The two movies Ben Stiller will always regret missing out on: “I just froze up”
With the popularity of Severance, people finally started to come around to the fact that Ben Stiller was more than just a comedian.
After years of making us laugh, he was now making us think, too. With his new role as a director taking centre stage, it’s easy to forget just how many incredible acting roles he’s had over his career. Equally, it’s easy to overlook how many roles he missed out on as well.
In the original draft of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Stiller was considered for the part of Brian Fantana. Paul Rudd ended up taking it, but Stiller still found a way to be part of the iconic noughties comedy via a cameo in the famous ‘News Fight’ scene. He almost took two more of Will Ferrell’s roles – Blades of Glory and Megamind – and was even considered to play Willy Wonka in Tim Burton’s version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That would have been something.
In an interview with The Guardian, the second-generation star accidentally let slip another two movies he could have been a part of.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have a successful career, and I have incredible family and people I love and friends,” he confessed. “All these wonderful things that help offset the pain of the failures. But what if I didn’t have that? What if I didn’t have something that could take my mind off the time I screwed up that audition for My Cousin Vinny back in 1993, or my fourth callback for White Palace with Susan Sarandon, where I just froze up?” He then paused before revealing, “I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that to anyone.”
My Cousin Vinny is by far the more famous of the two films Stiller mentioned. A legal comedy classic with more than a hint of class satire about it, the movie stars Joe Pesci as a big city lawyer who finds himself working a case in a small, rural town. Stiller was considered for the role of one of the students Vinny ends up defending, but it was deemed too risky to depict a Jewish actor being unfairly treated by a Southern court. Will Smith was going to play the other student, but was dismissed on similar grounds.
As for White Palace, that’s a very different story. Starring Sarandon as a middle-aged woman in a dead-end job, this erotic drama throws her into the arms of James Spader’s character, a young man who is still getting over the recent death of his wife.
This was the part Stiller went up for, but got too nervous during the audition. This arguably would have changed his life, as he had yet to establish himself as a comedy star. Instead, the man from the ‘Frat Pack’ got the gig instead.
It’s hard to feel too bad for Stiller, given how much success he’s enjoyed without these films, but it’s still an interesting thought exercise to imagine him in them.
