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Ben Stiller: Reality Bites
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Ben Stiller movies began in 1994 with the critically acclaimed Reality Bites, in which he ... co-starred with Winona Ryder, Janeane Garofalo and Ethan Hawke. He went on to direct Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick in The Cable Guy for Columbia Pictures.
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Ben Stiller is shooting a new movie in Hawaii called Tropic Thunder - it's a war comedy, which sounds HILARIOUS - and that's why he's wearing those weird hooks. So, it'd be fine if the kid wasn't there, but don't you think Stiller almost stroking the cheek of a toddler (with his huge hook!) is a bit more creepy than cute?
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[T]his was the background Ben Stiller was born into and grew up with. Naturally, it would be a heavy, heavy influence on his character and his future. Amy and Ben were not kept away from their parents' work and quickly took to entertaining themselves and others with little plays, performing songs from Jesus Christ Superstar, Ben borrowing Amy's tights for their attempts at Shakespeare. Watching his parents rehearse, he recognised the wit and work required to build a successful show. And ... seeing them switch into character on and off screen, he did not long possess a childish belief in the "reality" of movies and TV series.
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The following year, Stiller debuted as a feature film director with the twentysomething angst romcom Reality Bites (1994), in which he ... starred alongside Winona Ryder and a memorably grungy Ethan Hawke. The film was a relative critical and commercial success and scored with Gen-Xers; unfortunately, Stiller's next directorial effort, 1996's The Cable Guy, flopped. A black comedy that cast Jim Carrey as the psychotic title character, who perpetually molests client Matthew Broderick and refuses to leave his side, the film failed to register with critics and audiences, largely because of its uncertain approach to the material. After a small part as nursing-home orderly Hal in the Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore (1996), Stiller rebounded with a starring role in David O. Russell's Flirting With Disaster (1996). The relatively positive reception afforded to that comedy helped to balance out the relative failure of Stiller's other film that year, If Lucy Fell. It was not until two years later, however, that Stiller truly stepped into the limelight.
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For the following two years, Stiller once again contented himself largely with bit parts (2004's Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2006's Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny) until the Christmas 2006 release A Night at the Museum. In this effects-heavy fantasy, adapted from the popular children's book by Milan Trenc, Stiller plays Larry Daley, the new night watchman at New York City's Museum of Natural History, who discovers that the exhibits all spring to life after hours, from a giant skeletal Tyrannosaurus Rex to a waxen Teddy Roosevelt -- and seem content to hold Larry hostage. With supporting turns from such old pros as Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney (reunited onscreen for one of the first occasions since 1969's The Comic) and magnificent special effects, the effort split critical opinion, but shot up to become one of the top three box-office draws during the holiday season of 2006.
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In 1988, Stiller made his big-screen acting debut in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun. That year, he ... wrote and directed a comedy short parodying Tom Cruise ("The Hustler of Money") which led to a gig on Saturday Night Live as a featured player and writer. Later, Stiller directed the short comedy film Elvis Stories, which included bits with John Cusack, and the hilarious Mojo Nixon video "Elvis is Everywhere."SNL may have been short-lived, but it got him noticed by MTV folks, who gave him his own, similarly short-lived Ben Stiller Show (with Jeff Kahn) in 1990. Two years later, as a follow-up to In Living Color, Fox picked up The Ben Stiller Show,only to cancel it after one season. Stiller got his revenge by winning the Emmy for comedy writing.
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