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Learning to Relax
Stiller went on to direct the Gen-X cult film Reality Bites and the Jim Carrey bomb The Cable Guy. He also played the lead in such dramas as Permanent Midnight and Your Friends & Neighbors. But it was his performance in the Farrelly brothers’ 1998 There’s Something About Mary, about a depressed but good-hearted loser who woos and wins his high school crush—played by a delectable Cameron Diaz—that made him a star. It established a persona he’s still mining nearly a decade later.
“What I like is that Ben keeps it grounded: less pratfalls and more insecurities,” says actor Owen Wilson, who has appeared alongside Stiller in eight films. “Sometimes we get on these laughing jags where it’s hard to keep a straight face, but when I’m around Ben in real life, he’s not cracking jokes left and right. His humor comes out of real life.”
These days, Stiller often works with both of his parents. In Zoolander, his father, playing a smarmy agent past his prime, is a hoot, tossing out lines like “I’ve got a prostate the size of a honeydew!” “My dad’s hilarious,” Stiller says. “When we’re doing a scene together, I know that he’s going to be the funny guy and I don’t have to worry, which is nice. Less pressure.” Stiller’s mother had a cameo in that movie and in Night at the Museum.
And the family enterprise continues to expand. Stiller’s wife, actress Christine Taylor, played his love interest in Zoolander and his antagonist (a lawyer who helps block his scheme to drive a rival gym out of business) in DodgeBall. “She’s awesome,” Stiller says, “and a lot funnier than she lets on.”
The couple’s two children, Ella, five, and Quinlin, two, seem to have inherited the showbiz gene as well. “Ella has a director’s personality,” according to her dad. “When she’s playing, she has a great imagination, and she likes to tell you what she wants you to be. She likes to get a laugh too.” As for Quinn: “He does everything Ella does.”
Finding time to kick back with the kids can be tough for Stiller, who’s busier than ever. His next gig will take him to Hawaii, where he’s directing, producing and costarring in Tropic Thunder—a satire of big-budget war films (with Owen Wilson, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Jr., and Mos Def) that’s due next summer. He’s also in the throes of producing The Ruins, a thriller based on Scott Smith’s bestseller about a group of vacationers who find horror in a Mexican jungle. Then there’s The Hardy Men, a comedy based on the Hardy Boys books, in which he and old pal Tom Cruise—their friendship dates back to an impression Stiller did of the actor in the early ’90s—will play sibling sleuths. “Tom has such an iconic persona,” Stiller says, “and has a good sense of humor about that too.”
It may be harder for Stiller to laugh at himself: He can be as tightly wound as many of his protagonists. Yet, like them, he’s trying to learn to relax. “When I didn’t have a family, I was much more of a workaholic,” he says. “I still like to work, but I also want to be home with them. As you get older, you realize you need balance. If it’s not fun, what’s the point?”
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