Ben Stiller has admitted that he felt "blindsided" by the commercial and critical failure of Zoolander 2, which arrived 15 years after its much-loved predecessor.
As reported by People, Stiller, who wrote, produced, directed and starred in Zoolander 2, addressed the movie flopping on an episode of David Duchovny's Fail Better podcast, which premieres May 7. He told the host the reception took him by surprise because he didn't anticipate it after the popularity of the first film.
"I thought everybody wanted this," Stiller said of the 2016 sequel. "And then it's like, 'Wow, I must have really f**ked this up. Everybody didn't go to it. And it's gotten these horrible reviews."
"It really freaked me out because I was like, 'I didn't know [it] was that bad?''' Stiller confessed, admitting it led to some self-doubt. "What scared me the most on that one was I'm losing what I think what's funny, the questioning yourself... on Zoolander 2, it was definitely blindsiding to me. And it definitely affected me for a long time."
Zoolander 2 was one of the biggest box office flops of 2016, earning $56.7 million worldwide against a $50 million budget, which, along with poor reviews, seemingly squashed any thought of another movie about the titular fashion model. Stiller now says he is grateful because it allowed him to pursue other creative projects.
It was definitely blindsiding to me. And it definitely affected me for a long time.
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"The wonderful thing that came out of that for me was just having space where if that had been a hit, and they said 'Make Zoolander 3 right now,' or offered some other movie, I would have just probably jumped in and done that," Stiller said. "But I had this space to kind of sit with myself and have to deal with it and other projects that I had been working on — not comedies, some of them — I have the time to actually just work on and develop.
"If somebody said, 'Well, why don't you go do another comedy or do this?' I probably could have figured out something to do. But I just didn't want to," he added. "Finding yourself in terms of what creatively you want to be and do, I always loved directing. I always loved making movies. I always, in my mind, loved the idea of just directing movies since I was a kid, and not necessarily comedies. And so, over the course of like the next like, nine or 10 months, I was able to develop these limited series."
Stiller no longer had to try and perfect his 'Blue Steel' pose, so he instead turned his attention to co-directing Apple TV+'s award-winning sci-fi thriller series Severance. It didn't take long for the acclaimed workplace thriller to get renewed for a second season, though production only picked back up in January of this year.
Stiller hasn't completely turned his back on comedies or sequels, though. Another chapter of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is apparently in the works, with Vince Vaughn returning to star in it and likely produce. According to Stiller's IMDb profile, he is also back on the team, stepping in to produce the follow-up to the 2004 movie.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter @AdeleAnkers.
