This week’s The Leftovers on HBO sees world events begin to go horribly wrong.
In the episode, titled The Most Powerful Man in the World (and His Identical Twin Brother), star Justin Theroux’s character Kevin Garvey must assume a different identity as they deal with a flood of biblical proportions in Australia.
Justin Paul Theroux is a familiar face to both fans of TV and movies. But what has he been in before?
Theroux was born in Washington D.C. in 1971 and is famously married to Jennifer Aniston, whom he wed in August 2015.
He’s had a string of big on-screen roles. But his swoon-worthy looks might distract from his well-rounded entertainment CV that goes behind the camera, as he’s a respected scriptwriter too.
Despite growing up with learning disability ADHD, his writing prowess makes sense considering his entire immediate family and many of those beyond are professional writers too.
Theroux is possibly best known for his work with film director David Lynch, appearing in the 2001 film Mulholland Drive and 2006’s Inland Empire.
His turn as Timothy Bryce, the Pierce & Pierce VP whose business card famously misspelled “acquisitions” in 2000 noir dramedy American Psycho, was a notable character too.
He is also credited as a screenwriter for films such as Iron Man 2 and Rock of Ages, and both he and comedic actor Ben Stiller co-wrote Tropic Thunder and Zoolander 2.
Other film work includes his breakout role in the 1996 British Indie film, I Shot Andy Warhol, to the 2016 film The Girl on the Train. In 2017, he completed voice-over work on The Lego Ninjago Movie as Lord Garmadon.
Interestingly he will also appear in Duncan Jones‘ new Netflix film, Mute, to be released in 2017.
Jones, who is the son of the late David Bowie, cast Theroux along with Alexander Skarsgård, Paul Rudd, and Seyneb Saleh. Theroux is one of two wisecracking American surgeons (Paul Rudd is the other).
But it has been his run as Kevin Garvey, a small-town police chief trying to keep order and sanity after 2 per cent of the world’s population inexplicably disappears, that has he’s been making waves with of late.
The show reveals how in the face of extreme wide-scale grief, the search for answers can be a maddening exercise. Theroux’s character is a study of internalized anger, fear, confusion and a desire to get on with it.
This is the third and final season of Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta’s apocalyptic dramatic adaptation from the eponymous book.
The Leftovers airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.