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.
BEN STILLERI don’t know what that weid fantasy is that makes people go, “Oh, you must have had a great childhood.”
More Ben Stiller Quotes
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I don’t need a compass to tell me which way the wind shines !
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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?”
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A eugoogoolizer…one who speaks at funerals…Or did you think I was too stupid to know what a eugoogooly was?
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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.
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I don’t have a burning desire to be taken seriously as an actor. I don’t have a master plan in that way.
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I’ve had a very good career and I’m grateful that the public has had some level of acceptance and appreciation of my work.
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I’m very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together.
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I enjoy the work I do in comedies. It’s a valid test of your creative abilities.
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I would like to do more dramas when I find a good role that will allow me to politely upset people’s expectations of me as a comic actor.
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Maybe forced retirement isn’t necessary after all.
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I have not been an easygoing guy. I think it’s called bipolar manic depression. I’ve got a rich history of that in my family.
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My own parents were touchy-feely.
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It’s what I wanted to do with my life. Not necessarily just direct Jim Carrey movies, but to direct and act and write and create and along the way discover what it is that I’m about.
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I’d love to travel more. I really look forward to traveling with my kids. I’m just waiting for them to want to travel with me.
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I’m Jewish, but my mom’s Catholic, so the guilt area is covered. I have the highest expectations, along with the lowest. I tried to put as much of myself as possible in Reality Bites, but in terms of my humor, I’m still trying to figure out what my sensibility is. It’s a process, really.
BEN STILLER