Actor-director Ben Stiller sits down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to discuss Severance Season 3, Meet the Parents 4, and other upcoming projects. In the interview, Stiller also talks about his transition from acting to directing, developing new film projects, and collaborating with co-stars like Robert De Niro, Ariana Grande, and Jim Carrey.

Video, key quotes and photos below. Please credit The Zane Lowe Show on Apple Music 1.

Listen to the full episode anytime on demand with an Apple Music subscription HERE.

Transcription:

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about discovering his passion for directing
Ben Stiller: Honestly, it was just out of wanting to work and to do my thing when I was starting out. I think I’m a late bloomer, really, in terms of just getting to the place where I feel like even now in my life, I have a really much more clear sense of creatively what makes me happy. And I think I’ve been trying to figure it out a lot of my life and going down different roads, which have all been really interesting. But when I started out, I knew I wanted to be making movies, and I knew I wanted to be doing funny things, and I also loved drama. I was sort of trying to figure out, what do I do? Am I an actor? Am I a director? Am I a writer?

Zane Lowe: You’re driving all over the road at that point, one may say.

Ben Stiller: Yeah. And also not having a self-awareness when I was younger, I think, of really understanding, having a clear sense. I really admire artists at a young age who have a really clear sense of the choices that they make, understanding how important the choices you make are. I didn’t have that sense when I was younger. I was just sort of trying to figure it out and going off of instinct. I started wanting to act and I wanted to make films, but I didn’t know how to do either, other than I grew up in the business. So I knew that you go on audition. Or if you want to make a movie, you figure out what the movie is and you try to put it together.

But I personally, inside, didn’t know what my real calling or direction was, so I just sort of went in different directions and saw what was sticking. Making my own stuff came out of really as an actor in my late teens or early twenties, trying to get work and not really getting hired, so I started to just create my own stuff with my friends. Now, this was, again, it was before phones and all of that, so it was a different process to make your own stuff. It was a little bit harder. You had to-

Zane Lowe: Quite an investment, yeah. Somebody had to back it.

Ben Stiller: Yeah. So I went down some funny roads of trying to get somebody to pay for a short film I wanted to make, or coming up with an idea and getting friends who I was working with, as an actor, to be in it. It was all sort of just … Then there was Saturday Night Live, and that was something that I’d always dreamed of. But then I was there for a little bit and I didn’t quite feel like that was the right fit for me.

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about directing and starring in features like ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ and ‘The Cable Guy’
Ben Stiller: That movie, I think, was me trying to express my kind of filmmaking aspirations or ambitions, things that I loved, but also it was a studio movie that was also seen as a comedy too. I think that’s what … When I think about it, just in retrospect, for me, it was trying to make something that I felt really connected to that was maybe also in a box that the studio saw as maybe wanting it to be something else. Even with Cable Guy, going back to Cable Guy, it’s the same thing. It’s like Cable Guy. Let’s make a weird dark kind of … We watched Roman Polanski’s The Tenant and thought, “Oh, let’s do that in a comedy.”

Zane Lowe: Which blows my mind, Ben, because you’re dealing with a star at the time, and you’re paying him the most amount of money any male actor has had on screen for a weird dark film you’re trying to make. That in itself is such a paradox.

Ben Stiller: Yeah. Well, it was the fact that he was in that position that we could make that movie, and that Jim Carrey wanted to make that movie. But it’s interesting because I never thought about it in relation to Walter Mitty, but it’s the same thing, trying to fit my desires not to necessarily do what maybe people were expecting in that genre. So the studio would be a little bit like, “Oh, well, wait. What are you making here?”

Zane Lowe: What are we marketing here?

Ben Stiller: What are we marketing? Exactly. And so that is part of, I think for me, the evolution of realizing, “Oh, okay, this is actually what I really want to do,” that led to me directing other stuff.

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about moving from comedy and acting into drama and directing
Ben Stiller: When you start to make movies and people go to them, and you start to be seen as a comedy person or whatever, it’s amazing to have that connection with an audience, and it’s fun to do. But if you do have other stuff going on, sometimes it’s harder to go in a direction where people don’t necessarily see you.

Zane Lowe: Yeah. Because your identity. You’ve just done a whole lot of identity work that you can’t control, because we like you as that guy.

Ben Stiller: Right. Right. Exactly. Which is great. I appreciate that. But it becomes down to the personal choices that you have to make as you go forward of, like, “Okay, well, but how do I feel about that?” And that can be tough for a relationship with an audience if you want to go in a different direction. But you have to listen to yourself and you have to have the courage to do that. And I think for a long time, I didn’t necessarily, until I got to a place where I was like, “Oh, no, no. I actually just want to do something that … because I really want to see this movie.” Personally, I want to see this thing. And that, for me, helped clarify my choices.

