Ben Stiller didn’t think about how his family would react to his deeply personal documentary about his parents. Stiller and Meara: Nothing is lost, until it was finished.
“It was really after the fact, once we got to the place where the movie was what it was, that I started thinking about what it would feel like to have it out in the world, and I had to find out for myself,” Stiller said. Reuters.
“Also, I really think about my parents and how they would feel if they had something like this,” she said. Meet the parents added the actor.
Stiller created “Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost” to explore the history of his family, specifically his parents, the comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
Jerry Stiller and Meara gained popularity after their debut in The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963.
The couple also had prolific careers on scripted television shows and starred together stem, and The King of Queens.
Meara died at age 85 in 2015 after the couple’s 61 years of marriage.
The film hits theaters on Friday and then begins streaming on Apple TV+ on October 24.
For Ben Stiller, having well-known Hollywood parents didn’t fully prepare him to become a famous actor dad himself.
“At first, I wanted to try to be like the parent who doesn’t make the same mistakes as their parents. Of course, you end up making all those other mistakes. So that’s the reality of life,” the 59-year-old said.
He recalled being out and about with his parents as a child when they were stopped on the street by doting admirers.
“That was a constant thing, always being at the mercy of who your parents would run into as a kid. It can be a little disorienting,” he said.
“And of course my kids dealt with it with me,” he added.
