Justin Theroux Contemplated Suicide? Actor Says Wrong Career Move Was Behind The Thought

Justin Theroux has been a popular screenwriter and actor for the last decade, but in the 90s, he was still struggling as an actor. The actor, who can be seen starring in the series The Leftovers, got a break later on in his career, but in the 90s, he highlights one show that made him contemplate suicide.

In a TV Drama Actor Roundtable with the Hollywood Reporter, Jennifer Aniston’s guy said that it was painful to work on a procedural show he had to take in the early 90s.

“I did a television show a long time ago, like the early 90s — a cop procedural — and the volume of work that you had to do to do 24 [episodes] was just crushing. And it’s not necessarily the material you’re loving, and you’re showing up at 4 a.m. on a Monday and leaving at 4 a.m. on a Friday.”

He also mentioned that in the beginning of his career, it was hard to find his footing and follow his instincts, especially when he was listening to people around him. He contributes this to his bad decisions in his career.

“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.”

Theroux highlights the dialogue as just one of the problems about the show that didn’t quite work out. “That early TV show I did, that cop procedural I mentioned. I wanted to hang myself. My character said s**t like, ‘Chief, you’re going to want to hear this!’ You go, ‘Oh, I can’t.’ ”

During the roundtable, Justin Theroux mentioned that doing that kind of work didn’t bring out the best qualities of him as an actor, either. “You’re having to cycle through your bag of tricks so much that you start to fall into bad habits.”

As for The Leftovers second season, the show is cutting half of the cast, with the exception of Justin Theroux, Amy Brenneman, Chris Zylka, Margaret Qualley, Christopher Eccleston, and Carrie Coon. Recently, the show added Family Matters‘ Darius Mccrory and Kevin Carroll.

[Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images]