Ben Stiller reveals biggest career failure: “It really freaked me out”
Hollywood star Ben Stiller has reflected on Zoolander 2, admitting that the movie’s failure to be a success “really freaked me out”.
While the original Zoolander, released in 2001, quickly became a comedy classic, the same can’t be said for the long-awaited sequel. Although fans were desperate for the return of Stiller as the titular Derek Zoolander, the follow-up didn’t hit the same heights as the first movie, and it barely managed to make back its budget at the box office.
It took 15 years for the sequel to materialise, and expectations were sky-high for the movie, which is now a red mark on Stiller’s CV. Due to the sky-high anticipation, the Zoolander 2 star believed the film would be as successful as its predecessor and was shocked when audiences didn’t take to the production.
During an appearance on David Duchovny’s new podcast, Fail Better, Stiller explained: “I thought everybody wanted this. And then it’s like, ‘Wow, I must have really fucked this up. Everybody didn’t go to it. And it’s gotten these horrible reviews.”
Stiller then elaborated on the shock that rippled through his body upon discovering the general reaction to Zoolander 2, stating, “It really freaked me out because I was like, ‘I didn’t know, was that bad?’ 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.”
While the ordeal was a tough pill to swallow at the time for Stiller, it changed the focus of his career, made him look for different kinds of roles, and ultimately, had a positive impact. He shared: “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 continued: “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. Even 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.”
Now, Stiller is starring in the celebrated Apple TV+ science-fiction series, Severance, which is a polar opposite role to Derek Zoolander, but perhaps, if it wasn’t for the failure of the 201, he wouldn’t be in this strong position today.
Listen to the trailer for Fail Better below.