for a single month in 1989 SNL had a
writer and featured cast member named
Ben Stiller it was a very brief run but
Stiller it turns out has gone on to make
something of himself in the world of
comedy it seems everyone has a favorite
Ben Stiller movie
there's something about married meet the
parents Zoolander Royal Tenenbaums Night
at the Museum Tropic Thunder just to
name a few still his latest project
though is behind the camera and
decidedly not a comedy he directs the
riveting Showtime series escape at
Dannemora it's the real-life story that
captivated the country in 2015 when two
inmates escaped the Clinton Correctional
Facility in upstate New York with the
help of a prison employee Ben and I got
together over coffee here in New York
for a Sunday sit-down
doing great I like to do it cappuccino
talk about Prison Break yeah exactly
well let's talk about the Prison Break
did you follow it when it was happening
in real time
I actually didn't follow it because I
was out of the country and I knew
nothing so I read the script I was
fascinated and at that point they they
didn't know that much about what had
happened
so Stiller went to find out he visited
the prison in Dannemora New York and
interviewed guards there he also sat
down across from David sweat one of the
two inmates who escaped and led law
enforcement on a three-week chase
through the Adirondacks
he was very affable he said what do you
want to know and hearing his perspective
on the relationship that he had with
Richard Matt was really really helpful
because these two guys came together in
prison and when they actually got out
there on the run together things sort of
changed what did sweat say about those
23 days when the world was looking for
him when you read the transcripts of his
interviews but from the police right
after he was captured he was very
dismissive of Matt he said that he was
fat and got when they were put with
going through the steam pipe that he got
stuck but when I talked to him a few
years later he actually seemed very to
have really warm memories about their
time on the run there both in case
people to know brutal murderers which is
why they're in Clinton to begin with
yeah they both committed heinous crimes
and I think that's an important part of
telling the story to is just to
understand that these guys actually you
know we're not these sort of anti heroes
and that's hard too because when you
tell a prison escape story you're gonna
write identify it right those guys
trying to get out shot partially on
location escape at Dannemora stars
Benicio del Toro and Paul Dano as the
inmates and a nearly unrecognizable
Patricia Arquette as Joyce Tilly
Mitchell the supervisor who helped the
men escape as part of a strange triangle
of prison romance so when you're casting
the series does Patricia Arquette jump
to mind immediately because when you see
her in that first frame first your first
reaction is that
really Patricia Arquette the only thing
I thought was like she's really gonna
have to disappear into this person so
that we're not seeing
you know the Patricia that were used to
seeing and and she was willing to do
that the 53 year old stiller has been
directing since he was a kid growing up
in New York City with his parents the
comic legends Jerry Stiller and Anne
Meara
at age 10 Ben's father gave him his
first camera and Stiller began to make
movies with his older sister Amy so
these were like serious shoots he had
setups and planning and all with your
sister I don't know how serious there
were setups you took serious yeah in the
70s was a you know I was a little edgier
in New York and you could get roughed up
by neighborhood kids and there were a
lot of sort of death wish revenge
fantasy type movies where like I would
get mugged by a kid and then we go into
the park and find the kid and then his
films weren't all quite so dark in 1987
21 year old Stiller made a spoon of the
Martin Scorsese movie the color of money
called The Hustler of money it caught
the attention of Saturday Night Live
creator Lorne Michaels put the short on
SNL two years later Stiller earned a job
with the show no no just accounting in
the early uncertain days of his career
Stiller worked extra jobs to pay the
rent I was a busboy and not a good one
Oh clumsy sometimes oh really yeah drops
and I was also interested in people's
conversation you do that ashtrays swap
out which was he take the ashtray love
the clean one on top and then there's
the dirty one and I just remember Dudley
Moore was sitting at the table talking
to somebody and I came in for the
ashtray swap and I was started listening
to what he was saying and I had my like
I sort of stopped in the middle of my
ashtray swap and he kind of looked in
England
I was like and I totally was like busted
by Dudley Moore in 1990 Stiller signed
on with MTV to write and star in the Ben
Stiller show a mix of comedy sketches
and parodies it was cancelled after one
season but Fox picked it up for a second
it was canceled again and became a cult
classic we won an Emmy nine months after
we were canceled right right which is
crazy but was a critical darling and
remained so today did it feel like a
success to you or did you feel like wow
we got cancelled no it actually felt
like a success because it took us so
long to get on the air I deserve another
shot here
fillers major movie debut came in
reality bites the 1994 romantic comedy
also directed by Stiller that came to
define Generation X but it was a 1998
starring role in the wild blockbuster
comedy there's something about Mary that
first showed Stiller could be a big box
office drunk all of a sudden you know
people were offering movies as an actor
it became a different experience which I
don't think was necessarily altogether
positive like up to that point it was a
little bit looser I think for me because
I wasn't aware of how well a movie did
or didn't do over the next 10 years
Stiller starred in some of the most
successful comedy franchises in the
history of Hollywood China meet the
parents have you ever watched
pornographic videos
Madagascar this is better than steak and
night at the museum I have an 11 year
old and a 9 year old and when they see
you in this interview on my show because
I forced them to watch my show that's
where will they'll say Oh Museum right
ninth Museum is probably the only movie
that my son has watched that I'm in
really yeah maybe like a little bit of
dodgeball you gotta show him Zoolander I
tend to try not to force my children to
watch it's probably wise parenting
escape from Dannemora was nominated this
week for a Golden Globe Award as Best
television limited series or movie and
the show is airing now on Showtime with
a new episode tonight at 10:00 o'clock
Eastern and Pacific
our thanks to Sabet Oh espresso bar for
hosting us to hear about a side of Ben
Stiller you may not know as the young
member of a punk-rock band check out our
web extras at today.com slash Sunday and
don't forget to subscribe to The Sunday
sit-down podcast to hear the entire
unedited interview with Ben Stiller you
can find it on Apple podcasts or
wherever you get yours
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