Ben Stiller is opening up about the challenges of parenthood and how his family’s Hollywood legacy has shaped the way he raises his own children, who are also in the story.
The 59-year-old actor and filmmaker, who shares daughter Ella, 23, and son Quinlin, 20, with wife Christine Taylor, recently reflected on his journey as both a parent and a child of two famous entertainers while promoting his new documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.
Appearing on The View Thursday, Ben spoke about how growing up as the son of comedy legends Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara has influenced his own parenting, especially now that both of his kids have chosen to follow in his footsteps.
“Having kids who are now actors also, and experiencing that, that became part of the movie in terms of talking to them about how cyclically, generationally these things get handed down,” he shared.
“You want to do better than your parents. In some places, you do better, sometimes worse. It’s that struggle we all go through.”
That same day, Ben appeared on Today, where co-host Savannah Guthrie praised him for engaging in raw and emotional conversations with his family on camera.
The Meet the Parents star said that while making the film, he became more aware of how his parents’ dynamic shaped his own relationships.
“I realized the influence my parents had on me and my sister and all parents have on their kids has influenced my relationships with my wife and my kids,” he explained.
“As I got deeper into looking at my parents’ relationship, I realized I had to acknowledge my own relationships and the effects that they had on that. So it became more of a family story.”
As part of the project, Stiller interviewed his wife and children, uncovering moments of honesty he hadn’t previously shared with them.
“As I was watching cuts, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I’ve never really talked about any personal stuff like this,’” he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Thursday.
In the documentary, Ben’s children didn’t hold back their feelings about his absence while they were growing up.
Ella told him directly, “I literally can’t ever remember you being around when I was growing up.” Quinlin echoed her thoughts, saying it often felt like parenting came “last” on his father’s list of priorities.
“After a tough day, or if something was going wrong, you can kind of get into your own head and when you get into that place, it’s hard to get you out of it,” Quinlin said.
“You have all these hats that you’re trying to balance — being a director, an actor, a producer, a writer. But also just, like, a father.”
He also admitted it was difficult when his dad was gone for long stretches due to filming.
Ben, who once believed he had managed to find balance between work and family, acknowledged that he hadn’t realized how deeply his absence affected his children.
“I thought I was pulling it off,” he admitted in the documentary.
“I was flying home on weekends and finding special places for the kids to play when they would visit the set. But in reality, just hearing them talk about it, for them, it was the same thing I was going through as a kid and I just couldn’t see that at all.”
Earlier this month, Stiller told The Times that he “f–ked up” raising his kids, a blunt admission that shows his willingness to confront past mistakes.
Through the making of Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, the actor seems to be not just honouring his parents’ legacy but also working to redefine his own, as a father striving to learn, reflect, and do better.
