Ben Stiller Interview, Tropic Thunder

At the press day for Tropic Thunder we snagged Ben Stiller with our Kung Fu grip and made him talk Tropic Thunder! Ben Stiller directed Tropic Thunder from a screenplay he co-wrote with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen. Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr. and Jack Black lead an ensemble cast in this hilarious action comedy about a group of self-absorbed actors who set out to make the biggest war film ever.

After escalating costs and the out of control egos of the cast threaten to shut down the top-heavy Hollywood production, the frustrated director (Steve Coogan) refuses to stop shooting and takes his cast deep into the jungles of Southeast Asia to shoot the film guerilla style for “increased realism.” This is when the unlikely group of self-absorbed prima donnas who came together to film an epic war movie unwittingly wind up in a real battle with the real bad guys.

Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a pampered action superstar on the wane. His “Scorcher” series of post-apocalyptic action epics have played out, and after a desperate attempt for an Oscar nod backfires, Speedman is counting on “Tropic Thunder” to put him back on top.

Here’s what Ben Stiller had to tell us about his filmmaking adventures:

MoviesOnline: That’s a lot of work, writing, producing, directing and acting, will you ever do it again?

BEN STILLER: Yeah. I love the writing, directing, producing, co-writing, you know, co-producing, it’s not all by myself at all. The acting and directing is not something I always want to do. That’s where it gets a little bit crazy sometimes. I really enjoy just the directing part a lot. So that’s what I really hope that I can continue doing when I’m not acting.

MoviesOnline: In this whole process, was there anything that was easier than you thought or more difficult than you imagined?

BEN STILLER: The hardest scene for me in the movie was the scene after the action sequence in the beginning. Strangely, like the scene in the movie, it doesn’t really stand out as looking that complicated, but just shooting the movie crew and shooting the reveal of the movie set. I think it was the combination of having these fake arms on and my hands were tied behind my back and I was playing an actor who was trying to tell the director to cut and the director was saying “Don’t cut” but I was the director in real life. It was very confusing and there was a lot going on and there were so many people in the scene. The action stuff was so specific and we’d spent so many months prepping it with storyboards and pre-viz and all that stuff gets broken down because it has to. But then when we got to this scene where we had to shoot a movie set itself, that was really the most complicated, strangely, and most frustrating. I was really surprised at how hard that was. In general, the action stuff to me was really fun to do because you can actually take time with it and it’s very painstaking, but you get to prep every single shot and you do it one shot at a time. While the other stuff that’s more free form, you kind of have to figure it out as you go along. When you’ve got five or six actors in every scene too, there’s a lot of coverage with the camera. You’ve got to shoot everybody. We had a really good time though and we had really good time to prepare the movie. I had six months or so. And then I got out there for a couple of weeks with the actors rehearsing with the cameraman and we shot angles and did a lot of pre-work on those scenes so that when we got out to shooting them we knew basically how we were approaching it, because I felt like I needed to do that if I was going to be acting in the scenes.

MoviesOnline: How challenging is it to do such a difficult project where you’re the actor but you’re doing everything, and it’s both action and comedy, it’s R-rated, and a difficult subject?

BEN STILLER: For me, I had a great time doing it because it’s a movie I’ve been working on for 10 years in terms of working on the script, to actually make it finally and to be able to make it with the cast that we had and to be able to have the support of the studio and to be able to do it the way we wanted to do it and to make it in Hawaii. I was loving every day of it. I really enjoyed the process. We got to shoot enough that I felt when we got into the editing room, I had a lot of options. The first cut of the movie was 3-1/2 hours so I was happy to have that much to work with.

MoviesOnline: How hard is it to walk that fine line between keeping it funny but keeping it real enough that it doesn’t venture over into being a spoof or a send up?

BEN STILLER: I feel like that’s a line that everybody has their own interpretation of. For me, I knew what I felt was that tone. Sometimes you go one way or the other with it and that’s when you have to adjust, and either you adjust when you’re shooting or you adjust in editing. But it’s tone. Tone is like a feel and you have to feel what’s right. That’s all trial and error when you’re shooting. You definitely sometimes go one way or the other too much when you’re shooting. I found in the writing of the movie, since it was 10 years, like a long time ago when I started this script, I was much more interested in the other movies and the parody elements. So I found that those vestiges that were still in the script that are still in the movie now were harder for me to reconcile with the story of the movie. When I was editing the movie, I felt like the actual story of the movie is what you want to follow. When we’d get to a scene that related to another movie or something, I had to sort of work through that. It was harder to make that work than I had thought and maybe that was because my interest was in that more when I started working on the script 10 years ago.

