Louis Theroux has opened up about inadvertently becoming a “protagonist” in his documentaries after a far-right YouTuber subject in his upcoming series called him “pretentious”.
During filming for the new three-part BBC series, far-right commentator Nicholas J. Fuentes released a video in which he described Theroux as “pretentious” - among other things.
Theroux described Fuentes as a walking contradiction, as a 23-year-old with a “cheeky smile and floral shirt”, but someone who reveals his white nationalist and misogynist views from his home in his parents’ basement.
Louis said: “He is a different sort of member of the far right. He doesn't radiate angry energy.
“Yet as you peel the layers away through the film, more and more of his unsavoury opinions emerge.”
He continued: “He appears to lead a modest life, but he says he's made hundreds of thousands of dollars from streaming.
“He says he's a Trump supporter. He says he's got the ear of various congressmen, but he's also been kicked off most social media platforms.
“So he's in this odd cultural space where part of the job of doing the programme was figuring out to what extent he was a ridiculous fringe figure and to what extent he represented something threatening and potentially powerful.”
Louis said it was “odd” to see Fuentes’s critique of him partway through filming, as he had to later question Fuentes about the comments.
Louis said: “We'd rather ask the questions than have to answer them. So here I am in a weird way being reported upon by Fuentes.
“I think there’s something interesting about when you’re doing a story and the story pushes back at you. I’m a sort of protagonist in my programmes and when I’m having to wrestle with my subjects in some way, it creates a powerful sense of drama.”
Louis said he became aware of Fuentes and the “hipster far-right” in the wake of the violent clashes between alt-right protesters and counter-protesters in Charlottesville in 2017, resulting in the death of Heather Heyer.
He said: “After that there was this regrouping of the far right and Richard Spencer - the notorious neo-Nazi and anti-Semite who helped to organise Charlottesville - was viewed as too disreputable.
“Many others there were tainted by what had happened and somehow Fuentes emerged as one of the few who still had some sort of following.”
Fuentes features in the Extreme and Online episode of Louis’s new documentary series, which sees him come face to face with a number of far-right internet personalities who have risen to prominence through their support of Trump and extremist views.
The new series Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America starts on Sunday February 13 at 9pm on BBC Two and iPlayer - it also includes an episode on Rap’s New Frontline and Porn’s MeToo.
