How Jerry Stiller became an accidental genius on ‘Seinfeld’: “He would apologise”
These days, Jerry Stiller is doomed to be known simply as Ben Stiller’s father, but before his kid waltzed in and stole all the glory, the elder Stiller was a celebrity in his own right. During the 1960s, he and his wife, Anne Meara, decided to take up improv comedy. It turned out that they had a knack for it, and they started touring around the US and making recurring appearances on late-night television shows.
After they retired their act, Stiller continued to perform, taking on bit parts in movies throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Nadine, and Hairspray. However, if there is one part of his career for which he will be remembered, it’s the ‘90s. He experienced a major professional resurgence in that decade, driven by his recurring role as George Costanza’s old man, Frank, in Seinfeld.
Alongside George’s mother, Estelle (played by Estelle Harris), Frank is the definition of an overbearing parent, bombarding his passive son with questionable advice, lectures, and irrelevant personal anecdotes that fuel his son’s crippling anxiety. One of the most distinctive things about the character is Stiller’s percussive delivery. He barks his lines with a halting, staccato cadence that makes him seem even more oblivious to the general vibe of the people around him.
According to Jason Alexander, who played George, that distinctive line delivery was a complete accident. There was no actorly intent behind it, just sheer panic. “He actually probably thinks he was a failure on the show,” he said, “Because a lot of the Frank Costanza character came from Jerry’s concern about memorising lines.”
Apparently, when Stiller showed up on set, he had usually forgotten all of his lines. As the camera rolled, the words would come back to him in fragments. “What you were seeing was his growing anxiety and frustration with his own memory that got translated into just the disdain for the world that Frank Costanza had,” Alexander explained.
Rather than unnerve the other actors, it delighted them. Alexander said that Frank was his favourite character in the entire show and that his performance (whether deliberate or accidental) would have his co-stars rolling on the floor laughing. “It was glorious,” Alexander remembered. “And he would apologise after every take.”
It’s quite possible that Stiller knew exactly what he was doing and was simply finding a way to entertain his fellow actors on and off screen. Ben Stiller implied as much in an interview with The New Yorker in which he talked about his dad’s exacting process for the show and the relationship he fostered with his castmates.
“He was so loved by those people because his process was so connected to other actors,” the younger Stiller recalled. “He loved working with those actors, and he would prepare like he was doing Shakespeare. He would break it down, a sitcom script, and figure out, ‘Why am I saying this? What’s the motivation for this character? What’s his history?’ So it came out of him putting everything into it, and not trying to be funny.”
None of that sounds like someone who wanders onto a set having forgotten his lines. Regardless of where that famous performance came from, however, it helped a new generation of audiences discover Stiller’s comic talents. It even got him a prominent role on another sitcom, The King of Queens, along with bit parts in a host of feature films.
