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 really kind of after the fact, once we got to the place where the movie was what it was, that I started to think about how it might feel to have it out in the world, and I had to kind of figure that out for myself,” Stiller told Reuters.
“Also, really thinking about my parents, too, and how they would feel about having something like this out there,” the Meet the Parents actor added.
Stiller created “Stiller and Meara: Nothing is Lost” to explore the story of his family, specifically his parents, the comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
Jerry Stiller and Meara rose in popularity after they made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963.
The couple also had prolific careers in scripted television shows and starred together in Rhoda, and The King of Queens.
Meara died at 85 in 2015 following the couple’s 61 years of marriage.
The film arrives in theaters on Friday and then begins streaming on Apple TV+ on Oct. 24.
For Ben Stiller, having well-known Hollywood parents failed to completely prepare him for becoming a famous actor parent himself.
“At the beginning, I wanted to try to be like the parent that 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 being out and about with his parents as a kid when they were stopped on the street by doting fans.
“That was a constant thing, always sort of being 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 dealt with that with me,” he added.
