Topics: Louis Theroux, Celebrity, US News, UK News, Documentaries, TV And Film
Louis Theroux's award-winning career as a journalist and documentarian has brought him face-to-face with all manner of controversial characters.
From serial killers to swingers, drug lords to DJs, white supremacists to the Westboro Baptist Church, the award-winning journalist has never proven picky when it comes to selecting interviewees.
Apparently, however, only one particularly high-profile figure has ever left an especially sour taste in Theroux's mouth, despite the pair having met over 25 years ago.
The 55-year-old was asked to name and shame the 'worst' person he's ever conversed with during a recent appearance in a new LADbible 'Honest Box' video on YouTube, where he'd set out to promote his latest project, Inside the Manosphere.
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The feature-length documentary saw Theroux meet with several 'extreme male influencers', infamous for their inflammatory views on masculinity.
Among those interviewed for using websites, blogs and podcasts to promote belief systems that stand accused of radicalising young men and permitting the degradation of women were 'HSTikkyTokky', Justin Waller, Myron Gaines and 'Sneako'.
Despite the misogynistic manner with which many of these male influencers composed themselves, Theroux recently revealed he had previously come across a far worse interviewee.
"Who's the worst person you've met?" he was asked - a question he described as 'somewhat subjective'.
"I've been in prisons," Theroux continued. "I was in a maximum security mental hospital for pedophiles making a documentary."
He finally went on to admit: "My mind tends to go to Jimmy Savile basically because actually when I met him, I was making a documentary, but his crimes had not been discovered."
Savile was a British TV star and DJ, known throughout the 80s for his eccentricity and his charity work.
Theroux interviewed the Jim'll Fix It star for his 2000 documentary When Louis Met... Jimmy, 11 years before his death, after which hundreds of heinous sexual abuse allegations came to light.
Following a colossal police investigation, he was deemed one of the UK's most prolific predatory sex offenders, who'd largely abused young children - many of whom were either vulnerable, or in hospital - and the elderly.
He was posthumously handed over 2000 criminal offence charges, including both rape and sexual assault.
Father-of-three Theroux recalled of his interaction with Savile: "So, it was that that strange dissonance of later finding out that he'd done these dreadful things. He'd been a serial sex offender and not knowing at the time.
"But he's well-advertised as probably the worst kind of 'VIP predator' or person in the public eye who was a predator, certainly of recent times."
The presenter has spent time with Savile at homes in Leeds, Scarborough, and Glencoe during the documentary, where he'd asked him about rumours of illicit behaviour with young people.
The BBC star had shut down the allegations at the time, with Theroux filming a follow-up documentary in 2016, where he reflected on his past interactions with Savile, now knowing of his crimes.
