The 1986 film told the story of a frustrated inventor nauseated by American life who heedlessly uproots his family to start their own new society in the jungles of Central America. The movie was a relatively faithful adaptation of the bestselling book by Paul Theroux, that now inspired a new Apple TV+ series starring Justin Theroux, who is incidentally the author’s nephew.

But the new series, debuting April 30th uses the book only as a starting point, taking its characters on a journey very different from the one taken by Ford. The Mosquito Coast was created for television by Neil Cross and inspired by the spellbinding adventure novel by Theroux, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.  The seven-episode first season of this contemporary drama series revisits the age-old question, what lines will we cross to protect the ones we love?  In this suspenseful prequel, developed by Cross and Tom Bissell, an idealist inventor thinks he's providing his wife and two teenage children with shelter from the storm, but the questionable decisions they make as they try to outrun their past leads them, instead, towards unimaginable danger. Using his personal connection with the author, Justin spoke intensively with him while preparing for the character. In Los Angeles, and via zoom, we had the opportunity to talk with Justin Theroux, star and producer of the show, a star who loves Mexico, Spain and Spanish culture

 Q: Justin, are you related to Paul Theroux, the author of the novel?

JUSTIN THEROUX:  Yeah. Yeah, he is my uncle, my uncle Paul.

 Q: So has this always been something you wanted to do?

JUSTIN THEROUX: It’s one of those things that you don't know you want to do until it’s presented to you and you get to do it.  I have a long history with the novel only insofar as that I read it when I was a kid.  I was only probably, I don't know, 12 or 13 when it came out.  And there's been a movie made of it so I've obviously, sort of seen many, iterations of it.  And this was just one of those happy accidents that the stars aligned and we were able to do it.  As far as the character goes, I read the first script and adored the -- I, obviously, knew the character, but I knew sort of the novel version of it.

 Q: How would it be for you to live in a different country?

JUSTIN THEROUX: I’ve been in Mexico and in Spain uncountable times. I love those countries, I’m fascinated with the Spanish Culture, with the language, with the idiosyncrasy of taking more time for life and family and friends. If I had to live in another country it could perfectly be in Spain.

 Q: Do you Speak Spanish?

JUSTIN THEROUX: I do. I did start to learn in College, when I went to Bennington College, then, on my trips to Mexico I took time to learn the language and now I can say I’m pretty good at it. I do understand most of it and I can talk somehow fluently

Q: Do you have any Spanish author that you like?

JUSTIN THEROUX: Many, from Bolaño’s novels to Don Quixote to Borges stories or the poems from Federico García Lorca. I love reading authors from other cultures

Q: What was your reaction to this character that goes to live in Mexico?

 JUSTIN THEROUX: This Allie is seen through a slightly different prism, and I'm flattered that you like how I played him.  But as with any great character, I think you'll see an evolution to this character in subsequent episodes which I hope you continue to like.  But, yeah, I just really responded to the initial couple scripts and that was sort of it.

Q: So, how much of the first season is them getting to the Mosquito Coast and updating their modern-day situation, you know, with the sort of dumpster diving for cell phone parts, you know, as modern gold?

JUSTIN THEROUX:  I don't think I can answer that question specifically without giving stuff away.  But what we're seeing from the first couple of episodes really is the beginning of the adventure that we want to tell.  I think that's the easiest way to answer that.

Q: Given Allie Fox’s feelings about commercialism and the industrial waste of modern technology, give me a sense of how you feel like Allie would respond to this show being on an Apple TV platform.

JUSTIN THEROUX:  That's such a good question.  I do not have an answer prepared for you.  I think that it is in the nature of our version of Allie that he is not a man who espouses any particular philosophy.  Whatever you've got, he’s going to reject it.  So, Allie would reject seeing himself portrayed in a high school play or on Apple TV or on a Vista Vision screen in 1953.  Whatever you've got, Allie rejects it.  It doesn't matter what it is.

Q:  Justin, did you consult with your uncle at all about this material? 

