DEDICATION DIRECTOR RETURNS TO BARTENDING GIG

Dedication director Justin Theroux turned to his former bartending gig when he needed a free location.

In making his low budget indie directorial debut Dedication starring Mandy Moore and Billy Crudup, Justin Theroux called on a few favors to keep his costs down.

One such favor was a location in the East Village bar Von where Crudup drowns his sorrows. Justin was a bartender there making ends meet before his creative career took off.

“Honestly I think they thought I was gonna come in with a digital camera and some friends and then 50 trucks pull up and business was shut down. They were like trying to stick me for more money. They gave it to me for free and they were like, ‘maybe we should get a thousand bucks for this. I’m like no, we agreed to nothing so. Well actually the crew stayed after and ran up a big tab so they ended up getting some money for it. But the rest was gratis.”

Justin who most recently starred in The Ten as Jesus H. Christ talks about the best and worst parts of directing.

“It was all pretty damn good. It was all really exciting. I’ve heard that before from people who’ve said your first directing experience will just be everything fantastic and it was. It’s really like that because even the obstacles felt like these creative challenges that you have to shoot around or get around. The hardest part was getting stuck on the BQE going to and from work some days and having to sit in traffic. The minute you take a beat to be quiet is when you start to get terrified.”

Justin isn’t sure he’ll direct again but he has written the screenplay for his next acting project Tropic Thunder directed by Ben Stiller which is currently shooting. Dedication is playing in theaters.