Interview with Ben Stiller by Gregory Crewdson

Ben Stiller on early influences, Noah Baumbach, and the line between humor and sadness. 

Part of Yale MFA Photo's Pop-up Q&A series via zoom, which started in response to online learning during the 2020 pandemic.

Interview with Ben Stiller by Patrick McEnroe

Interwview with Ben Stiller.

🎙️ #StayAtHome and listen to the interview with #BenStiller❤️
👉https://t.co/PK86pwZwpE https://t.co/VBXqgUAA2P

— Dorotejka / The Great Ben Stiller Fan Club (@BenStillerFan1) April 24, 2020

Stay At Home with Ben Stiller: Stella (1990)

Stay At Home with Ben Stiller and watch the movie:

STELLA (1990)

https://amzn.to/2VwcymX

Director: John Erman
Screenwriter: Robert Getchell
Based on:  Stella Dallas 1923 novel by Olive Higgins Prouty
Starring: Ben Stiller (as Jim Uptegrove), Bette Midler, John Goodman, Trini Alvarado, Stephen Collins, Marsha Mason
Release date: February 2, 1990
Running time: 109 minutes

Stella (Bette Midler) is a feisty woman working in a bar when she meets and falls for the suave charms of the young Dr. Steve Dallas (Stephen Collins). Although from opposite ends of the social spectrum, they start an affair resulting in Stella becoming pregnant. 

After he proposes half-heartedly, she rejects him and embarks upon raising their child Jenny as a single mother but is always helped and encouraged by her stalwart friend, a local good natured barfly, Ed Munn (John Goodman). 

Stella is fiercely independent and proud and is determined to do well by this child and take on whatever jobs she must to raise her daughter properly. 

When Jenny is 4 years old, her father suddenly reappears on the scene and is determined to get to know his daughter. At first reluctant to allow this, Stella is persuaded to allow contact, and a happy bond develops between the father and daughter. 

As Jenny (Trini Alvarado) grows up, she becomes torn between her father's rich and well-connected background, and her loyalty and love for her mother who is poor and vulgar but devoted to her daughter. She also despises the perceived relationship she sees developing between Stella and Ed Munn who is now a broken alcoholic. 

Jenny eventually meets and falls for a boy from her fathers 'world' and Stella realizes that now, the disparities in her own and Jennys father's backgrounds might jeopardize her daughter's future happiness. So she makes a heart rending decision towards the end of the film to ensure that this is not going to happen.

Wikipedia

Movie poster Stella 1990. Starring: Ben Stiller, Bette Midler, Trini Alvarado

Ben Stiller as Jim Uptegrove in the movie Stella (1990)

Ben Stiller as Jim Uptegrove in the movie Stella (1990)

Ben Stiller as Jim Uptegrove in the movie Stella (1990)

Ben Stiller as Jim Uptegrove in the movie Stella (1990)

Ben Stiller as Jim Uptegrove in the movie Stella (1990)

Ben Stiller as Jim Uptegrove in the movie Stella (1990)

Ben Stiller as Jim Uptegrove in the movie Stella (1990)

 

Ben Stiller as Jim Uptegrove in the movie Stella (1990)

The card from Calendar: Elvis Stories (1989)

📅 The card from Calendar:

Elvis Stories - Ben Stiller's directorial debut in 1989. 

Director and screenwriter: Ben Stiller.
Cast: Jeremy Piven, Jeff Kahn, John Cusack, Amy Stiller, Joel Murray, Ben Stiller, Chris Barnes, David Pasquesi, Mike Myers, Ron Dean, Robin Ruzan

Running time: 30 min.

Starting with the music video "Elvis is Everywhere" by Mojo Nixon, the film then goes into a series of spoofs of tabloid Elvis stories: "Elvis is John Lennon", "Hairdresser Possessed by Elvis" and others. 

Elvis Stories movie (1989), directed by Ben Stiller

Stay At Home with Ben Stiller: Next Of Kin (1989)

Stay At Home with Ben Stiller and watch the movie:

NEXT OF KIN (1989)

https://amzn.to/2XWBYM0

Director: John Irvin

Starring: Ben Stiller, Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, Adam Baldwin, Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt

Truman Gates (Patrick Swayze), raised in Appalachia, has migrated to Chicago to become a police officer. Married to Jessie (Helen Hunt), who is pregnant, he seems to have made the transition from hillbilly to respectable lawman. When the local coal mine closes, Truman persuades his younger brother Gerald (Bill Paxton) to look for work in Chicago. But things take a turn for the worse when soon after landing a job as a truck driver, Gerald's vehicle is hijacked by mobsters and Gerald is killed by Joey Rosellini (Adam Baldwin), the nephew of mob boss Papa John Isabella (Andreas Katsulas).

