Ben Stiller doesn’t think “Zoolander 2” deserved the negative reception from critics and audience members alike. The actor shared his thoughts about the 2016 sequel while eating extra spicy chicken wings on the season 25 finale of “Hot Ones.”
When asked by host Sean Evans which of his movies “was most misunderstood or treated unfairly by critics, now with the benefit of hindsight,” Stiller named “Zoolander 2” after some thought. “Oh, man, I don't know,” Stiller told Evans. “I mean, look, it's very hard to analyze why critics like something or don't. I'm always surprised when critics love something and I'm always surprised when they hate something because it's so subjective.”
The comedy-action flick currently has a 22% rating from critics and a 20% rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.
“It’s hard to think that it was that bad that people didn’t like it that much,” Stiller added. “But maybe I'm wrong.”
This isn’t the first time Stiller has opened up about “Zoolander 2” being a complete flop. In 2022, Stiller told Esquire in an interview that the film’s poor reception and performance was “not a great experience.” That negativity, however, was redirection for Stiller who steered clear of comedies to direct Showtime’s crime drama series “Escape at Dannemora.”
“If ‘Zoolander 2’ had been a huge hit, and then people were saying ‘Zoolander 3! Do this movie! That movie!’ — that might have taken me off the road of having the space to work on developing ‘Dannemora,’” Stiller told the outlet.
“I might have gotten distracted by other bright, shiny objects, but instead it opened a path where I could just do what I’d honestly wanted to do for years and years, which was: just direct something!” he continued. “To say, I’m just going to work on this project that I want to work on, because it takes a little time to get these things going, and if you don’t stick with it, you don’t get there.”
Most recently, Stiller told audience members at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival that he hadn't starred in a lead movie role in seven years before his latest film “Nutcrackers.”
Elsewhere in his “Hot Ones” interview, Stiller revealed that he delivered a speech to the MPAA when they wanted to bump up the rating of “Zoolander” from PG-13 to R over a goat orgy scene.
“The goat orgy was something that they didn’t care for…they didn’t think it was wholesome enough,” Stiller joked. “The whole thing was so ridiculous. I wrote, like, a little speech and I had to go through it all. I think I had to talk about other movies that had come out that had worse things in them.”
As for the final decision, the 2001 film includes an orgy, sans goat.
“This was a real thing. It was nerve-racking because it was so important,” Stiller said. “When you have a comedy and you have jokes that you know work, the last thing you want to do is have to cut them for a rating.”
In the end, Stiller conquered the infamous Wings of Death.
Watch the full episode below, via YouTube:
