Ben Stiller says Zoolander 2 failure was ‘blindsiding’: ‘It really freaked me out’

Ben Stiller has reflected on the critical and commercial failure of Zoolander 2.

Landing 15 years after its successful 2001 predecessor, the sequel was heavily panned by critics and grossed just $29m at the global box office against a $50m budget.

The 2016 comedy action saw the return of Stiller – who wrote, produced and directed the film – as former model Derek Zoolander, along with fan favourites Owen Wilson’s Hansel and Will Ferrell’s Mugatu from the original. It also featured celebrity cameos from the likes of Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.

Of the failed follow-up, Stiller said on David Duchovny’s Fail Better podcast: “I thought everybody wanted this.

“And then it’s like, ‘Wow, I must have really f***ed this up. Everybody didn’t go to it. And it’s gotten these horrible reviews,” the Meet the Fockers actor, 58, said, according to People.

“It really freaked me out because I was like, ‘I didn’t know it was that bad?’” Stiller continued. “What scared me the most on that one was l’m losing what I think what’s funny, the questioning yourself... on Zoolander 2, it was definitely blindsiding to me. And it definitely affected me for a long time.”

Stiller said that the film’s failure allowed him time for introspection that would go on to inspire future projects.

“The wonderful thing that came out of that for me was just having space where, if that had been a hit, and they said ‘Make Zoolander 3 right now,’ or offered some other movie, I would have just probably jumped in and done that,” the actor said.

“But I had this space to kind of sit with myself and have to deal with it and other projects that I had been working on – not comedies, some of them – I have the time to actually just work on and develop.

“Even if somebody said, ‘Well, why don’t you go do another comedy or do this?’ I probably could have figured out something to do. But I just didn’t want to,” he explained.

Stiller went on to co-direct Apple TV+’s award-winning sci-fi thriller series Severance, starring Adam Scott, about a group of office workers who’ve undergone a medical procedure to divide their memories between work and their personal lives.

Asked if it was anger that kept him from wanting to pursue another comedy immediately after, Stiller clarified that “it was just hurt”.

“Finding yourself in terms of what creatively you want to be and do, I always loved directing. I always loved making movies. I always, in my mind, loved the idea of just directing movies that since I was a kid, and not necessarily comedies. And so, over the course of like the next like, nine or 10 months, I was able to develop these limited series.”

Stiller’s full interview on the Fail Better podcast – a production of Lemonada Media – will be available to stream on all major listening platforms on 7 May.