The Spy Who Dumped Me actor Justin Theroux discusses the film's action and comedy - as well as whether James Bond and Jason Bourne fans will like this spy movie. Lionsgate's spy comedy sees Theroux's character, Drew Thayer, dump his girlfriend Audrey (Mila Kunis), only for her to discover he's actually a spy. As a result, Audrey and her best friend Morgan (Kate McKinnon) wind up pulled into the dangerous world of espionage as they try to complete their mission and survive.
The Spy Who Dumped Me is the second of Theroux's film projects to see release in 2018, following Netflix's Mute earlier in the year and preceding the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee as well as the Ruth Bader Ginsberg drama On the Basis of Sex. The actor's full slate in 2018 follows the conclusion of the HBO series in which he starred, Damon Lindelof's The Leftovers, which wrapped up its third and final season in 2017. Theroux's no stranger to moving between genres, and in The Spy Who Dumped Me, he takes on action-comedy.
Related: Screen Rant's Review Of The Spy Who Dumped Me
Now, Screen Rant had a chance to talk to Theroux about The Spy Who Dumped Me and the actor discussed what drew him to the project, the action in the film and whether fans of James Bond and Jason Bourne will be able to enjoy this spy movie.
Screen Rant: Congratulations on the movie, I laughed so much.
Justin Theroux: It’s hilarious.
Screen Rant: It’s so funny. What was it like getting into your character for this movie?
Justin Theroux: It was just kinda fun, I mean it wasn’t, y’know, the character is - it’s hard to talk about the character without giving away some key plot points - but it’s just a blast because, from my part with the action and stuff like that, it’s a pretty straightforward hard-charging, earnest guy. It is that sort of, not cliché, but he’s the spy guy. He basically knows how to do everything perfectly, he knows how to snap necks and shoot guns and all that. I loved how they just quickly handed it over to the girls, who don’t know how to do any of that and spend the next hour and a half getting extremely good at what they do.
Screen Rant: Speaking of your action scenes, did you get to do any of your own stunts?
Justin Theroux: Yeah, a lot of them.
Screen Rant: Which was your favorite?
Justin Theroux: My favorite one, just because of the kaboom of it all, was the one in the opening of the movie where basically I just put some C4 in a microwave and the whole place blows up. That’s just a really fun, because you really kind of get one crack at that, where they load up all these explosives around you and there’s a million cameras, and then there’s just a walk out of the thing and everything just explodes behind you. And for the most part, it was like a very practical - I don’t think they added any special effects or anything. They did a lot of very just practical stuff, there was no sweetening it with CGI or any of that. Our stunt coordinator was fabulous on all that.
Screen Rant: You said that you were more of a secondary character to the girls, so what exactly drew you to the project?
Justin Theroux: I think it was that thing I was discussing earlier, which is like any time, when you see like a James Bond movie or a Bourne movie, they’re obviously great films, but there’s a certain amount of jeopardy that’s taken out of them by the fact that you know these people are so good at what they do and there’s kind of not the expectation that they’re gonna die. Y’know, like, or they might come very, very close to death, but then not die. Whereas, when you have two women who are not good at what they do, who are basically being put in the exact same situation as these spies essentially would be, the jeopardy weirdly goes up and because it’s so funny - y’know, that was a huge draw too. But I kind of liked, it’s weirdly more tense in a way to see two people who are bad at something have to get out of different scrapes. If that makes any sense.
Screen Rant: So do you think fan of like more Bourne style films, do you think they’ll enjoy this?
Justin Theroux: A hundred percent, without question.
Screen Rant: OK. And what was it like working with director Susanna Fogel?
Justin Theroux: She’s fabulous. I mean, she’s great. The script was obviously very funny and very good. She knew how to elevate it with the direction and create action that was - I think the expectation when you’re doing a comedy is kind of… You think, like “We’ll do all the really funny stuff, that’s what’s important. Make it funny.” And then, traditionally, in the action we’ll do enough to get by but keep the focus on the funny. She actually understood that if you can do both really well at the same time, you’ll have a very good kind of summery popcorn-y action movie, and you’ll also have something that’s hilarious. And so she did both those beautifully.
