Justin Theroux says criticism of 'Zoolander 2' "sucks".
Justin Theroux
The 45-year-old actor co-wrote the comedy sequel with director and star Ben Stiller and says it can be hard not to let bad reviews bother him.
He explained to The Hollywood Reporter: "That movie I thought was just beautiful. Of course it sucks when you feel like people aren't liking it. If you drop your kid off at school, you don't want every bully in the class to start taking shots at him. So everything I get to work on, I like when people are kind to it, but it's not the thing that defines it.
"I think it's that thing where you go - I usually try and not pay too much or grade myself too much on the reception of anything because I know I've done stinkers that have been well-received or things that I think are great that have been poorly received either financially or critically or whatever. But I'm also a big believer in that the experience is the thing. That's the reason why you're doing it is to have that experience. If we all did things just for the reception, we'd make s**t.
"So obviously you want to keep an eye on it because there is some - no one's going to let you keep doing what you do if everything sucks - but like 'Zoolander', for example, from start to finish, the experience of that, was some of the happiest experiences I've had from sitting down with Ben and breaking it to the writing of it to the shooting of it was all fabulous. Three to five years of fabulous memories of that movie."
Justin loves both acting and screenwriting but admitted he takes it more personally when a project he has written does badly.
He said: "I enjoy them both enormously. Writing is harder than acting. I enjoy acting for just the brevity with which you can be in the experience of doing it. Writing is kind of more satisfying in that you're creating a world and doing something that feels bigger, but it's very time consuming and has a higher threshold for failure. I take it harder when something I wrote doesn't do well or isn't received well. But it's two different things. One's an entree; one's a dessert, I guess."
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