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Feature by: Jack Foley
FOR a man who has earned a reputation for himself as being the
unlikeliest of romantic leads, given his accident-prone nature,
onscreen, Ben Stiller remains remarkably coy about his own amorous
adventures.
Speaking at the London press conference for his latest movie,
Along Came Polly (which places him alongside Jennifer Aniston),
the happily married star states that he hated to play the dating
game, and has very few disastrous or embarrassing first-date stories
to tell.
"I just hated dating; it took so much energy, and that idea
of putting a front, or the idea of putting the best possible version
of yourself, takes a lot of energy to keep up," he confessed.
"I always used to look forward to the time where you don't
have to do that anymore. So I got married."
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The character he plays in the movie, therefore, a risk-assessment
adviser, who ‘has a really clear idea of what he thinks his
life is going to be’, is not that far removed from the real-life
Stiller, although he does like to leave things ‘a little
bit loose’.
The film, itself, offered him the opportunity of reuniting with
Meet The Parents screenwriter, John Hamburg, while also appearing
alongside the likes of Aniston, Philip Seymour Hoffman and, most
notably, Alec Baldwin - and it proved an opportunity too good
to resist.
"I really enjoyed having the opportunity to work with Alec
Baldwin, so the scene we had in the bathroom together was really
fun, because I never really had a chance to work with him…
"And I was very happy to work with Phil Hoffman, because
I think he is an incredible actor, and I think it's great for
him to be doing something that's light and funny. I thought seeing
him in a different light was cool."
Of Aniston, he adds: "Working with Jennifer was consistently
fun, every time that we would do a scene. She's so there, in the
scene, and there's so much coming back and forth."
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