Ben Stiller Removed Chairs From ‘Walter Mitty’ Set, Has a ‘No Phones’ Rule on ‘Severance’ Because ‘It Drives Me Crazy’
Ben Stiller shared how Noah Baumbach’s directing style rubbed off on him while working on “Greenberg.”
Stiller starred in Baumbach’s 2010 rom-com and recalled on Mike Birbiglia’s “Working It Out” podcast that the director had “no chairs” on set.
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“I think it was like 10 days into shooting, and I’m like, ‘Where’s the chairs? Oh my God, there’s no chairs here,'” Stiller said. “And that’s his choice because he doesn’t want to have people sitting around.”
Stiller added that people still found a place to sit down, but it helped keep everyone focused and moving. So, when he directed the adventure comedy “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” a few years later, Stiller adopted Baumbach’s policy.
As Stiller has acted in films from auteur directors like Baumbach and Wes Anderson, he said he has picked up on certain methods of theirs to use on his own projects. “I’ll take something like that, like, ‘That’s a good idea! No chairs,'” Stiller said.
On the Apple TV+ sci-fi hit “Severance,” which he directs and executive produces, Stiller enacted a “no phones” rule.
“Crew have to use phones sometimes to communicate, but, for me, I like no phones anywhere near the eyeshot of the actors,” Stiller said. “My least favorite thing is to see a dolly grip guy hunched down while an actor is acting their brains out, and he’s scrolling or whatever. It drives me crazy.”
Stiller said he wants to shield the actors from seeing cell phones on set because performing in front of the camera is “such a vulnerable thing.”
“As a director, you want to protect that environment for the actors,” Stiller said. “But by the way, you also have to be respectful of the crew. … These people are actually working really hard, and you have to figure out how to motivate them to want to be on the team. They haven’t been with the script that you’ve been writing for five years. They just came on last week. So, it’s on you as a director to figure out a way to get everybody on board.”
Earlier on the podcast, Birbiglia revealed that Stiller considered him for the role of Ricken Hale, the self-serious author of “The You You Are.” Stiller said “we did kind of go down the road” on Birbiglia’s potential casting in “Severance,” but ultimately the part went to Michael Chernus. Still, Stiller told Birbiglia, “You would have been a great Ricken.”
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