Dodgeball and Night at the Museum star Ben Stiller is known for his actiing career, however, he’s also a film fan too – recently sharing his four favourite movies.
The Hollywood funnyman, who has recently received plaudits for his work on the Adam Scott-starring Severance, shared his all-time favourite films earlier this year.
Stiller, 59, has appeared in comedy classics like Zoolander and Tropic Thunder, but has also shown off his talent for dramatics with efforts like The Meyerowitz Stories and The Royal Tenenbaums.
A co-star from his work on The Royal Tenenbaums features in Stiller’s top four favourite films, with the actor sharing there is a common theme between his four selections. He also selected a Steven Spielberg classic, and one of Al Pacino’s best movies released after The Godfather.
In an interview with Letterboxd, Stiller confirmed four of his favourites, but did note he would need many more to properly explain his list of all-time greats.
Stiller said: “That’s impossible to like, you know – but I can give you, like, four of my favourite films. I always have to say Jaws, for me. Real Life by Albert Brooks, which I think just got a Criterion Collection release.
“Dog Day Afternoon for sure. It’s all like – we’re going to go back 40 years for all these movies. And then, let me see, one more, The Conversation.”
His final film pick, The Conversation, starred Gene Hackman, who portrayed the titular Royal Tenenbaum in the Wes Anderson-directed The Royal Tenenbaums. Stiller also starred alongside Hackman as one of Tennebaum’s children.
Hackman, who died earlier this year at the age of 95, is said to have turned down major film roles, including a picture that won the “Big 5” at the Academy Awards.
Fans are now discovering that Hackman once stood on the cusp of starring in—and directing—a cinematic masterpiece that garnered Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
Despite ultimately leaving the film, the acclaimed Silence of the Lambs went on to immortalise Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, alongside director Jonathan Demme and screenwriter Ted Tally for his adaptation of Thomas Harris’s novel.
Gene Hackman, known for rejecting numerous significant roles such as in Back to the Future, Se7en, and Apocalypse Now, still boasts an impressive filmography with classics like The Birdcage, The Quick and the Dead, and Wyatt Earp to his name.
