By Sarah Mills
Documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux hopes his provocative film “Tell Them You Love Me” will encourage audiences to think about issues like consent and sexual assault.
The true crime documentary, executive-produced by Theroux and directed by Nick August-Perna, tells the story of U.S. university professor Anna Stubblefield and her romantic affair with a man with cerebral palsy. She was subsequently charged with sexual assault. A regular on television screens since the 1990s, Theroux is known for documentaries that explore taboo topics, as well as in-depth interviews with celebrities.
In 2019, the British-American and his wife set up Mindhouse, one of the production companies behind “Tell Them You Love Me.”
Theroux spoke to Reuters about the film, his hopes as producer, and who he would like to have a sit-down with.
Below are excerpts, edited for length and clarity.
Q: What do you hope audiences talk about after seeing the film?
Theroux: It’s at the front line or the fault line of conversations about race, sexuality, sexual assault, power, income and disability.
The idea is that you would challenge yourself to think about what does it mean to have a consenting relationship? What does sexual assault look like? In what way is there a tension between the urge to help and the urge to patronize?
And all of those impulses exist side by side.
Q: Are you drawn to shining a light on what some might find distasteful?
Theroux: This film is either a love story – between a philosophy professor from an upper middle class family who’s white and on the other side, a profoundly disabled Black man from a relatively low income family, who’s presumed until that point to have had quite low cognitive abilities.
On the other hand, it could also be a story about a sexual assault by a woman in a position of power and privilege against a man who is very vulnerable. Or it could be something in between all of those.
Q: Where is Mindhouse heading?
Theroux: I’m very excited just to have a seat at the…big persons’ table, where as a presenter, you always feel a bit like … a bit of a child.
So, now I get to have the conversations where I get to shape and create a vision.
Q: Who else would you like to interview?
Theroux: I would love to interview Tom Cruise. He’s a brilliant actor. He’s also a Scientologist, the most famous one in the world whose private life remains somewhat mysterious.
But there’s also … Kanye West. Extraordinarily talented, but obviously troubled with a history of making provocative and antisemitic statements.
(Reporting by Sarah Mills; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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