JUSTIN THEROUX:  I’ll start off by saying, yes, I absolutely called my Uncle Paul, you know, because it would be foolish not to sort of dip my cup into the well of the source material and the man who wrote it.  I also, sort of anecdotally, have an intimate knowledge of certain aspects of Allie Fox, because it’s our suspicion, or my suspicion, and it’s been corroborated that it’s based loosely on certain members of our family, my grandfather, who had a certain thriftiness to him.  So, yeah, I had several long conversations with Paul once I got the script, and I started preparing the character.

Q: have you rewatched the old movie with Harrison Ford?  Was it daunting at all to reimagine, reinterpret this man in a, I guess, different setting or a little bit of a different setting?  And, to the rest of the gang, was it compelling to you guys to make this into a series?

JUSTIN THEROUX:  Oh, Harrison Ford.  Yes.  No, I didn’t.  I’ve seen the movie many times from the age of 15-on, a couple times I watched it, and he did such a fabulous job, but I wouldn’t ever try to create from him really.  I mean, the characters, the character side, I can’t help but think that there’s probably some similar things that maybe we found on our own.  I had the good fortune of meeting him, actually, while we were shooting just by coincidence when we were in Mexico City, and we had a fabulous sort of tequila-fueled dinner eating and just talking, but we didn’t really talk so much about the character at all.  We just sort of talked about his experience in making the film, which he says was one of the most joyous experiences he’s ever had as far as location and things like that.

Q:  Justin, I’d like to go back to that well with your uncle one more time, if you don’t mind, just to take a step further.  It can be tough enough for some authors when other hands take their work and adapt it.  What was the nature of your conversation with him in terms of how he felt about your involvement with it?

JUSTIN THEROUX:  I think, you know, honestly, I think he was thrilled.  I don’t know.  I mean, there’s something so odd.  If it were another author that perhaps wasn’t a family member I might be -- I would be far more intimidated and have been in the past in previous roles.  But I think he’s at the stage in his career where he was just sort of chuffed by it and thought it was fabulous, and I know he’s seen it and is thrilled at what we’ve done with it.  So I think Neil was very smart to take some very bold moves and sort of create, as we’ve said, sort of a prequel to the book itself, but stay very true to the Allie's character and the way he operates.  So I think as long as that through line was there and that was built in he wasn’t going to be disappointed. We haven’t talked about my performance necessarily, but he did call me quite thrilled after he saw several episodes.  So, yeah, and Neil could probably speak to the other part of that.

Q: You’re a leader in this show? Are you a natural?

JUSTIN THEROUX: No, no I’m not. I’m not a very good leader. God forbid. I like someone else to lead usually.

Q: you started off as a singer?

JUSTIN THEROUX: That was because the acting wasn’t working out. But we never got a record deal. Lets just put it that way. But I still love it

Q:  Who needs money? Can it Buy Happiness? What's your take on that?

JUSTIN THEROUX :. I don’t think it can buy you happiness. At all. But I do believe that money doesn’t matter until you don’t have any. That’s the other end. That can be hard as well.

 Q: Have you ever been in a situation when you’ve been money-tight?

JUSTIN THEROUX: Yeah. Tons. Honestly, when I reflect back on it, I never think of it as a time when I didn’t have any money; I always think of it as a time that I was really happy. And I’m happy now. But at the same time, those were some of the best years of my life, when I was broke. When I first moved to New York. For years just doing odd jobs. I had no lack of friends; no lack of resources to go out and try and do…but again, I didn’t feel like running out of money was going to put me in danger even though I didn’t get to go to a dentist for about five years, I didn’t go to a doctor.

Q: Justin, your career is unique - you have lots of different jobs? Writing,  acting, producing?

JUSTIN THEROUX: I like being able to….. A) just for stability, even though it seems like a three-legged table its actually a better way because I can disappear and do writing and then I can be more selective about acting work that comes up and chose only the things that I want to do as opposed to feel like I have to go and do a pilot or this or that. I really enjoy it because I can dip in and dip out of different areas. It creates a kind of weird job security in a way that I can spread myself a little thinner and it gives me what I want at the end of the day, which is more choice, which is what I want anyway. I’m really enjoying this time in my life.

By Maria Estevez

Correspondent writer