Ben Stiller Reveals How a Comedy Flop 9 Years Ago Deeply Affected Him!

Ben Stiller remains baffled by the monumental failure of Zoolander 2, a flop that continues to perplex him despite a career filled with hits. The actor, known for his roles in Hollywood blockbusters like Night at the Museum, Meet the Parents, and There’s Something About Mary, has never quite grasped why the sequel did not resonate with audiences.

Last year, during an appearance on the show Hot Ones, Ben Stiller was asked about the film he considered to be the most poorly received or unfairly criticized in his filmography. Without hesitation, he pointed to Zoolander 2, noting that the experience had left him disconcerted.

“It’s very hard to analyze why critics like or dislike something. I’m always surprised when critics like something, and I’m always surprised when they hate something because it’s so subjective… I find it hard to believe that Zoolander 2 was so bad that people disliked it to such an extent. But maybe I’m wrong.”

A few months earlier, on the podcast Fail Better hosted by David Duchovny, he had already discussed this failure: “I thought everyone wanted to see this movie,” he explained. “And then all of a sudden… I felt like I had really messed up. No one went to see it, and then there were these horrible reviews.”

The Personal Impact of Failure

According to his own admission, this disappointment deeply affected him, causing him to question his humor and career choices: “What scared me the most was the feeling of not being funny anymore. I questioned myself. The failure of Zoolander 2 really caught me off guard. And it affected me for a long time.”

Released in 2016, fifteen years after the original, Zoolander 2 grossed only 29 million dollars against a budget of 50 million. The film, directed and starred by Stiller, follows the adventures of Derek Zoolander, an obsolete top model, who must team up with his rival/best friend Hansel (Owen Wilson) to thwart the plans of a mysterious assassin targeting famous pop stars.

Even today, the film’s team acknowledges that the cult status of Zoolander took years to build, as highlighted in an interview for AlloCiné: “It took years for Zoolander to become cult.”

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