Zane Lowe: Which film was that? What choice was that?

Ben Stiller: I think for me, honestly, it probably came down to Escape at Dannemora, the limited series I did for Showtime that was a prison break. That wasn’t true story, that wasn’t a comedy, and I wasn’t in it. And I was … the first thing I’d directed, except for Cable Guy. I was in Cable Guy a little bit. That, I wasn’t in. And it was so … It was such a personal breakthrough for me because I was so happy. I remember the first day on the set. I mean, honestly, it’s going a little deep here, but, it’s that thing of, as an actor, I was so happy not to be acting and just directing, and not having to direct myself or have to see myself on the screen or any of that stuff. It was like, “Oh, this is what I wanted to do since I was 10 years old, is make movies.” Just make movies. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the other stuff. But same thing with Severance too. I love directing. I’m happy, very happy to just be doing that job, and actually having directed a lot of movies I was in, I found it much more enjoyable and fulfilling to just do one thing, and really concentrate on that and be there fully as the audience, the first audience for the movie that you’re making.

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about casting Adam Scott in ‘Step Brothers’
Ben Stiller: Well, I was a fan of his from Step Brothers. I saw him in Step Brothers, which is… That’s just a ridiculous character, who’s this really awful guy.

Zane Lowe: He’s so awful.

Ben Stiller: But so funny. And Mitty kind of needed this guy who was sort of the antagonist, and knew he would… It sort of like, it made sense from that movie, that I could see that. But really, I just credit that Dan Erickson, who wrote Severance, the pilot, when he wrote this part, it was so specifically tailored, I thought, to what Adam could do, because it was something that was deeper underneath than what you might think on the surface.

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about the essence of ‘Severance’ and creating the unique story-world
Ben Stiller: This is what I like about the show, is that it brings up a lot of issues that we have in real life. That the metaphors in the show are kind of very… And that’s because Dan is such a smart, interesting writer, that he came up with this idea that’s like, “Oh yeah, this could be about just life in general. What are we all doing here? What are you and I doing here? We’re here in this room doing this thing and it’s amazing, but what is it really about? And where do we go after in life, once we’re not here anymore?” All those things to me, which are really interesting, are kind of encapsulated in the show. And so, for an actor, it’s a really interesting, I think, exciting, fun challenge, to have to explore that

Zane Lowe: It’s got to be a challenge for all of you. I can imagine that there’s been times, when you’ve all got together and gone, “Okay, where are we right now? How is this making sense? Are we honoring the vision, because…? “As an actor, am I presenting innie versus outie correctly?” And you’re like, “Am I seeing this through the lens, the way that it needs to be seen?” Because it is not your linear viewing experience. It is very multi-dimensional.

Ben Stiller: The first season of the show was fun, because Adam [Scott] really got to play these two different characters, really, even though they’re the same person. One was in such a depressed, grieving state, and just heavy and dark. And then his innie was just not that. Not questioning his world, and kind of a company man, but not really invested the way that Irving, John Turturro’s character, was, in terms of the theology of the place and all that.

So, it was a great sort of fun balance to go back and forth between, and I think that really helped us in the first season sort of establish… Having those two aspects of him, they were so clearly different, really helped us sort of find our way through, because it was very clear. And then, I think as the show has progressed, it’s gotten much more nuanced, and kind of layered, because there are so many different things going on in terms of his innie character and his outie character.

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about the challenges of editing scenes in ‘Severance’
We’ve been working on the show for a few years now, and we’ve done a bunch of episodes. Not that many episodes, but there’ve been so many different challenging, interesting scenes. I mean, the thing that’s sort of freshest in my mind right now, is the scene that Adam [Scott] does in the end of the second season, where he has this conversation with himself where he videotapes himself.

And that was challenging on the writing, because we kept on rewriting it, and trying to figure out, what would this conversation be? And then, for Adam, just to be able to actually figure out how to play both sides of that, and having to do both sides of it. And then, the technical aspect of just having to, “All right, we’re going to shoot all of your innie side now, and then we’re going to shoot your outie side.” And then, wanting it to build. And on the page it’s sort of feeling like, “Oh, this could just be a kind of a boring 15 minute..” It’s like 17 minutes I think, in the show. And in the back of my head all the time, I was like, “Ah, I hope this is interesting. I hope this is interesting.”

