Justin Theroux was 'so sweet' about The Other Two jokes at his expense, stars say
In the third and latest episode of Comedy Central’s The Other Two, Brooke (Heléne Yorke) and Cary (Drew Tarver) ended up wandering around actor Justin Theroux’s apartment, a place consisting of concrete furniture, a motorcycle-shaped toilet, and a closet full of black leather boots.
But while Theroux’s apartment probably doesn’t include any of the above, the actor had no problem with the series’ over-the-top depiction of his lifestyle — at least according to Yorke, who spoke about the show, a satire following a pair of siblings whose younger brother becomes internet-famous, after a screening of the episode at the 2019 SCAD aTVfest. Yorke appeared alongside Tarver and The Other Two creators Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider on a panel moderated by EW deputy editor Bill Keith.
“I met him recently,” Yorke revealed, adding that she and Theroux caught up backstage at The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “I ran in, hugged him, said, ‘Dude, thank you so much,’ and he was so sweet about it.”
Then again, according to Kelly and Schneider, Theroux had approved the running gag in episode 3, which saw Brooke and Cary wandering around Theroux’s home, marveling at his, well, singular taste. “We wanted him to like it, and he read the scripts and said yes,” Kelly said, adding that they didn’t have a backup celebrity if Theroux passed. As huge fans of HBO’s The Leftovers, he and Schneider only wanted Theroux. “We were like, ‘It’s him or nothing,’” Kelly explained. “We wanted [someone we could] poke fun at without being malicious. We genuinely think he’s great.”
Plus, Theroux’s image fit the story they wanted to tell. “We knew the little kid would be working in there,” Schneider said, “so we just asked ourselves, ‘Who would have the worst, non-child-friendly home?’”
As for the real location they used? That would be the World of Macintosh Townhouse, a posh space located in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, which had also been featured as the headquarters of fsociety in the second season of Mr. Robot. “It was this psychotic home with a full indoor pool with a porthole you could look into,” Schneider recalled. “There are just some stars where you go, ‘I could picture your house.’” Quipped Kelly, “We could be wrong [about whether their filming location looks anything like Theroux’s real place], but we’re right.”
And if the series gets a second season, maybe they’ll be able to feature the mecca to leather and concrete even more. But that’s something the creators can’t chat about just yet. “It’s hard to talk about too much, because at the end of the season, something happens [that shakes up the story],” Kelly said. “[In season 2], we want to keep everything we love about the show, but find new ways to explore the premise.”
In this climate, anything could happen.
