From series creator Neil Cross (Luther) and adapted from the best-selling novel written by Paul Theroux, the Apple TV+ original series The Mosquito Coast follows Allie Fox (Justin Theroux), a radical and resourceful idealist who takes his already off the grid family on the run to Mexico. With the US government after them and possible dangers lurking around every corner, the Fox family will be pushed to the limit with their survival at stake.
During a virtual junket to talk about the streaming series, Collider got the opportunity to chat 1-on-1 with Theroux about taking on a project where the source material was written by his uncle, liking the changes that were made to serialize the story, bonding with his on-screen family, the fun of playing someone both charming and maddening, deciding when a character will have a beard versus when they won’t, and feeling like they have a lot more story to tell. He also talked about his unique character in Your Highness and how much he loves that movie.
COLLIDER: When this project came your way, was there more pressure to do it because of your family connection to it?
JUSTIN THEROUX: What went through my head, first of all, was how lucky it timed out with my current age, meaning that it’s an age-appropriate role for me. Also, there was excitement because I really liked the character, even just from the book. Frequently, when you’re maybe gonna do a TV series, in particular, you wanna make sure that the character is interesting and can maintain being interesting for what might be a long stretch of time – two, three or four seasons – and I know that Allie Fox has that. He is complex. I’ve read other roles or even been offered other roles where I don’t think the character is particularly complex and therefore I’ll get bored playing them. But with Allie, I’m not bored at all, for a second.
Did you have conversations from the beginning about what other seasons could be and how the story would stretch out over more seasons?
THEROUX: Yes, I did. I wouldn’t wanna spoil anything for anyone, but there are definitely other seasons chambered if they want them. I think we have a lot of story to tell. Frankly, we have some of the best parts of the story to tell. Those are all conversations that I had with [show creator] Neil [Cross] before signing up for it. I wanted to make sure that he had thought about the path forward.
Having read this book and with your family connection to it, had you ever actually thought about possibly doing this at any other point? Was it something that had ever occurred to you that could happen?
THEROUX: No, it hit me like a cross-town bus. The book had been written and the movie had been made, so I thought, what else is there? I would never wanna do a remake of that movie because what’s the point? It’s already been made, and made quite well. So, when I heard about it and heard that it was being serialized, I thought, “Oh, that’s interesting. I’d like to read it.” And then, I did read it and I loved it. I thought it was really smart and really good. Some of the changes that were made, I thought were really good, smart changes that were well suited to a series. And then, I met with Neil and we hit it off, and then I got to make that great call to my uncle Paul and say, “Hey, guess what? I’m doing The Mosquito Coast.” It’s the kind of thing that, if we planned it, it never would’ve worked out, but because we didn’t, it did.
If he had ever been like, “No, please don’t make that,” would you have not done it?
THEROUX: I don’t know. It came about the way that it did. Of course, you get a little bit of intimidation, but then I relaxed into it. The character is already so well-wrought and well thought through that I knew I was gonna have fun playing it.
Had you been familiar with the work of Neil Cross? Did you know how dark and how intense his material could get sometimes?
THEROUX: I wasn’t familiar with it at first, but then, of course, I became familiar with it. And the darker the better for me, too. Having a new creative partner is always fun because you’re learning as you go.
The Fox family really only has themselves to rely on, for pretty much everything, which means your on-screen chemistry is vitally important. How did you approach bonding as a family?
THEROUX: It’s one of those wonderful things that happens when you shoot on a location that can’t really happen if you’re shooting in Burbank and everyone is going home at the end of the day. We were in Mexico. We all, with the crew, relied on each other to cheer each other up when we were homesick. We were also shooting in incredibly difficult circumstances at times, particularly in that desert. And so, we bonded over that. It becomes this artificial, but de facto family.
There are times where Allie Fox is really charming because that’s what will work in a situation, but other times when he feels more threatening or menacing because violence is all that’s going to get him out of a situation. What were those levels like to find?
THEROUX: That’s what I like about the character. He’s by turns charming and maddening. He’s so tied to the mast of his own ideology that he’s very unbending. People like that are sometimes frustrating, and I hope that the audience, of course, likes him, but are also frustrated at times. It’s very true to the book. There should be times where you wanna kill him for being so pig-headed.
Do you feel like he knows which version of himself he really is?
THEROUX: I don’t know. Every decision he makes, he thinks he’s right, and he genuinely believes that he’s doing it for the betterment of his family and their happiness and for love of them. That can oftentimes become its own problem. And then, if you’re forcing anything on a family and not having empathy for their wants and desires, it can become a punishment to be with that person. There are shades of The Great Santini in that he has a logic and there is a method to what he wants. It’s just that his method of getting it is sometimes not suited towards admiration.
You seem to have a knack for taking on TV shows where you’re playing someone at the center of a story that feels both physically and emotionally exhausting to explore. You did that with The Leftovers, and now with this show. Do you personally enjoy taking on consuming characters?
THEROUX: I do like it, but I hope I’m not one of those insufferable actors that takes things home with them and lives, breathes and eats it. I know I’m not that actor. Kevin Garvey in The Leftovers was wildly different than Allie Fox. One of the joys of Allie, and I didn’t realize this until I started playing him, is that he essentially is what he presents as. He has huge convictions and I would argue not much of an internal life, meaning if you were to open up his chest and look at his emotions, they’re probably the same exact emotions that are reading on his face. I love that forward-leaning, actually optimistic way about him. He’s a zealot for his own ideas, and that’s very fun to play because I’m not that confident in my own life. Whereas Kevin Garvey was just a whole mess of spaghetti and there was a lot going on, emotionally, which I also found very cathartic to play. Even though he was very often in darkness, I would leave the end of the day of work very happy most of the time because it felt like you had a good cry and often, frankly, did.
On a totally silly note, what goes into the decision of whether to grow a beard or keep a beard for a project versus having no beard? How often is it driven by your perception of a character versus production?
THEROUX: Well, this one was actually unique in that, barring the pandemic, I was supposed to go from this directly into The White House Plumbers for HBO playing G. Gordon Liddy. It was a very practical decision because I had to have a mustache for that. You could have Allie Fox with the mustache too, or you could have him with a beard, and then when I started The White House Plumbers, I’d shave the beard and leave the mustache. And so, that was the decision for that.
Have you ever had to have meetings to convince anyone to let you keep the beard, or to get rid of the beard?
THEROUX: No. I’m very open. If a director feels strongly one way or the other, then I’ll go with that. Damon [Lindelof], in the last season of The Leftovers, said, “I really want you to have a beard.” I said, “Okay, I’ll have a beard.” It wasn’t that hard of a decision. The harder decision was that, in the first season of The Leftovers, he wanted me to have stubble and I hated it because then it meant I had to live with stubble for six months or something, which is annoying to maintain. Add to that, it just makes you feel like you’re constantly hungover.
Personally, I think that your look in Your Highness was one of your more memorable ones.
THEROUX: I love that movie. It got such a short shrift. People hated it. But I’ll go on the record as saying that movie still makes me laugh, very hard, to this day. I have a theory that, if Game of Thrones had come out before us, the reaction to Your Highness would have been different. It was pre-Game of Thrones, so people didn’t really have the reference points for a bizarre fantasy, wizardry, castley, dragony thing. We were pulling on old movies, like Labyrinth. I don’t know. I think it was just poor timing.
People are missing out by not cosplaying that character
THEROUX: Leezar was the best. That was a fun one. Me and David Gordon Green had that idea to have dental things made to give him baby teeth. That just made us laugh so hard, to have this villain with children’s teeth.
The Mosquito Coast is available to stream at Apple TV+, with new episodes on Fridays.