Ben Stiller finds respite from recent horrors in humor of 'Zoolander'

By Lauren Hunter
CNN Entertainment Correspondent

"Zoolander," starring Ben Stiller is one of the first major studio films to open this fall and highlights Hollywood's current dilemma... when and how is it appropriate to resume business as usual?

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Ben Stiller wears a number of different hats on his latest film "Zoolander," including co-writer, producer, director and star. Yet during a promotional day for the movie last week in Los Angeles, Stiller was quick to identify himself first and foremost as an American, proudly displaying his country's colors with a red, white and blue lapel ribbon.

It was also one day after Stiller manned the phone banks at the "Tribute to Heroes" celebrity telethon, which raised more than $150 million dollars for families of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

"Zoolander" is one of the first major studio films to open this fall, less than three weeks after the attacks, and highlights Hollywood's current dilemma: When and how is it appropriate to resume business as usual?

Stiller stars with Owen Wilson in "Zoolander."

Stiller was concerned about the timing of the film's release, and to show respect for the families of the victims of September 11 and not offend audiences, he digitally removed shots of the World Trade Center from the film's finished prints.

Yet "Zoolander" is a comedy, set in the New York fashion world, revolving around a dim-witted male supermodel unknowingly drawn in as a pawn in an assassination plot. The movie's credits read like the Stiller family tree, with cameos by Stiller's mother and sister, and co-starring roles for his father, Jerry Stiller, and his wife, Christine Taylor.

Lauren Hunter sat down with Stiller to talk about the film and the role of entertainment in the country's healing.

CNN: What is the significance of the lapel ribbon?

Ben Stiller: You know, it's just showing that we're all together in this and that our hearts and prayers are with everybody who's been affected by what happened, and I just feel very, very proud to be a part of this country. We did this telethon last night, and I was talking to people on the phone and it was just incredible to hear from people all over the country. It was like talking to people who were best friends and they were total strangers.

CNN: What is the role of entertainment now in helping us all to heal?

Ben Stiller: I don't feel like I'm an expert at all, but I guess I feel it is what it always is, what entertainment always is, which is merely a distraction and sometimes a respite from our regular lives. I think that's all we can really hope to do -- in the best of times and the worst of times, as our leaders have said -- to try to continue on and get back to our normal lives, those of us who can. I think it's gonna be tougher for some of us than others, but as actors and entertainers, that's all we do. Hopefully if you're making a comedy, make people laugh for a little bit and have fun for an hour and a half, and that's all you can hope for.

You know, the last two years, year and a half, (that) I've been working on the movie, that was always the idea of the movie: just make a silly comedy that would just be fun and have laughs in it, and that's the point of the movie. Of course, never foreseeing what kind of situation we would be in when the movie came out, I'm glad that it's that kind of movie, and that it can offer people an option if they want to get away from everything for a little bit.

CNN: Will Ferrell, (who co-stars in the film as eccentric fashion designer Mugatu,) said he felt he was now an adopted Stiller, because pretty much everyone else in the film is a Stiller family member.

Ben Stiller: Yeah, that wasn't something that was preconceived. We just sort of were trying to cast the movie, and my wife ended up being the best person for the role. I'll say it, she was. And it ended up my dad was the best person for his role, and my mom did a cameo and my sister. You know, it's great to be able to work with people you love and be around them while you're working, because you work such long hours when you're making a movie.

CNN: And Dad was the one, I understand, who many, many, many years ago had given you your first Fuji camera.

Ben Stiller: That's right, that's right. He gave me my first Super 8 camera. He did more than that. He totally supported (me) -- he was like the studio head. He would give me editing equipment and he would be very supportive of both my sister and I being creative on lots of different fronts -- piano lessons, violin lessons. They didn't pan out, but the movie-making did.

The fun thing for me working on the movie with my dad was that we actually got to work together professionally as an actor and director, (as well as) actor and actor, and that was really fun, to kind of feel like a grown-up with my dad.

CNN to Jerry Stiller: So you are the cause of why we're all here today, because you were the one who first gave Ben his camera, his first Super 8 camera when he was, what, eight years old?

Jerry Stiller: The word is out, huh? Yeah, I had nothing to do that day, so I had this Fuji Super 8 that was just lying around and I said, "Why not give it to him?" And he put the film in and went out onto the street a couple of days later and organized all his friends and they did a movie called "Murder in the Park." How did I know it would be the beginning of a film career?

But like all parents, you try to find things that are going to occupy not only your son's mind, but also that you have some interest in yourself. Because I used to take pictures of the family ever since they were, like, this high, and I would be constantly taking pictures. I had no one taking a picture of me. So I (have) all these films of Ben and Amy, my daughter, in all these places that we worked and where we played, and then one day, I just gave it to him and he went out and he did it.

CNN to Ben Stiller: In the movie, there is an inspired sense of lunacy in the modeling walk-off competition between you and (co-star and modeling competitor) Owen Wilson. Tell me about that.

Ben Stiller: We just thought that would be a funny idea, that that's how male models settle a dispute. It's kind of like in basketball, a game of horse, where you challenge each other's shots, only (models) do walks down the runway.

We went up there and we, of course, don't move well, Owen and I. We're not professional dancers in any sense of the word, so we got some break-dancing doubles and we just basically embarrassed ourselves for a couple of days in front of about a hundred strangers.

It was kind of that exciting feeling of, "Wow, we're really making fools of ourselves in front of all these people!"

CNN: How do you approach dealing with expectations of what your movies will be like and what people anticipate? For example, will "Zoolander" be as successful as "There's Something About Mary?"

Ben Stiller: There's no way you can deal with that, because if you thought about that every time you went into a project, then you'd be paralyzed. I just have to do what I think is funny and try to do the best job I can. As long as you feel like you're doing the best thing you can, then you just put it out there and try to be different and try to not give people the same thing all the time.