Justin Theroux only learned how to read properly as a teenager.
Justin Theroux
The 'Leftovers' actor, whose wife Jennifer Aniston revealed she is dyslexic earlier this year, admits he also has the learning disability and struggled to cope during his school years.
The 44-year-old star said: "I was not a great reader. I don't know how to put it any other way. I tested as dyslexic and I was an unfocused child, so I didn't read a lot early on in my life, and don't read that much now, if I'm being honest.
"Even to this day, I read things in real time like as if it's being spoken. I can't skim stuff in ways certain people can."
Justin, who co-wrote the upcoming comedy 'Zoolander 2' and has a string of other high profile writing credits to his name, used to pretend to have a "bellyache" when he was asked to read something out loud at school.
He told NPR's 'Fresh Air': "It was humiliating. It was horrible. The first time I was ever called on to read I could not. I was called on the first or second day of this public school to read, and I remember looking down at the piece of paper that I was supposed to read and the first word was 'the,' which I could read because it's the first three letters of my last name, but I couldn't read a single other word. It was like just looking at Greek.
"I ended up catching up on a lot of my education in high school. I had a lot of catching up to do."
But Justin, whose mother was "very sympathetic" at the time, believes he is a better screenwriter as a result.
He said: "I think I tuned my ear to dialogue.
"I can basically just mimic people on paper and write dialogue and I think whatever deficiencies I had ended up serving me in writing screenplays."
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