Why Ben Stiller will not direct in season 3 of 'Severance'

Ben Stiller's phone is buzzing. Every time someone sends a text message, it alerts it with the sound of the Roy Scheider police chief, Brody, telling Robert Shaw's Quint than his ship, the Orca, is not sufficient to deal with the large 25 -foot white shark that has just seen coming out of the Atlantic.

Stiller apologizes and silence his phone, which continues to vibrate occupied on the table.

When we met in early June, Stiller was in the middle of writing and preparing the next “Severance” season, the science fiction drama that directed all television series with 27 Nominations for Emmy this year. He was also giving the final touches in a documentary about his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. And in a few minutes, I would be leading Rob Reiner's house to film an interview about “This is the spinal tap.” (“It's still so fun,” says Stiller.) Any of these things would be enough to repeatedly summon Chief Brody.

But as the burst arrives the day after New York chief coach Tom Thibodeau, dismissed Spike Lee and Timothée Chalamet in the firmament of the celebrity of New York Knicks Fandom, is probably coach of coach.

“Being a fan of the Knicks is probably eclipsing the rest of my career, which could be something good,” jokes Stiller. He shakes his head. “It's like an addiction.”

Stiller was alone in game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals in Indianapolis when the Pacers eliminated the Knicks. It is still depressed. Oh really. It's like a bad break. Where there was once joy, now there is only pain and absence. It is over, and the bill has won.

Stiller and his 20 -year -old son, Quinlin, really began to see the games this season, years after Quinlin took advantage of being a fan of the Knicks is difficult, with the legacy of failure and heartbreak of the team. Stiller's wife, Christine Taylor, also invested. They went through the ups and downs together, what it helps, says Stiller. If something is going to take care of your life, you could also turn it into a family issue.

“If we are working, you always know what is the day of the game because Ben and John Turturro will meet around a phone between shots,” says the “Severance” Star Adam Scott. “Is deeply important. In fact, I am envious of your passion. “

What happens if the Knicks had defeated the Pacers? We would even be sitting here in Los Angeles speaking right now, I ask. Wouldn't you be at home seeing the final?

“There was a window,” says Stiller. “I would have been fine.” He starts laughing and tells me about a meeting that he recently had in Netflix that coincided with one of the Knicks playoff games. It was one of those sitting where you, talent, talk about the projects of your dreams and what you have cooking and see if there may be mutual interest.

“It was difficult to concentrate,” Stiller recalls. “Fortunately, they understood because they are also fans. They understood it.” Pause. “But I think I'm going to work in Apple due to that meeting. I was very distracted.” He laughs a lot and hard before the memory.

Stiller's parents, comedy duo Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller, are the theme of their next documentary “Stiller & Meara: nothing is lost.”

(Ron Galella / Ron Galella collection through Getty)

At this point, he can consider organizing an intervention, except for the fact that Stiller is one of the most together human beings he has ever met. When we connected again at the beginning of this month, the document about his parents had finished, “Stiller & Meara: nothing is lost” (arriving in October), he was preparing a survival film of World War II that will film in spring and was about to start the next movie “Meet the parents”, “Focker-Low”. He also continued to bury in season 3 of “Severance”, although, for the first time, he will not direct any episode because he will make the war film.

“I am at the point of my life where I am like, 'the clock is working,” says Stiller. And, okay, we are really talking about whether he will be alive to see the Knicks win another championship, more than 50 years have passed, but the point is still valid. It will turn 60 in November. It is a discouraging milestone.

“Sixty sounds old. It is difficult to avoid it,” says Stiller. “And, of course, it is that other thing of, as, you know which one is next.” Series. “'Oh, s -.'”

So, no, there are no firm plans to mark the occasion in November, although Taylor has asked. Stiller has never been one to celebrate birthdays anyway, preferring to use the occasion to take a small stock. He tells me that he thinks of listening to an album by Elton John, saying “Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy”, and realizing that he left 50 years ago. And if you asked someone in 1975 about music in 1925, could they say: “Louis Armstrong and his hot five were far away, man”? Because that's how they spoke half a century ago. Time advances. You can't escape him. When Stiller shoots “Focker-in-Low”, it will be older than Robert de Niro when they made “meet the parents.”

