Ben Stiller’s directing career began with the Winona rider and Ethan Hawke starrer rom-com “Reality Bites” in 1994.
But it wasn’t till last year’s ‘Escape at Dannemora’ that the multi-talented celebrity, Ben Stiller, finally directed a project wherein he didn’t star.
In his
“I loved not acting. Every movie I’ve directed I’ve acted in,” Stiller said. “I had so much more of an appreciation from being able to work with the actors, I found that really enjoyable.”
Given the A-list cast of the series, Patricia Arquette, Paul Dano and Benicio del Toro he got to work with and direct, his excitement is not unexpected.
“He’s a very humble guy. You would never know it and he never did an interview or anything,” Stiller said. “I asked him to take me out to where it happened and he walked me through it, which was very helpful. I asked him also to play himself, but he didn’t want to.”, Stiller said in reference to the New York state trooper who pulled the trigger on real life Sweat, Jay Cook, who was in fact the in-charge of traffic control on the shoot.
Thanks to a little help from New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, Stiller and co. was able to shoot the series at the actual facility where the Sweat, played by Dano, actually escaped from.
