an ISIS documentary but it was too dangerous
Speaking to LADbible, Theroux was asked if there were any subjects he wouldn’t cover.
“I’d like to think there’s no topic that’s off-limits; it’s all a question of approach,” he said.
However, there is one topic he wanted to cover, but couldn’t: the Islamic State and the executions that took place between 2014 and 2015. For example, the beheadings of American photojournalist James Foley and British aid worker Alan Henning.
“The one I kind of wanted to do, but didn’t do mainly out of fear, was going out to ISIS, the so-called Islamic State,” he explained.
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“It felt like this weird reanimation of a kind of medieval mindset. The most extreme, almost pornographic violence being enacted.
“For me, as a student of the human condition and forms of organised madness, it felt like the best example. The most horrific, but also the most flagrant example of rampant, almost contagious irrationality. Irrational isn’t even the right term, it’s just extreme behaviour that everyone is somehow participating in together.”
Theroux admitted that he wouldn’t have felt safe, neither for himself nor his production team, so he never went.
Theroux reveals the ‘worst’ person he ever interviewed
Theroux was also asked to name the worst person he’s ever met over the course of making his documentaries.
“It’s somewhat subjective. I’ve been in prisons; I was in a maximum security mental hospital for paedophiles,” he said.
His answer was an infamous celebrity you may have expected: Jimmy Savile, whom Theroux interviewed at the turn of the millennium.
“When I met him… his crimes had not been discovered. So it was that strange dissonance of later on finding out that he’d done these dreadful things – he’d been a serial sex offender – and not knowing at the time,” Theroux said.
“He’s well advertised as probably the worst VIP predator… certainly of recent times.”
Read more: The 10 best Louis Theroux documentaries and where to watch them now