But when we got our first cut of it together with Jeff Richmond, who edits the show, we watched it, and it was long and it wasn’t quite, didn’t get the rhythm of it totally right. But it was just fascinating to watch, for me as an audience, because of where we were in the story. So, I felt like… It’s kind of the same way the end of the first season, I think, paid off a lot of what was set up during the season. This scene was sort of, we were building to this scene. So, really, as long as it was done in the right way, it was going to be interesting-

…because as an audience, he’s talking about these things that you really want to understand.

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about the future of his acting career
Ben Stiller: I think it goes back to that choice of saying, “I only want to do things that I want to see.” And I think as an actor being in that world over the years and doing those movies and having fun, as I started to get closer to the ideas of what I really makes me happy or what makes me excited when I watch it or what creatively fulfills me, I think I’ve just decided that as an actor, I’m going to wait until that comes along. And sometimes those opportunities are few and far between, especially when you go away from acting for a while. The train moves on, and I personally am not dying to see myself in anything else ever again. I’m not going to go, I can enjoy a movie that I’ve made as a director because of all those elements, but then when I’m looking at myself, it’s much more complicated and harder.

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about working with Robert De Niro on ‘Meet the Parents’
Ben Stiller: He [Robert De Niro] knows what he’s doing. And at first it was a little bit embarrassing. It’s been a while, but the first scene we did ever together, I cracked up.

Zane Lowe: Which one was that? Do you remember which one it was?

Ben Stiller: Yeah. I was at the front door in Meet the Parents when I meet him for the first time, and it’s literally the first thing I say to him. I look and I think I said, “Hey,” I forget what the line was. And then I looked at the house and I was like, “Oh, this is nice.” I looked up at the house and then he looked at me and went, and it cracked me up. I was like, “Oh my God, Robert De Niro is reacting to something I’m doing.” And it’s funny. It was so funny. It still makes me laugh because he’s, he’s really funny. But man, he’s so good. And he’s any great actor, that’s what they listen and they react and they’re in the moment. Same thing as ‘Spinal Tap.’ It’s all listening. And when you’re in the moment and you’re reacting to the reality of what’s going on, that’s the best.

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about casting Ariana Grande on ‘Meet the Parents 4’
She’s [Ariana Grande] amazing. Amazing in Wicked. I went to see Wicked with my daughter in the theatre and had the best time. And I can’t really say too much about it, but she’s going to be so great in this movie, and it’s going to be really fun to play with her because it’s a very specific character that she’s playing. And I think these movies are all about the family interactions and the subtlety of the things where we’re trying to, everybody wants to get along with everybody, but we all have our baggage. And that’s what I like about Meet the Parents, it’s really about these dynamics that we all can connect with.

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about his next film project
Just movies to direct. I think it’s been a long time working on Severance, wanting to go out and make a movie that’s not a 10 hour story, because that is challenging to have a beginning, a middle, an end in two hours. There’s a movie of the Rachel Maddow podcast, Bagman, that I’m trying to get made.

That we’re kind of close on, which was about a political story from 1973 that the Vice President of the United States was a crook, after Richard Nixon, was a crook and was about to be impeached. And these young assistant U.S. attorneys in Baltimore stumbled onto this case where they realized the Vice President was taking kickbacks and was a crook also and was about to become President.

It’s a great podcast and it’s kind of an underdog story about these young guys who were in their 20s, who had to go to the Attorney General of the United States and say, “We got to prosecute the Vice President,” so that’s one.

And gosh, there’s a World War II movie I want to make about a turret gunner in a B-24 that gets shot down over occupied France and a survival story, how he has to get home.

I love movies and I’m really excited about making something for the big screen, because there’s nothing like going to the movies. And I’m really happy that the filmmakers who are Chris Nolan and Chris McQuarrie and people who are making these big movies-

Ben Stiller tells Apple Music about Season 3 of ‘Severance’
It’s also like a gift, too. Because you’re like, “How lucky are we that we have a show that when season three does come out, that there will be people who are waiting to see it?” I mean, honestly, that’s probably the most challenging thing making stuff these days, is there’s so much out there, video games, phones, movies, TV, everything. To have something that there’s going to be an audience waiting for it and they’re going to be critical and they’re going to be really ready for it and asking questions and you need to make sure it’s good, but they’re there.

And for me, that’s the gift. So it’s just, again, going back to that instinct inside, for all of us who are making the show, what do we want to see, what interests us? What do we think will be surprising? What do we think will be true to the show? It is a question on a show like this, what is the heart of the show? Is it the relationships, is it the mystery? Is it what is Lumon up to? All those things, there’s so many different aspects to it.

