In my reading of your work, around 2010, a real change happened. He started out doing a few big, broad comedies and instead made films like “Greenberg,” “When We Were Young” and “The Meyerowitz Stories.” He did “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “Brad’s Situation.” This is all about middle-aged guys working on big questions. Was doing that the result of a conscious decision to start making a different kind of film? Yes. At that time I went back to New York. I lived in LA for 20 years, and I wanted to try to spend more time at home and try to work closer to home. But for me, the turning point in my opinion was after “Zoolander 2.” It was a feeling of, everybody wants this and I’m going to do it, and I was happy to do it, and nobody wanted it! I was like that, but you said you want it! And, really, was it that bad? That’s when I was like, I have to make a choice. I want to do these other things and not walk away if someone gives me “Zoolander 3.” But “Zoolander 2” gave me a gift that no one will give me in “Zoolander 3.” [Laughs.] Also, my marriage was not in good shape. There was a lot going on.
You mentioned that your marriage is in bad shape. You and your wife, Christine Taylor, separated for a while and then reconciled. I saw him on Drew Barrymore’s talk show, and he expressed the idea that breakups and reconciliations were the result of what he called the “spirits of growing up” in adults. What was your progress during that time? When we broke up, it was just to find space to see what our relationship was like, what my life was like when we weren’t in that relationship, how much I loved our family. It was like we were not together for three or four years but we were always in touch. In my mind I didn’t want us to be together. I don’t know where Christine has been, you’ll have to ask her, but Covid brought us all together in one house.
An act of God. Yes. We had been living in the same house for almost a year before we got together. But I’m very grateful for it, and I don’t think many people get back together when they break up. There is no such thing, when you come back. You have more appreciation for what you have, because we know we wouldn’t have it.
My understanding is that you are working on a documentary about your parents, Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller, a comedy team. If people don’t know the band, they definitely know that your dad played George Costanza’s dad on “Seinfeld.” Yes.
Reviewing the documentary revealed your understanding of your parents? I realize it’s going back to my issues with them. I feel so lucky to have all this video of my parents and our family on these Super-8 films that my father took and I took, along with the recordings that my father made. For hours and hours, I chat with my mom while they sketch or come up with ideas. Or sometimes he would record us because he wanted to hear our voices. I was thinking about it this morning: how much I love my father but also that conflict of unwillingness be father, but everybody loves father. And as a son, I would like to be loved as my father was loved because he was a lovely person. But then there is also something to say, But I am here me.
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