Credit: Rebecca Swanner (writer), Jack Thompson (photographer), Cass Bird (photographer), Jennifer Robbins (photographer)
The Actor :: Justin Theroux“Odi et Amo,” reads one of Justin Theroux’s tattoos. Taken from a poem by Roman author Catullus, it translates to “I hate and I love.” The quote doesn’t have any real meaning for the actor turned writer and director, but the experience does, as he got it when he took his younger brother for his first tattoo. “You forget what a big deal it is. He was walking by the mirrors, making sure it was straight, being kind of nervous,” Theroux remembers. “I could tell that he had a great buzzy feeling after he had it done. It was a fun bonding experience.” Theroux’s first, and one of his favorites, is a straight edge X on his ankle done by his own hand at 14. “It barely resembles an X now. It looks like a big, black splodge.”
After playing memorable characters like the evil DJ in Zoolander, the smoldering director in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, and the tattooed Irish scoundrel in Charlie’s Angels 2, Theroux knows he can’t get tattooed wherever he wants unless he plans on spending more time in the makeup chair. But that hasn’t been a problem lately, since he’s been doing plenty of work behind the camera. Within the last few years, he’s directed Dedication, cowritten Tropic Thunder, and penned the script for Iron Man 2. His next gig is writing and directing Zoolander 2, which will pick up 10 years after the close of the original. But he’s not staying behind the scenes entirely. Earlier this year, he acted alongside buddy Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation, and he will star as the villain Leezar in this fall’s comedy Your Highness. “It was filmed at the end of two years of having my nose to the grindstone of Iron Man,” he says. “It was great just to have makeup done, then get handed pages with someone telling you, ‘Just say these and try to be funny.’”
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