![\"Ben](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Ben-Stiller-Actor-2019-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Montclair Film<\/p>\n
Thu 9 July 2026 21:30, UK <\/p>\n
Ben Stiller<\/a> has struck gold many times in his career, although he perhaps wouldn\u2019t have found such an easy entry into show business if not for both of his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, already being stalwarts of the industry. <\/p>\n It certainly helped that his father was a popular comedian, his easy knack for humour apparently running through his blood, yet it would be unfair to say that Stiller never worked hard to get where he is now, because from a young age, he was making his own parody short films, which eventually led him to be noticed by Saturday Night Live.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, his nepotistic ties certainly helped, but Stiller had more than enough imagination and quick wit to get him to the top. By 1990, he\u2019d landed his own sketch series, The Ben Stiller Show, which ran for five years. Since then, he has done everything from popular comedies such as There\u2019s Something About Mary and Zoolander<\/a>, directed movies like Reality Bites, and bagged the \u2018Charlie Chaplin Award for Excellence in Comedy\u2019 at the Baftas. <\/p>\n Despite all of his success, he has still made some mistakes (I\u2019m looking at you, Little Fockers), but the one he believes to be his worst is, surprise surprise, something to do with family ties. You see, the filmmaker cast his daughter, Ella Olivia Stiller, in his 2013 movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, as the younger version of his character\u2019s sister, Odessa, played by Kathryn Hahn. But when the movie was released (to admittedly pretty mixed reviews), the young Stiller was nowhere to be seen. <\/p>\n In the 2025 documentary, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost<\/a>, a film about his parents\u2019 relationship, Stiller is seen talking to his daughter. During one conversation, he reveals what he believes to be his most regrettable career blunder. \u201cI cut you out of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It\u2019s probably the worst decision I ever made in my life,\u201d he admits.\u00a0<\/p>\n His daughter didn\u2019t seem too bothered because she could admit that her scene probably wasn\u2019t all that necessary, anyway. \u201cIt didn\u2019t make sense in the movie,\u201d she said, adding that she was \u201creally scared\u201d to perform.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, while Stiller regrets not allowing his daughter the chance to shine in his film, she has since gone on to secure roles in the likes of Adam Sandler\u2019s Hubie Halloween and the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That\u2026<\/a>. Perhaps now that Stiller is out of the perfectionism mode that came with making the film, he can\u2019t help but feel like cutting his own daughter out of a scene was rather ruthless. <\/p>\n Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n But when it comes to making a movie, you can\u2019t always afford to make such special reservations, just because you\u2019re related to the actor. Stiller knew that, so he chopped his ten-year-old out of the movie.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it relates to is my own issues with my own obsession with my work, or \u2018perfectionism\u2019,\u201d he admits. Clearly, his daughter just wasn\u2019t on his level.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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