Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward Meara "Ben" Stilleris an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and the late Anne Meara...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth30 November 1965
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
new-year party years
My parents used to throw great New Year's Eve parties. They invited such an eclectic mix of showbiz people. All those cool people were always hanging out at our apartment.
dream kids successful
As a kid I had dreams about being successful, thinking it would be cool. Then, when I was in my 20s, I really thought I had it much more figured out than I do now.
war thinking genre-is
When you're doing a comedy and you want to somehow satirise people who are taking themselves seriously, I think the most serious genre is the thing you're going to get the most out of. If you're trying to satirise a comedy, it's hard to do that - it doesn't really work as well. But I love the war movie genre and I'm a fan of all those movies that are part of what this movie is.
growing-up creativity spinal-tap
When I was growing up, This is Spinal Tap [1984] was the ultimate comedy, and it was the kind of thing I wanted to do. But you get to a point with parody where you can't go much further because ultimately it's feeding off of somebody else's creativity.
thinking people actors
I think people will be curious to see what I can do as a dramatic actor.
parent touchy my-own
My own parents were touchy-feely.
character endure humiliation
I'm always willing to endure humiliation on behalf of my characters.
successful opportunity one-direction
Sometimes I wondered whether I hadn't let my career get confined to one direction, but lately I've decided to accept the fact that I have this opportunity to be successful doing comedies.
new-york fun flirting
I was staying on [writer/director/actor] Eric Schaeffer's couch in New York, and he said, "I've got this movie [If Lucy Fell]. Can you do five days on it?" And I was like, "Yeah, anything. Twenty-four hours times five is 120 hours. Oh, great, I'll fill 120 hours of my life with something." So I did that and it was fun, and then I did Flirting with Disaster.
thinking giving trying
I think you never want to have to go into the scene having to improvise; you want to make sure its working on the page. But I do like to have the ability to try stuff just in the moment, to give it some sort of spontaneity.
hockey play comfortable
I don't play hockey at all. I'm not comfortable on skates.
country together american-history
I'm very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together.
thinking japan someday
I've been to Japan but I've never been to China, I'd love to go to China. I don't know, I like to go to places that are remote. So, I think I'd like to do that more. And just sort of also explore not having a structured work life someday, to have more free time to sort of see what happens.
book simple ideas
I had two projects that fell apart during preproduction. The first one was this movie that Judd Apatow and I had written about two guys following the Rolling Stones. It was going to be half concert film, half pseudo-documentary. It was Mick Jagger's idea.The other one was Simple Plan, based on a novel by Scott Smith. It's a great book - really stark, not a comedy - about a guy who finds $4 million in a plane crash and decides to keep it.