Mok / Splash NewsThere's a reason Justin Theroux prefers to wear jeans.
After all, it's been three years since the actor was photographed jogging in sweatpants—sans underwear—on the set of The Leftovers. And though he didn't feel "objectified," he did feel embarrassed. "It's like having someone yank your shorts down in public. It doesn't feel great. Anyone who has an unflattering picture taken of them would probably say, 'Join the club,'" he tells Elle. Though several websites wrote flattering pieces about his penis, Theroux still cringed. "It has the appearance of a compliment," he says, "but it's more mortifying than anything else."
In fact, Theroux didn't comment on the photos for a year. When Conan O'Brien brought it up in 2014, he said, "I don't know how to answer this question. I didn't even know that was a thing..."
Speaking to E! News in 2015, Theroux said he wouldn't wear sweats again in Season 2. "We're done with that. Too much jogging," the actor said. "It was like, 'OK, throw the sweatpants out!'"
The 44-year-old Girl on the Train star is still adjusting to life in the limelight and the scrutiny that comes with it. If he could escape the paparazzi for a day, he'd return to the place he calls home with the woman he loves. "It's a luxury problem, but I would love to walk around New York with my wife," he says of actress Jennifer Aniston. "Take her to Washington Square Park." If he tried to do that now, though, he says, "It would turn into a s--t show. It would be not fun."
Washington Square Park is one of Theroux's favorite places, as it's where he found his pit bull, Pooma. "She got dumped in the dog run—abandoned, all busted up," he says of his canine companion. "She was my first real project of a dog. She was like my shadow." When Pooma died in January, "I cried like a 9-year-old. There was nothing macho about it. She was kind of the mayor. She was sick, and it was like being with the queen on her deathbed. She literally took visitors for, like, three weeks straight. People would come by and pay their respects."
Pooma died five months into Theroux's marriage, and Aniston helped him through it. Marriage, Theroux tells Elle's October issue, "taught me to settle a little bit. It does have a calming effect."