"There's some nastiness mixed in." Louis Theroux on his 30-year rivalry with Jon Ronson.

With 20 years experience and 67 documentaries under his belt, Louis Theroux is arguably one of the greatest documentary filmmakers of all time. But in his eyes, his career is rivalled by one journalist and documentary maker, Jon Ronson.

Theroux admitted there is a hint of “nastiness” in his professional rivalry with the 52-year-old, during the first episode of his BBC Radio 4 podcast.

In the podcast, Grounded with Louis Theroux, Theroux sat down with Ronson, who is currently grounded in New York due to COVID-19, to discuss their similar career paths over the years.

“As much as I like you and I hope you know, as much as I admire you, there’s a little part of me that continues to feel a bit of rivalry, and there’s some nastiness mixed in with it which I don’t endorse,” said Theroux “If I could weed it out I would do it.”

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Ronson says he felt the pair’s rivalry started off in the 90s, but Theroux insists he feels it now more than ever.

“Now that you’re successful in America, I feel it a little more strongly,” said Theroux. “I think rivalry is one of the things that tends to be felt by the junior partner. It’s like I’m very good at winning and not very good at losing.”

But Ronson said he never saw their rivalry as destructive, before suggesting his relationship with Theroux is more like having a nemesis than an enemy.

“An enemy is negative and a nemesis is positive because it forces you to work harder,” he continued. “It’s neither one of our faults. It’s not like one of us ever stole ideas from the other one.”

“It’s not like one of us ever plagiarised the other one, yet time and time again over the decades we’ve done really similar stories.”

“Somebody wrote about this about 20 years ago, ‘isn’t it strange culture has brought up two people at exactly the same time whose brains work in exactly the same way’ – and they were talking about us two.

“That is going to have an impact on somebody, I suppose. If you suddenly find you have a doppelganger working in the same industry as you.”

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During the interview, Theroux told Ronson that he was mentioned in his new book, which Ronson didn’t seem to realise.

“In the second or third draft, I talk about how the BBC had given me a development deal,” explained Theroux. “They kept sending me travel logs that were successful on the BBC, but I found them a bit too composed and not very exciting.”

“What I say is that the only thing I’d seen on TV that was in any way relevant to what I hoped to do was a show called The Ronson Mission. I said there was something in Ronson’s awkwardness and slyness and the way his shows always feel like they were in motion that appealed to me – and that’s in print.”

Despite their competitiveness, Theroux said he has great respect for the fellow writer.

“I’ve read every book you’ve written so my presiding feeling is one of warmth and admiration,” he said.

“But undoubtedly, if I’ve done anything in my life it’s attempt to be honest about the nasty or the dark, or the more shameful feelings we all have in us – so that’s in there as well.”

Feature Image: Getty.