Truman returns to Kentucky for the funeral. When his surviving brother, Briar Gates (Liam Neeson), insists on a traditional mountain blood feud, Truman urges his family to let the police deal with Gerald's murder. Briar finds Truman's reluctance to be disgraceful. Determined to deal with the murderers in his own way, Briar travels to Chicago in search of his youngest brother's killer.

Meanwhile, Truman desperately tries to solve the crime before Briar takes revenge on his own. He approaches John Isabella and explains the mountain code to him. He suggests that if Gerald's murderer surrenders peacefully, it would save them both a lot of trouble. John, however, refuses on general principle, and Truman is left to continue his investigation.

After arriving in town, Briar gets a room at a flop house. Before he leaves, he gives the front desk clerk the phone number of his cousin back home and asks him to call the number if he doesn't return by morning.

Not wasting any time, Briar goes looking for information on the man who killed Gerald and, during his search, shoots up a local mob hangout. When Truman arrives a little later, Joey, embarrassed by the attack, says he is not pressing charges against Briar. He intends to "handle things" himself. When Papa John says he feels things are getting out of hand, Joey dismisses the threat, saying that the Gates family, "plow rocks for a living." John responds, "That's what they said about 'our' people back in Sicily."

Working together for a time, Briar and Truman learn the identity of the hijackers from a witness. Truman pressures Lawrence (Ben Stiller), the son of Papa John, to turn state's evidence against Joey. Lawrence goes to Joey for help, only to have Joey betray him. Lawrence's body is found with evidence of being tortured, and Briar's shotgun is found at the scene. Joey goes to Papa John, who devastated by his son's death, sanctions a hit on the supposed culprit. Before he can, Briar breaks into Rosellini's trucking company and engages in a gunfight with Joey's crew and kills two of Joey's guys before Joey shoots Briar twice. Fatally wounded, Briar dies in Truman's arms.

When the flop house desk clerk hears about the deaths at the Trucking Company on the news, he calls the phone number that Briar gave him.

Even though both Truman and the police know that the evidence against Briar was planted, and that Briar's death was an ambush, there is no proof. Truman resigns from the police force and goes after the Rosellini mob himself. As the Gates family gathers together and travels to Chicago to begin a war against the Outfit, Truman goes on the offensive and throws one of Joey's guys through the window of a restaurant. When Joey comes out, he finds "You forgot one," painted on Joey's car, and he vows to kill Truman without Papa John's permission.

Truman lures the Rosellini crew to a darkened cemetery, where an extended battle ensues, including the arrival of the Gates clan (and their hound dogs and rattlesnakes). In the end, Truman has Joey pinned on the ground with a knife to his throat only to be stopped when Papa John arrives with members of the Gates family held at gunpoint. He orders Truman to drop the knife and move out of the way. Papa John has learned the truth about Lawrence's murder, and to Joey's horror, he points the gun not at Truman, but at him. Joey asks him what is he going to do. The Don tells Joey, "This is for killing my son," and he fatally shoots Joey.

The Gates and Isabella families call a truce. Back at the police station, Truman finds Jessie and tells her, "You're my family."
Wikipedia

Poster of movie Next Of Kin (1989)

Ben Stiller in the movie Next Of Kin (1989)

Ben Stiller in the movie Next Of Kin (1989)

Ben Stiller in the movie Next Of Kin (1989)

The card from Calendar: That's Adequate (1989)

📅 The card from Calendar:

That's Adequate is a 1989 mockumentary documenting a fictional Hollywood studio, Adequate Film Studios. Narrated and hosted by Tony Randall, the film features an all-star cast including James Coco (in his final film role), Robert Downey, Jr., Anne Meara, Jerry Stiller, Bruce Willis and Ben Stiller. It was also the last one for actress Ina Balin, who had also appeared in Hurwitz's previous films such as The Projectionist and The Comeback Trail.

Film poster That's Adequate (1989). Starring Ben Siller, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara, Bruce Willis.

Stay At Home with Ben Stiller: Fresh Horses (1988)

Stay At Home with Ben Stiller and watch the movie: 

FRESH HORSES (1988) 

https://amzn.to/34YHFdF

Director: David Anspaugh

Starring: Ben Stiller, Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Patti D'Arbanville, Leon Russom, Molly Hagan, Viggo Mortensen

Matt Larkin (Andrew McCarthy) dreams of a more creative, inventive life, but has largely made safe, conservative choices. One day, Matt crosses the bridge that spans Ohio and Kentucky and meets Jewel (Molly Ringwald), a country girl different from anyone he's known. Matt is hooked, although he knows getting involved with Jewel will blow his secure life apart.

