from studentclub.net:
Louis Theroux: Interview
From a privileged background - a private education and a first class degree in History from Oxford - Louis Theroux has perhaps the dream job. Aged 30 and star of BBC2's acclaimed 'Weird Weekends', he follows bizarre individuals from UFO spotters to male porn stars. With an extraordinary ability to get these people to divulge their deepest and darkest secrets, he steps into their wacky lives and films every minute of it.
After leaving University and with the world at his feet, Louis left for America in search of a career. With no idea what he wanted to do, he looked through a directory of internship and consequently went to California to write for a weekly newspaper. After joining friends in New York he went on to write for 'Spy' magazine. Having always been interested in television he was eventually hired as a writer and correspondent for a show called 'TV Nation', hosted by Michael Moore. Unknown to him, his first job was to pave the way to his impending career. "My first job was to interview religious groups who think that the end of the world is nigh". Thereafter, every time a story came up no one wanted to do, Louis was the man. His appearances were brought to the attention of the BBC, who commissioned him to come up with ideas for a brand new series to be shown in the UK. After 6 months and 4 ideas - one of them being the weird weekends - a star was born.
Watching Louis you cannot help but wonder how he manages to get people to tell him what they do. He has an ability to ask questions the rest of us wouldn't dare. Yet he claims there is no particular knack to it, "You have simply got to spend time with them and let them know you're a nice guy too. We always film my first meeting with people and after that the cameras just roll. We often use a mini DV camera which is much less intrusive and people tend to forget it's there".
But it is not all fun and games. 'Weird Weekends' have found him in some very compromising circumstances, so much so that he's found himself in fear of his life.
"In the programme about New York rappers there was a pimp called Mellow T. We thought a trip to a shooting range sounded visually appealing for the camera since guns are so controversial in the UK. But the gun range turned out to be his mates' back yard and they started producing weapons without safety catches and began firing shots randomly. They got very excited with the cameras on them and any one of us could have been shot by accident. The situation was completely out of control. And it contravened all the BBC's filming laws".
And despite meeting characters such as white extremists and black radicals, Louis claims never to have got emotionally involved in the situations he's found himself in, "When you share a common humanity it's hard and you want to argue with people but sometimes it's not worth disagreeing with them".
From his desk at the BBC Louis devises ideas for the next show and then goes out to film it. 'Weird Weekends' is his creation and he has extensive input into its content, even as far as choosing the music. But not everyone gets this lucky. Louis believes spending 7 years in America changed his perspective on life and accounts for the success which he now enjoys.
Asked what advice he would give to others hoping to enter the media field, he says, "Try and get in touch with your own enthusiasms and follow your heart. Cultivate your virtues not your vices. And don't be monomaniac about making it in the media. The most important thing is to get to know yourself and what you're into".
After 17 episodes of 'Weird weekends', Louis is about to embark on a new series of profiles of 'fascinating' people, which will be shown on the BBC next year. Keeping details of exactly who will feature in the programme tightly under wraps, the profiles will be along the lines of those already shown with Jimmy Saville and Paul Daniels with Debbie McGee.
By Natalie Cambrook