Louis Theroux found fame as presenter of shows such as Weird Weekends and When Louis Met. The documentary maker, now a father of two, relocated his family to Los Angeles to make his latest series, LA Stories. Here he speaks about why he’s a fan of ‘lived in’ cars – and why LA isn’t a city for cyclists.
Are you driving much in LA?
How could you not? I tried to make it work with the bike, because I like cycling, but I’ve sort of had to cave in and accept that it’s a driving city. The weather’s perfect for cycling, and it’s pretty flat most of it, but the distances are quite far, so I’ve been driving more recently.
What car do you drive?
We bought a second hand Toyota Avalon from 2004. It seems like a nice car. I like it. I don’t know why.
What do you look for in a car?
Some cars I get a good vibe from. I like sort of older cars that look like they’ve lived a little bit.
Are you a good driver?
Not really. I think I’m ok, but I can be a tiny bit impulsive. I got into a situation with a concrete pillar in a parking garage [in LA].
He wouldn’t back off and I wouldn’t back off. I just was reversing in a rush and I was looking back, but I wasn’t looking forward and I went into it. I went into this cement pillar. No one was hurt. It felt a bit like a scrape but I thought, ‘Well I’ll get out and have a look’.
I crept around the car and thought, ‘It doesn’t look too bad’ and then I got a bit further around and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’. It looked like I’d been going 30 miles an hour, I’d probably been going three miles an hour. I think I might have impacted my crumple zone.