And ultimately, the show is, look, we’re human beings. So I feel like ultimately, the human connection is what it’s all about, the human experience. And to me, anything that I ever watch, it’s always on an emotional level, when something hits me on an emotional level, moves me, makes me feel connected to the world or to other people in some way, the stuff we were talking about earlier, that’s what it’s all about. And I think that’s always been sort of, for me, what the point of the show is. That’s not giving anything away, is it?

Tee time has officially been confirmed — Happy Gilmore 2 arrives on Netflix on July 25, 2025!

New stars swing into Happy Gilmore 2! With Sunny Sandler, Sadie Sandler, John Daly, Blake Clark, and Paige Spiranic, the cast just got a ‘hole’ lot bigger. Check out the new teaser trailer below!

DIRECTOR: Kyle Newacheck
WRITERS: Tim Herlihy & Adam Sandler
PRODUCERS: Adam Sandler, Tim Herlihy, Jack Giarraputo, Robert Simonds
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Judit Maull, Kevin Grady, Dennis Dugan, Barry Bernardi, David Bausch, Dan Bulla
CAST: Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, Ben Stiller, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, John Daly, Sadie Sandler, Sunny Sandler, Conor Sherry, Ethan Cutkosky, Philip Fine Schneider, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Travis Kelce, Blake Clark, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Paige Spiranic.

LOGLINE: Happy Gilmore returns!

Apple CEO Tim Cook and “Severance” executive producer and director Ben Stiller engaged in a conversation over X, complete with “Severance”-themed video starring Tim C. and Mr. Milchick, played by Tramell Tillman. See it below!

Don’t forget to tune-in for a new episode streaming now on Apple TV+. Praise Kier! 

Critics and global audiences alike hail “Severance” as “one of the best series of the decade” and “arguably the best show on television.” Brought to you from the un-severed minds of director and executive producer Ben Stiller and creator, writer and executive producer Dan Erickson, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning workplace thriller premiered globally with the first episode on Friday, January 17, 2025 on Apple TV+, and follows with one episode every Friday through March 21, 2025.

This week’s episode “Goodbye, Mrs. Selvig” premieres today and finds Outie Mark contemplating the meaning of a message while Helena, Irving and Dylan grapple with the fallout of the Overtime Contingency. 

TIFF ’24 officially has kicked-off and it was an action-packed start to the Festival!

Sightings from the day include:

•Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor and David Gordon Green here for NUTCRACKERS – the official Opening Night Gala
•Katy Perry surprising at the premiere of husband Orlando Bloom‘s THE CUT, plus his Co-star, Catriona Balfe
•The Tragically Hip unveil new Prime Video Docu-Series: THE TRAGICALLY HIP: NO DRESS REHEARSAL; it was celebrated on Festival Street with a singalong
•The Cast of Bonjour Tristesse including Chloe Sevigny and Lily McInerny
•Kiernan Shipka at the Festival with THE LAST SHOWGIRL
•Shamier Anderson with THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA

…and more!

In case you missed our chat with CP24‘s Bill Coulter earlier in the day!

(Photo/video credit: Mr. Will Wong)

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival will kick off with David Gordon Green’s Nutcrackers starring Ben Stiller on September 5, 2024 and close with Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut The Deb on September 15, 2024 both making their World Premiere at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the Gala programme, sponsored by Dyson.

“This year’s Festival is shaping up to be a star-studded event with highly anticipated films that reflect the world around us with humour and empathy, like our Opening and Closing Night selections, Nutcrackers and The Deb,” said Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. “TIFF aims to showcase both returning and first-time directors to the Festival on a big stage, and we are excited for fans to experience these two films — and the many diverse works premiering in between.”

David Gordon Green’s Nutcrackers follows strait-laced and work-obsessed Mike (Ben Stiller) as he is suddenly thrust into being a caregiver for his rambunctious, orphaned nephews. Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut, The Deb, is an original musical comedy about two teenage cousins who dig deep to find self-acceptance and a date to the Debutante Ball in a small country town in Australia.

Film details (in alphabetical order):

The Deb | Rebel Wilson | Australia
World Premiere | Gala
Sales Title – Rights Available (WME)

Nutcrackers | David Gordon Green | USA
World Premiere | Gala
Sales Title – Rights Available (UTA Independent Film Group)

More Festival details will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets for TIFF ’24 go on sale to TIFF Members by level beginning on Friday, August 16. For more details, visit tiff.net/join. The full Festival schedule will be released on Tuesday, August 13.

