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 after it was finished.
“It was kind of afterwards, when we got to the point where the movie was what it was, that I started thinking about what it might feel like to have it out in the world, and I had to figure that out for myself,” Stiller said. Reuters.
“Also really thinking about my parents and how they would feel about having something like that out there,” he said Meet the parents actor added.
Stiller created “Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost” to explore the history of his family, specifically his parents, comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
Jerry Stiller and Meara rose in popularity after they made their debut The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963.
The pair also had prolific careers in scripted television shows and co-starred in Rhoda, and The King of Queens.
Meara died aged 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 famous Hollywood parents failed to fully prepare him to become a famous actor parent himself.
“In the beginning, I wanted to try to be that parent who doesn’t make mistakes that their parents made. Of course you end up making all these other mistakes. So that’s the reality of life,” the 59-year-old said.
He recalled traveling with his parents as a child when they were stopped in the street by excited fans.
“It was a constant thing, always kind of 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 handled it with me,” he added.
