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.
BEN STILLERI grew up wanting to make movies, and along the way I suddenly found that I had a career doing comedy.
More Ben Stiller Quotes
-
-
The big-name stars . . . are always going to be playing what they’ve played before if they want to remain so-called A-list stars. That’s why someone like Johnny Depp is doing more interesting roles not caring about the size of the movie.
BEN STILLER -
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?”
BEN STILLER -
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.
BEN STILLER -
Oh, you can milk just about anything with nipples.
BEN STILLER -
I’m just not a naturally cheery person. I’m naturally moody. I know that from people who spend a lot of time with me. People who spend a lot of time with me may not wish to spend a lot more time with me.
BEN STILLER -
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.
BEN STILLER -
I don’t think it’s ever easy to be funny. I find it easy to amuse myself with a certain sort of cynical dark humor that tends toward the meaner side, like my character in Happy Gilmore. Those kinds of characters come easily to me.
BEN STILLER -
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.
BEN STILLER -
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.
BEN STILLER -
People like to define you through what they’ve seen you do. There are aspects of my personality, I guess, that come through on-screen, but I don’t sit around thinking, ‘I’ve been a bumbling suitor all my life.’
BEN STILLER -
I’m very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together.
BEN STILLER -
A eugoogoolizer…one who speaks at funerals…Or did you think I was too stupid to know what a eugoogooly was?
BEN STILLER -
It was a mixed blessing to have famous parents. It was tough to go to auditions and be bad, since I couldn’t be anonymous.
BEN STILLER -
When I didn’t have a family, I was much more of a workaholic. 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?
BEN STILLER -
I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is.
BEN STILLER -
Words can only hurt you if you try to read them. Don’t play their game!
BEN STILLER -
There’s always an element of fear that you need to work a lot until people get sick and tired of you or finally figure out that you’re a fraud after all!
BEN STILLER -
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 STILLER -
I wanted to be funny for people who didn’t care about fashion at all, to just to kind of exist as a silly character.
BEN STILLER -
Paul is Starsky, and I met him before shooting. He was very kind and encouraged us to go with what we wanted to do. It was very sweet to see them back with the car after 25 years.
BEN STILLER -
Maybe forced retirement isn’t necessary after all.
BEN STILLER -
I enjoy the work I do in comedies. It’s a valid test of your creative abilities.
BEN STILLER -
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.
BEN STILLER -
I studied Tom Cruise running in all the Mission Impossibles. I think he’s one of the best screen runners.
BEN STILLER -
I actually started working on Madagascar before my daughter was born.
BEN STILLER -
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.
BEN STILLER