SEVERANCE will be back for a second season, as confirmed today by Apple TV+! The first season of the hit Series directed and produced by Ben Stiller concludes this Friday.

Synopsis:

In “Severance,” Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in ‘work-life balance’ is called into question as Mark finds himself at the centre of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself.  

This Friday’s highly anticipated finale episode, titled “The We We Are,” will see the team discover troubling revelations. 

(Photo/video credit: Apple TV+)

Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette star in workplace Thriller SEVERANCE. Ben Stiller serves as Executive Producer. See the new Trailer for the Apple TV+ Series.

Synopsis:

In “Severance,” Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in ‘work-life balance’ is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself.

“Severance” reunites Emmy and DGA Award winner Ben Stiller with Academy Award and Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette (“Escape at Dannemora,” “Boyhood”), who stars alongside Adam Scott (“Parks and Recreation,” “Step Brothers”), Emmy Award winner John Turturro (“The Plot Against America,” “The Night Of”), Britt Lower (“High Maintenance,” “Casual”), Zach Cherry (“You,” “Succession”), Dichen Lachman (“Jurassic World: Dominion,” “Altered Carbon”), Jen Tullock (“Before You Know It,” “Bless This Mess”), Tramell Tillman (“Hunters,” Dietland”), Michael Chernus (“Orange is the New Black,” “Patriot“) and Academy Award winner Christopher Walken.

SEVERANCE arrives on Apple TV+ February 18, 2022.

(Photo/video credit: Apple TV+)

Review by Amanda Gilmore for Mr. Will Wong

The Film follows Brad Sloan (Ben Stiller) who brings his teenaged son (Austin Abrams) to tour colleges which triggers his mid-life crisis. He starts comparing his life to those of his wealthy, successful friends and struggles with finding happiness in his comfortable suburban life.

With Brad’s Status, Writer/Director Mike White makes this mid-life crisis story different from others by inserting Brad’s narration, which helps express the Film’s message clearly. Although the message about comparing others to ourselves will only make us less happy is touching, it being incessantly relayed becomes tiring. What makes up for the repetitive message is a great performance from Stiller and the strong chemistry he and Abrams have as father and son.

Brad’s Status screens at TIFF on Sept. 9 at the Winter Garden Theatre at 8:30PM, Sept. 10 at the TBLB1 at 11:45 AM and Sept. 16 at TBLB1 at 9:30PM.

We literally are just under two weeks away from the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The Cast of ZOOLANDER 2 were in Paris this weekend doing Press and it literally was all WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK! as Supermodel Cara Delevingne joined Ben Stiller in a walk-off by the Eiffel Tower.

You must see this!!

As if this weren’t amazing enough, Stiller and Owen Wilson dressed as their Zoolander 2 characters Derek and Hansel, modelling through the windows of the Valentino storefront in Rome also! People went crazy with tons of Instagram footage to be found!

See below:

#BenStiller & #OwenWilson for Valentino and Zoolander 🎬🎥 •

A video posted by Francesca De Virgilio (@francesca8___) on Jan 31, 2016 at 8:10am PST

Also, if you haven’t had a chance to #BLUESTEELSELFIE yourself like I have, you can do that RIGHT HERE!

You ready for a #BlueSteelSelfie? Get yours at BlueSteelSelfie.com. 📷 #Zoolander2

A photo posted by Mr. Will Wong ⛄ (@mrwillwong) on Jan 29, 2016 at 12:28pm PST

Paramount Pictures Canada release ZOOLANDER 2 on Friday, February 12, 2016.

(Photo/video credit: Francesca De Gilio/Mr. Will Wong/Paramount Pictures Canada)

When we saw its Trailer, our hearts raced. Now Paramount Pictures Canada + Mr. Will want to take you first to see the movie event of the year, ZOOLANDER 2!! Screenings take place Wednesday, February 10, 2016 in Toronto and Montreal.

Synopsis:
Derek Zoolander is back! Zoolander 2 is in theatres February 12, 2016.

See the Trailer:

Artwork:

To enter to win, simply click “like” on this Post at Mr. Will on Facebook and indicate your City.  Click “share” from there for an extra chance or Tweet out the below:

http://www.mrwillwong.com/zoolander2 @MRWILLW wants us to #win Advance Passes to see #ZOOLANDER2!  Out 2/12.

Don’t forget, we also have a T-Shirt Giveaway too right here.

Paramount Pictures Canada release ZOOLANDER 2 on Friday, February 12, 2016.

(Photo/video credit: Paramount Pictures Canada)