Emmy Award–Winning Comedian Ben Stiller Latest Cinemathèque Speaker
Emmy Award–Winning Comedian Ben Stiller Latest Cinemathèque Speaker
Shared wisdom and screened Severance at a packed Tsai Performance Center Friday night
Actor, director, and producer Ben Stiller spoke to a packed Tsai Performance Center Friday night, discussing his decades-long career and his role in directing and producing the critically acclaimed Apple TV+ hit Severance.
Best known for his roles in blockbuster films like Meet the Parents, There’s Something about Mary, Night at the Museum, and Zoolander, Stiller kicked off the two-hour-plus program on an earnest note, saying that his goal was to make sure students left feeling like they learned something. The Emmy Award–winning comedian held to that promise, encouraging students to take risks and cultivate their voice and offering tips on how to take criticism without feeling beaten down. “My hope is that this [night] is productive and ends up being in some way helpful,” he said.
Stiller spoke as part of the College of Communication’s Cinemathèque series, which brings celebrated filmmakers to campus to screen and discuss their work.
He was invited to campus by an old friend, Jeff Kahn, a COM lecturer in film and television, who emceed the evening. Kahn was one of the cocreators—with Stiller—of the sketch comedy show The Ben Stiller Show, which ran from 1992 to 1995 and earned them the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program in 1993. Their team also included now–Hollywood powerhouses Judd Apatow and Bob Odenkirk.
Stiller shared that he and Kahn met in their early 20s when they were trying to figure out what they wanted to do. “I feel like this time is a very amazing time in your life, when there are so many different possibilities,” Stiller said. “I think it’s great to talk about.”
He grew up thinking he wanted to direct and not follow in the footsteps of his famous actor-comedian parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, considered one of the most successful comedy duos ever. But seeing episodes of the Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV (which launched the careers of Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and John Candy) sparked Stiller’s interest in comedy.
He and Kahn started in the business together, making a short film and then a sketch comedy show, which eventually became The Ben Stiller Show. “So this could be you guys in 40 years,” Kahn said. “Sitting here with an international superstar, loved all over the world. And the other a teaching…adjunct.” He got huge laughter.
Stiller’s insight from codirecting and executive producing Severance took up a large chunk of the evening. The sci-fi thriller, about office workers who opt to have their work and home life memories surgically separated, received 14 Emmy nods and 2 wins last year, for outstanding production design and casting. It stars Adam Scott, John Turturro, and Oscar-winner Patricia Arquette.
Severance creator Dan Erickson wrote the pilot as a spec script and sent it to Stiller’s production company, Red Hour Films, on the off chance Stiller would like it. He did. “His writing was so clever and smart, and when I read that opening, I was intrigued,” Stiller said. “I got excited about putting it together… When you read something like this, you don’t want to screw it up.”
The team is currently working on season two, halted because of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, which ended September 27, after 148 days. The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union is still on strike, although reports say it could end as early as this week.
Friday night was the first time Stiller had seen the Severance pilot in front of an audience. The first season was produced at the height of the coronavirus pandemic and couldn’t be screened in front of a large crowd. After the Tsai audience watched the hour-long pilot, the lights went back up, and Stiller returned to the stage.
Overhearing gossip about yourself in a high school bathroom
“It was so exciting for me tonight because you guys were laughing at the places I was laughing,” he said. A pleasant experience, compared to what happens when a film studio gives their opinion or screens a movie in front of a test audience, he noted. He likened those screenings to being in the bathroom in high school and overhearing gossip about yourself—a somewhat painful experience that sometimes leads to both hard truths and frivolous notes.
“You have to be able to sift through it, so that you can kind of get through the system in a way, but never lose what you really want to say,” Stiller said. “And I know that’s easy to say, because when you’re starting out, you need to [do that] if you want to work within the mainstream.”
Students eagerly asked questions during the evening’s Q&A portion. One asked Stiller his advice on balancing the fears of feedback and criticism from audiences and critics who review his work.
Stiller laughed, saying, “This is the conversation I have with my therapist every week.” He recommended starting with showing their work to an audience receptive to it, then increasing the size of the review group to mutual friends. “Everybody is going to have a different point of view,” he said. “But if five or six or seven people keep saying, ‘There’s something about the beginning,’ then maybe that’s something there that you should look at.”
Kahn advised that students take the feedback in the spirit it’s given, but without taking it personally. Trusting somebody with your work and having them give you a bad grade can be hurtful, he said. “Try to think in terms of, it’s not a good or bad thing, but can it get better?”
Stiller acknowledged that the film industry “has changed totally in the last 15 years in terms of the kinds of movies being made.” A billion-dollar movie is considered a success versus a $100 million movie. “I think you have to dissociate from that, and just make the movie you want to make,” he said. “I do think that there is an independent film world out there that is excited about new voices, and people are going to respond to your courage in making something that is your story.”
And this mindset sometimes pays off. Take quirky New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi, who has directed two Thor films, or the example of Greta Gerwig directing this year’s blockbuster, Barbie. “She’s going to be coming at it from a totally different place as an artist,” Stiller said. “And it’s really great when artists like that can go into the mainstream. So I think you have to just do it; you have to commit to it. And trust that good work does get discovered, it does get seen, and it’s very important to do it.”
Stiller took a few more questions before the evening ended, politely declining an invitation from one student to his birthday party after the event (he had to drive home to New York, he said). He remained on stage for nearly 40 minutes and was mobbed by students hoping to shake his hand and take a selfie.
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