Ben Stiller. Maya Dehlin Spach/WireImage
Ben Stiller has opened up about why he quit Saturday Night Live after only four episodes as a cast member in 1989.
“I just knew that I wasn’t a great live performer,” Stiller, 59, admitted to The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Wednesday, February 5.
Stiller attracted the attention of SNL producer Lorne Michaels with a UCLA student film that parodied Martin Scorsese’s hit 1986 movie The Color of Money (starring Tom Cruise and Paul Newman) and was added to the sketch show’s cast midway through its 14th season as a featured player alongside Mike Myers.
The Night at the Museum actor looked back on his brief time at SNL ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary special, as he recalled feeling “nervous” about doing live TV.
“I get stressed out even thinking about it, and making movies is the opposite of that. You get to do it over and over again,” Stiller, the son of comic actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, pointed out.
Stiller’s friend and occasional collaborator, Bob Odenkirk, was writing on SNL at the time and remains very impressed by the decision to quit the legendary comedy show.
“He was ballsy as hell to walk away from SNL and to be able to say with confidence about himself and his career, ‘This isn’t going to work for me. I have to leave here,’” Odenkirk, 62, insisted.
Stiller’s gamble paid off as he eventually landed his own sketch show, titled The Ben Stiller Show, in 1992 on Fox. The Ben Stiller Show proved to be a launching pad for several of the biggest alternative comedy stars of the ’90s, including Janeane Garofalo, Judd Apatow and David Cross.
In the mid-1990s, Stiller moved into directing Hollywood hits Reality Bites and The Cable Guy before his breakthrough acting role in There’s Something About Mary made him a comedy superstar.
Stiller has returned to Saturday Night Live throughout his career, twice as a guest host in addition to numerous cameo appearances playing US President Donald Trump‘s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
The Saturday Night cast has Us shook by their resemblance to their real-life Saturday Night Live counterparts. The film, which was originally titled SNL 1975, will focus on the behind-the-scenes story of the night leading up to SNL‘s first broadcast in October 1975. The movie’s director Jason Reitman wrote the screenplay with Gil Kenan, which was […]
It was reported in December 2024 that Stiller is in talks to revisit his hugely successful Meet the Parents franchise with a new sequel, which would be the fourth film in the series. His costars Robert De Niro, Teri Polo and Blythe Danner are all expected to return for the untitled comedy, which is being written by Meet the Parents franchise veteran John Hamburg.
In his personal life, Stiller recently reflected on reconciling with his wife of 25 years, Christine Taylor, after a period of separation. The couple briefly split in 2017, before reuniting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a January 2025 appearance on The View, Stiller acknowledged that he and Taylor “both” wanted to find a way to stay together.
“In a relationship – we’ve been married for 25 years – you have to work at it. COVID happened and we all got in a house together with our family. I’m grateful. I’m so grateful we’re back together,” he said.
The Emmy-nominated Severance executive producer told The View‘s hosts that he ultimately learned that being with Taylor was “the right thing” for their family.
Ben Stiller and his wife, Christine Taylor, enjoyed a night out with son Quinlin, 18, at the Project ALS 25th Anniversary Gala on Thursday, October 26. Stiller, 57, and his son both wore suits and black dress shoes for the occasion, while Taylor, 52, showed off her legs in a black minidress adorned with four […]
“Now, every day that we’re together, we do not take for granted. I know I don’t,” the comedian said. “Because you know it could go away. That, to me, is the gift [of] our relationship is that we have that every day. I’m so happy that we’re [back together].”
Saturday Night Live airs at 11.30p.m. ET on NBC.
