In my reading of your career, around 2010, a real change occurs. You started making less big, broad comedies and instead made films like “Greenberg,” “While We’re Young” and “The Meyerowitz Stories.” You did “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “Brad’s Status.” These are all about middle-aged people working on big questions. Was doing this a result of a conscious decision to start a different kind of film? Yes. Around the same time I moved back to New York. I had been living in LA for 20 years, and I wanted to try to spend more time at home and try to work closer to home. But for me, that really changed in terms of my perspective came after “Zoolander 2.” It was like, everybody wants it and I’m going to do it, and I enjoy doing it, and then nobody wants it! I was like, but you said you wanted it! And, really, was it that bad? I was right there where I had to make a choice. I want to do these other things and if someone offers “Zoolander 3” I don’t want to walk away from that. But “Zoolander 2” gave me a gift that no one offered me in “Zoolander 3.” [Laughs.] Besides, my marriage was also not in a good place. There was a lot going on.
You mentioned that your marriage was in bad shape. You and your wife Christine Taylor separated for a while and then reconciled. I saw her on Drew Barrymore’s talk show, and she brought up the idea of separation and reconciliation, what she called the adult “growth spurt.” What was your growth pace during that time? When we separated, there was space to just look at what our relationship was, what my life felt like when we weren’t in that relationship, how much I loved our family unit. It was like we weren’t together for three or four years but we were always connected. In my mind, I never wanted us to be together. I don’t know where Christine was, you’ll have to ask her, but COVID put us all together in the same house.
An act of God. Yes. We had been living in the same house for about a year before we actually moved in together. But I’m very grateful for it, and I think a lot of people don’t get back together after breaking up. There’s nothing like it when you come back. You have a much greater appreciation for what you have, because we know we couldn’t have it.
My understanding is that you’re working on a documentary about your parents, Anne Meara and the comedy team Jerry Stiller. If people don’t know the team, they definitely know that your dad played George Costanza’s dad on “Seinfeld.” Yes.
What did working on the documentary reveal to you about your understanding of your parents? I’m realizing that this is all just reflecting on my own issues that I have with him. I feel very fortunate that I have all the footage of my parents and our family from these Super-8 films that my dad took and then I took, and also the recordings that my dad made. Just for hours and hours, talking to my mother as she sketched or came up with ideas. Or sometimes he would record us just because he wanted our voices. I was thinking about it this morning: how much I love my father but also the stress of not wanting him Happen My father, but everyone loves my father. And as a son, I would love to have the kind of love my father had because he was a lovely person. But then there’s the thing, but I’m Me,