Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller reunite for 25th anniversary of ‘Meet the Parents’
Hollywood legend Robert De Niro and actor Ben Stiller recently had a reunion as they gathered for the 25th anniversary of ‘Meet the Parents’
- LOS ANGELES — Hollywood legend Robert De Niro and actor Ben Stiller recently had
a reunion as they gathered for the 25th anniversary of ‘Meet the Parents’ along
with director Jay Roach.
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- The film is a comedy of errors about male nurse Greg Focker
(played by Ben Stiller) who endures a lot of painfully awkward hijinks while visiting
his girlfriend’s parents for the first time, reports ‘Variety’.
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- Robert De Niro plays Polo’s character’s father Greg Byrnes,
a cat-loving retired CIA agent who rules with a well meaning but iron fist.
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- As per ‘Variety’, the three reunited at Manhattan’s Tribeca
Performing Arts Center as part of this year’s Tribeca Festival, which was
co-founded by De Niro and Jane Rosenthal in 2002.
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- “It’s so much fun to hear laughter in a theater with comedy
that’s 25 years old”, Ben Stiller said during the Q&A after the
screening. “It still works”.
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- Though a quarter century has passed since ‘Meet the
Parents’, Stiller finds that audiences continue to associate him with Greg
Focker. He jokes that he doesn’t always love when people in the wild address
him by his character’s name.
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- “When someone yells ‘Focker!’ on the street, it doesn’t
necessarily feel respectful”, Stiller said with a laugh. “Whenever I’m treated
by a male nurse”, he added, “I feel a connection”.
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- On stage, Roach reminded Stiller that he was almost never in
the movie. Steven Spielberg was in talks to direct the film with Jim Carrey as
the lead role. When the duo chose to depart the project, Roach was hired as the
filmmaker and Stiller as the star.
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- “(Jim Carrey) was going to be me?” Stiller said. “S***. I
totally forgot that part”. Meanwhile, Polo joined the cast as the better half
of Stiller’s fiancee-to-be at the last minute. “It was really late in the
casting process, a few days before we started shooting”, Roach recalled. “She
was thrown into it with these heavyweights”.
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