Ben Stiller Opens Up About Directing His Politically Incorrect New Movie, Tropic Thunder

He’s known for his hilarious roles in bankable comedies such as There’s Something About Mary, Meet the Parents and Dodgeball: A True Story of an Underdog, but in a recent cover story interview with MovieMaker Magazine, funnyman Ben Stiller admits he finds himself more at home when he’s behind the camera. “If I were only allowed to do one thing, it would be directing,” he says. “For me, it’s much more fulfilling.”

Stiller returns to the director’s chair for the first time since 2001′s Zoolander with this summer’s much anticipated comedy Tropic Thunder, which he also co-wrote and stars in. In the MovieMaker interview, published in the magazine’s Summer 2008 issue, Stiller also addresses the politically incorrect, stereotypical topics of the film that he’s now confronting in the media.

“I obviously didn’t want to make a movie that was making fun of war. Or soldiers. The idea was to make fun of actors who go off to make war movies and think they’ve had some kind of real experience based on that,” Stiller clarifies.

In developing the film, Stiller explains the writers took inspiration from some of Hollywood’s archetypes. “(Jack Black’s character, for instance-you look at Farley and Belushi and some of these funny guys who had drug problems and some made it and some didn’t), and they’re not obvious places for humor, but in this satirical idea of the movie we could do it.”

DreamWorks will release Tropic Thunder nationwide on Wednesday, August 13, 2008.

Additional highlights of MovieMaker’s Summer 2008 issue include a rare interview with Italian horror master Dario Argento; the 2008 Guide to Film Education; and interviews with directors Alan Ball, Larry Charles and Isabella Coixet, who discuss the difficulties of tackling controversial topics in their own films Towelhead, Religulous and Elegy, respectively.

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