MoviesOnline: The character you play is very neurotic. As an actor, are you as neurotic as your character is in this film?

BEN STILLER: I think all actors sort of question themselves and have some insecurities and a lot of big stars. You see these guys and you hear stories about big action stars and what they have to deal with because they’re known for how they act or look or this tough guy image that they have to maintain. It’s probably a hard thing to have to maintain. So I think there are elements of ourselves in all these guys that I can relate to.

MoviesOnline: Are you expecting any protests from Vietnam War veterans?

BEN STILLER: I hope not because we tried to make it really clear that this movie is satirizing actors and actors who go to make war movies and really it’s pretty clear in the movie that this is about a bunch of actors who have no idea what they’re doing out in the jungle making a war movie and it’s an experience that they don’t have any connection with. That, to me, was the whole point of every single joke in the movie.

MoviesOnline: Do you think the graphic details and the brutality will have an unconscious impact? Did you think about that when you wrote it?

BEN STILLER: Well you think about what’s going to be funny and what’s not going to be funny. Are you talking about the opening sequence of the movie? That to me, the opening sequence, was really important. We were trying to do this Hollywood version of an over-the-top war movie and that had to go further than what most war movies do. These guys are making this bloated war movie that’s going way too far in all different ways. You don’t assume that that’s going to be the easiest thing to do but I think if we didn’t commit to that, then you wouldn’t get the tone of the humor. I was just at Camp Pendleton last night. We screened it for about a thousand Marines. They were screaming and laughing when Lazarus just holds up the hands or the lack of hands. I think people get that the joke is we’re making fun of the over-the-top nature of these movies and these guys taking themselves too seriously and the joke is on the actors and that had to be really clear.

MoviesOnline: What is the most method thing you’ve ever done as an actor?

BEN STILLER: Probably when I was doing “Permanent Midnight.” I’m trying to get into the head of that character and you just do what you need to do to get to that point. I think it always sounds ridiculous when actors talk about how they do what they do in print. It just does. That’s what the movie is about. You know what I mean?

MoviesOnline: How did you get Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey for this film?

BEN STILLER: Well I sent them the script and basically told them what we were doing and they thought the script was funny so they wanted to be a part of it which was exciting.

MoviesOnline: Can you talk about Tom Cruise’s part? Whose idea was that and could it be interpreted as revenge for his dismissal?

BEN STILLER: I don’t think so. This is all happening in a totally different time period and I don’t think it has anything to do with anything that was going on in the news or anything. Tom just read the script and thought it was really funny and it’s a different role for him and he was willing to go out there and take some chances and do some comedy. It was just fun to see him play this part and really go for it and see audiences laugh and embrace it.

MoviesOnline: Who came up with his dance movements?

BEN STILLER: That’s him. We were doing a make-up test. I was filming a make-up test of him and he said “I really feel like I want to dance with this guy.” And it wasn’t in the script or anything and then he just started moving around and then I got the film back and I put some music to it and it was so good that we said we have to write it into the script.

MoviesOnline: It’s like he’s channeling Sumner Redstone.

BEN STILLER: [laughs]

MoviesOnline: In terms of directing, was it easy for you to be the boss on set with established actors who are also your friends? Did you prepare for that in a certain way in terms of how you handle them, how you talk to them, and the tone you set?

BEN STILLER: I don’t think you prepare. I think it’s just part of making a movie. You know what I mean? You just talk to people like, you know, you just communicate what you’re thinking and you try to listen to the actors and communicate your point of view. I always know as an actor I like to have a director who knows what they want. You don’t want to get on a set and have the director say “So I don’t know what we should do. What do you think?” You want to have a director that says, “Okay. I’m thinking we’d do this, this and this.” And then get the input back from the actors and then you collaborate and you work and you figure it out. It’s a process and it’s a great process because when you’re working with good actors, they’re always going to have good ideas and different ideas than you would have. That’s what the rehearsal process is about. Even in the shooting, the cinematographer is going to have ideas. It’s just a really interesting process. You want to remain open while you’re doing it but also have a clear sense of how you see it. You don’t want to be closed off to new ideas while you’re working.

MoviesOnline: Did you encourage your actors to improvise?

BEN STILLER: Oh yeah. Of course. One of the things I’m going to put on the DVD is some full takes, like full 7, 8, 9-minute long takes where you see Jack improvising or you see Downey improvising. I think it’s interesting to see how these guys work and how they get to one or two lines that’ll be in the movie that are big laugh lines that weren’t in the script, like where that came from.

MoviesOnline: Which is more difficult:  to work in an R-rated movie where you can go broad in the sexuality and violence or to be more subtle in a PG-rated movie?

BEN STILLER: The thing about an R movie is you just have a lot more freedom where you can just say whatever you want and you can do whatever you want. When I knew that we were going to have an R rating for this movie because of the language in the beginning of the movie, that was really driven by the opening war sequence where Downey’s character says, “Get your motherfuckin’ ass in this chopper.” It’s all dialogue that you would hear in a real war movie. I didn’t want to shortchange that so I knew right off the bat we had an R. Then I thought, okay, we can have fun with it and go as far as we want to go. What does that open up? I didn’t want to have an R movie that was just R because there were two fucks in the first five minutes of the movie. That’s not worth it.  

MoviesOnline: Are you proud that you outdid the Farrelly Brothers in terms of being so politically incorrect?

BEN STILLER: No, not at all. Honestly, for me, it’s not going for that. It’s just what is funny in the context of this movie. I’ve read some people talk about how far it goes and that being the point. For me, I hope the movie has a lot of other things going on but that’s part of the tone of it – that it can go that far. But I think it’s good when there’s something surprising that an audience is not expecting.

MoviesOnline: Is it difficult for you to be a comedian when the public always expects something from you?

BEN STILLER: The thing about doing comedy is that people go into a theater and they expect to laugh and that’s it. People are either laughing or they’re not laughing. It’s a tough room. It’s like you’ve got to get people to laugh so I hope I don’t have to do that forever. It’s not like I want to do that every time out. It’s also a great feeling when you can do it and you can feel like something that’s your personal idea of what you think is funny is actually funny to other people too.

MoviesOnline: Are you planning a sequel?

BEN STILLER: No. Not this one. No.

MoviesOnline: The next one could move to Iraq?

BEN STILLER: [laughs] No, I don’t think so. Like I said, I had the concept for this for so long and I felt like this was just what it should be.

MoviesOnline: Is it tough to get a war-themed movie that’s a comedy green lit in Hollywood these days with the war going on?

BEN STILLER: This wasn’t. I feel like this is more a movie about movies and about actors sort of not knowing what they’re doing. To me, you can’t categorize it as a war movie. Also, I’ve been working on this thing since before the war so it was interesting that we were going to be making it while the war was going on. I thought the war would be over a lot earlier. It didn’t affect the making of the movie.

MoviesOnline: The sound track is great and the selection of music is evocative of Vietnam era war movies like Coppola’s and the music of that era such as the Buffalo Springfield. Who made those choices?

BEN STILLER: That was me. That would be me. I’ll take the credit for that. For me, what I wanted to do was have music that was reminiscent of those films but wasn’t actually in those movies. Like the Rolling Stones songs that are in “Apocalypse” or something like “Satisfaction” or whatever. You don’t want to go for what they’ve actually done but you wanted to have something that’s reminiscent of that. “For What It’s Worth” is such a Vietnam era song. I was really happy to get “Sympathy for the Devil” in there and have that sort of mix of music. You had to have some Credence Clearwater just because.

MoviesOnline: Was the helicopter scene over the jungle inspired by Coppola’s film? Do you like “Apocalypse Now”?

BEN STILLER: I love “Apocalypse.” My God, it’s a great film. Visually we looked at all those films. We looked at “Apocalypse.” We looked at “Platoon,” “Deer Hunter,” “Full Metal Jacket,” even “Hamburger Hill.” They had a lot of really good Vietnam films. They’re the archetypical look of these movies. It was really fun to study those movies. One of our aerial cinematographers was one of the helicopter guys who worked on “Apocalypse.” We couldn’t have 9, 10, 11 or 12 helicopters. We had 3 helicopters but we made the best of what we had. It was definitely fun to work in that world.