FRESH HORSES (1988). Starring: Ben Stiller, Andrew McCarthy

FRESH HORSES (1988). Starring: Ben Stiller, Andrew McCarthy

FRESH HORSES (1988). Starring: Ben Stiller, Andrew McCarthy

The card from Calendar: Shoeshine (1987)

📅 The card from Calendar:

In 1987, Ben Stiller and Jerry Stiller starred in the short film Shoeshine (10 min.) by Tom Abrams, nominated for an Oscar. The film won the grand prize for best short film at the prestigious Montreal International Film Festival.

It is humorous story about an old shoeshine man in New York City and the encounter he has with a young Wall Street trader on the Staten Island Ferry.

Film poster Shoeshine (1987). Starring Ben Siller and Jerry Stiller.

Photo from Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume CXII, Number 105, 11 April 1988.

Page from Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume CXII, Number 105, 11 April 1988.

Shoeshine: Columbia's Oscar Hopeful

By Lori Levy

There are few filmmakers who wouldn't love to be standing in Tom Abrams' shoes right now. That's right, his shoes. On this very night, Tom Abrams and his shoes will be shining at the Academy Awards ceremony, where this talented Columbia film student may just walk away with that glistening statue of Oscar himself. A student film which Abrams both wrote and directed was nominated in the category of Best Short Film - Live Action and is called—what else? —Shoeshine. The project began in fall of 1986 when Home Box Office announced the institution of the HBO Cinema Workshop, a program geared toward young film directors. HBO sponsored a contest of sorts —film students could submit scripts for short films, and HBO would choose four of these to license and fund at least partially. Needless to say, one of the scripts chosen was Abrams' Shoeshine, and the rest is history.

Shoeshine is about a young Wall Street broker (Ben Stiller) who encounters an older shoeshine man (Jerry Stiller) on his way home from work on the Staten Island Ferry. While having his shoes shined, the broker engages in friendly banter and down-to-earth, advice-for-living philosophizing with the shoeshine man, who, we find out -at the end, is the young broker's father. The film has already won the grand prize for Best Short at the prestigious Montreal International Film Festival, an honor that made the short eligible for the Academy Awards. But Abrams insists that he had no expectations of grandeur when he set out to make Shoeshine.

"I had no anticipation [of this kind of reaction] whatsoever. Obviously, I'm very excited." But Abrams seemed rather reserved when Spectacle spoke to him just a week ago. His explanation? "You don't want to set yourself up fora fall." The film's stars, Ben and jerry Stiller, are father and son in real life, jerry Stiller is well-known for the popular Stiller and Meara comedy team, which includes his wife, Anne Meara. It may seem odd for a student film to include such a "big name," but Abrams explained that Annette Insdorf, a professor of film at the Columbia Film Division and executive producer of Shoeshine, was instrumental in the acquisition of Stiller as the lead. "Annette knew Jerry, and Ben was working on Broadway at the time. So she [Annette] made the connection. Also, I think one of the reasons he [Stiller] chose the project was that he had the opportunity to work with his son. They were both great to work with." The film was shot on location on the Staten Island Ferry in only two days. Obviously, a location shoot, though effective, could have been an obstacle to the film's production, but Abrams maintained that the city was highly supportive of the project.

"They were great. They let us have the entire ferry boat for two days on a weekend." Other Columbia students and faculty that were involved in the project include Producer Robert Katz, also a student at the Film School; Jim Jones, a cinematographer who works at the Film Division; and, of course, Insdorf. "It's all a matter of who you're working with," said Abrams. "This film had extremely high production values because we were working with very, very competent people." As writer and director, Abrams was the "creative mind" behind the project. He chose to work with Katz because "he's a very good organizer and I had worked with him on his thesis film at Columbia, How High the Moon." Insdorf, as executive producer, was mainly in charge of financing the film, Abrams said. The film cost approximately $9,000 to make, and was partially funded by HBO, which contributed $5,000 to the project. Abrams said, "The rest of the funding was mainly up to us. It became a sort of community project, so we found a lot of local sponsors.

And, of course, all the camera equipment was supplied by the school, which was important because the camera rental alone would have cost thousands." Abrams came to the Columbia Film Division in 1984 after receiving his M.A. in Theatre at Northwestern University. Originally an aspiring actor, Abrams came to New York to perform on the stage but wound up waiting on tables. Since he had always been interested in filmmaking, he decided to attend Columbia instead. "The reason I came to film school was to find a structured environment," Abrams said. "I'm the type of person who needs structure to excel." The Columbia Film Division has had the reputation as a film school that focuses its students on screenwriting and directing rather than film production. Abrams agreed with that assessment, and added that he believes it is a positive focus. "I think the concentration on screenwriting and directing is the right concentration. If you know how to write and direct, you can always find someone to pull the trigger on the camera."

Archive Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume CXII, Number 105, 11 April 1988