Ben Stiller’s Family: Blurring the Lines Between Home and Stage

ting, he says. “I remember as a kid sometimes going and watching them. The early part of my childhood was my dad being on Sullivan and that whole era of show business was really exciting. And even as a kid, you sense the magic of when things were going well for them.”
“It was unusual and tumultuous to have two parents who were in the business the way they were,” Stiller says. “But it was also exciting. And then the ’70s came along and things changed.”
On Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost
For the documentary, Stiller combed through hundreds of hours of audio recordings of his parents. He found humor and depth in their conversations as they navigated their personal and professional lives together.
“They were both very smart and talented people,” Stiller says. “Their act was about love and marriage and being a loving and married couple, and that’s what they were … I look back on them and I see how open they were. They were really a wonderful example of what people can be.”
Stiller says he learned a lot from his parents about show business and, more broadly, about life, love, and loss. “People who are performers help teach you how to appreciate a live moment, how to make the most of it,” he says. “I feel grateful that I was raised in that kind of environment.”