MoviesOnline: You are on the cover of Men’s Vogue, are you conscious of your style? Do you think of yourself as stylish?

BEN STILLER: No, I try to just wear what’s comfortable. I feel okay with it. I like to wear suits. I feel kind of comfortable in a suit but I’m not very adventurous fashion-wise.

MoviesOnline: Do you look for help when you have to dress up?

BEN STILLER: Yeah, I’ll say to somebody, “Hey, do you think that looks good?” But I don’t want to spend that much time on it. I just want to kind of wear the same thing most of the time, like a dark suit. So that Vogue thing, it’s like “No. We’ve got all these crazy 3-piece suits.” I’m like, “Alright. [laughs] “Well, do I have to?” “Yes, you have to because they’re the ones who are giving us the clothes.” [laughs] It’s really not about you when you’re on the cover of Vogue. It’s about the clothes.

MoviesOnline: This is the second time in a movie, besides “Starsky and Hutch,” that you get stabbed by an Asian kid. Why is that?

BEN STILLER: Oh my God, I never thought of that. Wow. I never thought about that until you said it just now. I don’t know. In this one it just seemed like it made sense for the storyline. You see him actually get stabbed in the back. Yeah, that’s a good one. Wow.

MoviesOnline: You said comedy is really difficult because people either laugh or they don’t, but mostly the dramatic actors get the awards. Do you feel there should be more of a balance, maybe like with the Golden Globes or Oscars that they should have a separate comedy category?

BEN STILLER: I think they should do something. It feels like if they’re not going to recognize comedies, they should either figure out a category or they should start recognizing them. I think people put a lot of work into them and the good ones are very deserving. It’s just sort of a given in Hollywood. I don’t think any actor goes out making a comedy thinking this is the one that’s going to get an Oscar because it just doesn’t happen. But you can’t worry about it. If you worry about it, then you end up making “Simple Jack.”

MoviesOnline: Will “Tropic Thunder” take “Dark Knight” out of the #1 spot at the box office?

BEN STILLER: I’m sure “Pineapple Express” will do it this week. It seems like it. I think they probably will.

MoviesOnline: What did you enjoy most about directing this?

BEN STILLER: Honestly, I didn’t like wearing all the hats. I’m not that excited about the hats. I like directing. I like working with actors. I like working with a crew and a cinematographer and a production designer and creating something that you all feel is what you want it to be. That’s what I enjoy the most work-wise. It’s just the directing process, sitting in the editing room with my editor and making the movie.

MoviesOnline: You’ve worked with a lot of directors before over the years, are there any directors that maybe influenced you?

BEN STILLER: Definitely people like Spielberg. For me growing up, his movies were what made me want to make movies. And then Scorsese and all the great guys, Coppola, those guys who were making movies in the 70s that everybody in my generation watched and I think just wanted to be like [them]. And then the comedy guys, even like Harold Ramis and what he was doing and movies like “Ghostbusters” or Albert Brooks, Woody Allen, and all those guys.

MoviesOnline: Did you get a lot of advice from colleagues when they heard you were going to direct a movie?

BEN STILLER: Directing a movie? No. [laughs] I think people know… I’ve been trying to think, maybe. I got help, like the first movie I directed, Danny DeVito produced so he was really helpful to me and gave me a lot of input and just help and support. I think when you go off to direct a movie, by the fourth time you’re doing it there’s nobody. You can go to people and ask for help but it’s kind of like you’re just doing your thing and you learn a lot every time you go out. I think you get better every time you go out hopefully. It’s a very subjective thing, directing. You ask five different directors about directing, they’ll give you five different answers about how to do it. That’s what’s great about it.

MoviesOnline: Do you see yourself directing more in the future?

BEN STILLER: Yes. Definitely.

MoviesOnline: What do you have coming up next?

BEN STILLER: I’m working on the “Night at the Museum” sequel which we’re shooting up in Vancouver right now. That’s going really well. It’s got a great cast:  Amy Adams, Christopher Guest, and Hank Azaria and it’s just crazy. It’s in the Smithsonian so we’re doing all these different museums like the Air and Space and going into pictures in the National Portrait Gallery. And then after that I’m going to take a break and see what I’ll do next.

“Tropic Thunder” opens in theaters on August 15th.