Woody Harrelson & Justin Theroux on Recreating Watergate’s Absurdity in The White House Plumbers

In May 2023, Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux sat down to discuss their work on HBO’s limited series White House Plumbers, which dramatizes — and satirizes — the bungled Watergate break-ins. Playing E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, the actors reflected on the tragicomic nature of the scandal, the quirks of their real-life characters, and why the story resonates in today’s political climate.

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A Tragedy That Makes You Laugh

Watergate is remembered as one of the darkest chapters in American political history, but director David Mandel and his cast approached it from a different angle: absurdity.

Speaking with NPR, Mandel described Watergate as a “tragedy that makes you laugh.” The same sentiment carried into Harrelson and Theroux’s performances. As Theroux told Entertainment Weekly, the reality of the break-in was “hilarious” in its sheer incompetence. The burglars took four separate attempts to pull it off — a detail Harrelson agreed highlighted just how ill-equipped Hunt and Liddy were for the task.

By embracing that blend of comedy and catastrophe, the series reframes Watergate less as a neat morality tale and more as a satire of American hubris.

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Building Their Characters

Both actors immersed themselves in the peculiarities of their roles:

Justin Theroux on G. Gordon Liddy: Theroux focused on Liddy’s refusal to use contractions in speech, an odd but telling quirk. Combined with his intense machismo, this gave Theroux what he called a “toehold” into a figure who was at once ridiculous and menacing.

Woody Harrelson on E. Howard Hunt: Harrelson explored Hunt’s complex relationship with Liddy. On screen, the pair are allies who slowly turn on each other as the pressure mounts. That shift — from camaraderie to betrayal — gave the performances a grounding in emotional reality amid the farce.

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A Bromance Behind the Scenes

Despite their characters’ unraveling friendship, Harrelson and Theroux struck up a genuine rapport during filming. Theroux joked about their “bromance,” even comparing his connection with Harrelson to Harrelson’s famously close friendship with Matthew McConaughey.

That sense of fun carried into their work on set, softening the weight of recreating one of America’s most infamous political scandals.

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Watergate Then and Now

The absurdity of Hunt and Liddy’s blunders isn’t just a punchline — it’s also a lens on today’s politics. In The Atlantic, White House Plumbers was framed as a story about “uniquely incompetent times.” The actors agreed that Watergate’s botched execution still resonates in an era defined by political dysfunction.

Theroux drew a sharper comparison, noting that in the 1970s, President Nixon could still be shamed into resigning. “Nothing happens” today, Theroux observed, pointing to a political culture that often resists accountability.

By connecting past and present, the series turns Watergate into both a period piece and a modern cautionary tale.

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Why White House Plumbers Matters

The May 2023 interview with Harrelson and Theroux remind us that Watergate wasn’t only about high crimes and cover-ups — it was also a comedy of errors. The HBO series captures both sides of that coin: the tragedy of broken trust in government, and the absurdity of the men who toppled a presidency by sheer incompetence.

In doing so, White House Plumbers offers viewers not just a history lesson, but a mirror. The bumbling of Hunt and Liddy might be funny, but the consequences were deadly serious — a dynamic that still feels all too familiar in today’s political landscape.

You can watch the full interview with harrelson and Theroux below:

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White House Plumbers is available now with a subscription to HBO Max…