I had the pleasure of being introduced to Ben's talent — even before he was cast in Empire of the Sun — through his remarkable stage performance in The House of Blue Leaves in New York in 1986. Later, he had me laughing my a_ _ off when I saw his The Color of Money spoof, The Hustler of Money, which he wrote, directed, and acted in. Then I saw his TV show and continued following his career from there.
Through Jeanne Tripplehorn, I first met Ben on set while shooting The Firm in Memphis in 1992, and we were friends from that moment on. We shared common ground in a love of cinema and a desire to tell stories and challenge ourselves and develop as artists. Along the way, I was always looking for opportunities for us to do something together, and then while planning the promotion and finishing last-minute touch-ups for MI2 before the film was literally ripped from our hands by distributors, it happened.
It was the usual high-pressure studio scene prior to release: Not only careers, but many lives and cute little animals and, very possibly, the world at large was at stake — all hinging on that existence-defining Opening Weekend. Needless to say, things were getting a little too damn serious for me. I told everybody, "I understand everything that can go wrong will go wrong, blah blah blah blah — but why not have a little fun in the face of total annihilation?" Hence the short film we made to puncture a few holes in the self-seriousness of it all — Mission: Improbable.
Ben not only accepted this project — he returned early from his honeymoon with Christine to help me make it happen. On the first day I said, "Okay, Ben — just tell me what we should do." We were off to the races, and I had a blast. To this day I'm not sure Ben truly knows how much I appreciate that experience.
Smash cut to '06: We both have kids now but we're still hanging out, and one day Ben asks me to do a cameo in a "home video" he's making for Christine as a birthday surprise. (By the way, his version of a "home video" is a full-blown Stiller Production.) Of course, the film is a loving and funny tribute to her, and of course, we again have a blast working together. Later, Ben told me of Tropic Thunder, a dream project he'd been working on for more than eight years. To make a long story short, I read it, I loved it, and we started working on it.
When I embark on a script or a character, I'm searching for structure and ideas and instincts and behavior. I don't know how to explain it, other than to say they just come to me if the situation's right. And the first thing I thought of with the character of studio mogul Les Grossman was that I wanted him to dance. I have no idea why. When you have these impulses, you're not sure if it's a good idea or maybe the worst idea in the world. But with Ben, I immediately felt we were in sync. He and I bounced these things back and forth, and it just kept getting better.
