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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’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

Being Good Life Looking More Real
I’m always willing to endure humiliation on behalf of my characters.
BEN STILLER

Character Comedy Endure
I think this whole celebrity world is weird anyway. Weird and funny and kind of pathetic and yet so right for parody.
BEN STILLER

Kind Thinking World
I recently watched that Lucie Arnaz-produced documentary [Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie, 1992] about her parents [Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz], and I saw so much of my own childhood there.
BEN STILLER

Childhood Home Parent
It’s great to work with the people who make you laugh and who are funnier than I am.
BEN STILLER

Laugh Laughing Make People
The failure of The Cable Guy impacted my career. I had to start writing and acting again.
BEN STILLER

Careers Guy Writing
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

Character Dark Thinking
I was a bad student. I liked archaeology actually, I was interested in maybe becoming an archaeologist but I was such a bad student and had such bad grades that I wasn’t going to get into any really good college so I fell back on acting.
BEN STILLER

Acting Becoming College
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

Fashion Funny Silly
There’s an old saying in Hollywood: It’s not the length of your film, it’s how you use it.
BEN STILLER

Film Hollywood Use
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.
BEN STILLER

New Year Party Years
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

Creativity Grow Spinal Tap Up
I don’t know what that weid fantasy is that makes people go, “Oh, you must have had a great childhood.”
BEN STILLER

Childhood Fantasy People
I don’t think know if anything’s going to translate anywhere. You’re making a movie, you hope it’s going to be funny, you can’t think about how it’s going to go over.
BEN STILLER

Comedy Thinking Translate
The cliches are that it’s the most generic Starsky and Hutch plot you can find.
BEN STILLER

Cliche Generic Plot
Words can only hurt you if you try to read them. Don’t play their game!
BEN STILLER

Games Hurt Play
My own parents were touchy-feely.
BEN STILLER

Own Parent Touchy
I know that I’m better as an actor when I’m working with a good actor. I think anytime you’re working with a better actor, it makes you a better actor.
BEN STILLER

Actor Knows Thinking
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

Country Flirting Fun
I don’t think the public is dying to see me necessarily be funny all the time.
BEN STILLER

Dying Necessarily Public Thinking
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.
BEN STILLER

Anything Disaster Flirting Hour Something
I studied Tom Cruise running in all the Mission Impossibles. I think he’s one of the best screen runners.
BEN STILLER

Cruise Running Thinking
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 STILLER

Drama Expectation People
If you look at my eyes when I’m dancing, you’ll see that glazed look.
BEN STILLER

Dancing Eye Looks
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

People Sick Tired
I don’t even want to think of myself as an actor because it’s such an insecure place to go.
BEN STILLER

Actors Insecure Thinking
I don’t devalue comedy as compared to drama. Not one bit.
BEN STILLER

Comedy Devalue Drama

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.

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Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ben Stiller Quotes