Stiller, on the right, is now older than Robert De Niro, on the left, it was when they faced the 2000 movie “Meet the parents.” Stiller is ready to star in the next sequel “Focker-in-Low”.

(Phillip V. Caruso / Universal Pictures)

What makes Stiller, always the pragmatic, think: “Time is valuable.” That is why he and the “Severance” Dan Erickson show and the writing team have spent much of the year planning season 3 so that Stiller can move away and direct this film that tells the true story of an aviator fallen in occupied France and how it became involved with the French resistance. Stiller also wants to make a film based on the podcast “Bag Man” by Rachel Maddow, which details the bribery scandal that surrounds Spiro Agnew, vice president of Richard Nixon.

“These things take time to join,” says Stiller, “and the older you are, the more you realize that you only have so much time.”

Making the documentary about his parents, an idea that crystallized after his father died in 2020, reinforced that belief. Stiller and Meara were a greatly popular comedy team in the 1960s before leaving professionally on separate roads in the 1970s. Married from 1954 to the death of Meara in 2015, they balanced their creative impulses with a commitment to their marriage and two children. (Stiller has an older sister, Amy). It was not always easy, and the documentary explores the challenges they faced to remain together, the pressures that Stiller also also faced as a husband and father.

“My parents' marriage really affected me in terms of how I thought about our relationship,” says Stiller. He and Taylor separated in 2017, but returned together during the pandemic, and finally reconciled. Stiller did not plan to talk about his own marriage in the doctor, but the parallels made it inevitable, particularly because the children of Stiller and Taylor, she and Quinlin, have also acted.

(Shayan Asgharnia / for times)

Jerry Stiller protected his son's ambitions, so much so that if a critic gave Ben a bad criticism, Jerry would sit and fire a letter. Or if Ben were prepared for a job, Jerry would call his name. When Stiller attended UCLA, he requested an internship with the Alan Thicke night interview program, “Thicke of the Night.” And Jerry called the producer, telling him that he would be making a big mistake if he didn't hire his son.

“I would go crazy,” says Stiller. “He was the most loving dad, but some of those things are just a rite of initiation that you have to go through it. I remember the first work in which I was, 'The house of the blue leaves', and John Simon with the New York magazine walked to me and Christopher Walken in a prayer. And I thought it was great because I knew that Christopher Walken was incredible.”

Stiller does not believe he is an overprotective father. I'm going to listen to your children otherwise, I ask.

“Or Jerry Stiller in the Great Beyond?” Stiller continues, finishing thought with a smile. “It doesn't seem to me.”

Her daughter, she has just made her debut out of Broadway in “Dilaria”, a dark comedy about the destructive relationship between two young women obsessed with social networks. Seeing her on stage was a bit surreal, says Stiller, for many reasons, among which is the language and explicit themes of the work. But seeing his daughter enjoy so well and having the feeling that she was really capable (“he knew he was in good hands”) he filled him with joy that imagined that his parents felt at the beginning of his career.

Of all the things Stiller has now, he could be more nervous about the movie “Focker”, just because he has not acted much in recent years and realizes that it is difficult to make a sequel that is his own story. Years ago, he talked about his Mount Rushmore of actors: De Niro was in him, of course, along with Gene Hackman, Pacino and Dustin Hoffman. Pacino is the only one who has not worked, although he approached, reading for “Author! Author!” With Pacino at the Regency Hotel when he was 15 years old.

Stiller had dinner with Pacino recently. He thinks this may sound strange, but found that Pacino looked a lot like his father.

“They have the same warmth, generosity and love for theater,” says Stiller, smiling. “And when he talks about actors and his work, he is so open about it.”

We both love Pacino's memoirs, “Sonny Boy”, and we talk about how much we enjoy listening to their reading out of the difficult in the audiobook.

“Simply the best,” says Stiller. “It was for such a good company. I would love to work with him.”

He is a big fan of “Severance.” Could Pacino appear in Lumon Industries one day?

“That is not the first time that is discussed,” says Stiller.

New employee?

“New apartment,” says Stiller. We look at each other, hoping to see who flashes first. “I mean, you never know.”

(Shayan Asgharnia / for times)