Ben Stiller Breaks Silence on Zoolander 2 Flop: “Not a Great Experience”

2016’s Zoolander No. 2 was a critical and financial disappointment, leaving fans who had begged for a sequel to the cult hit feeling burned. But it’s hard to imagine anybody took the failure harder than director and star Ben Stiller. In a new profile for Esquire, the movie is listed as one of a number of recent events that has given Stiller a new outlook on life and a sense of his own mortality. Lumping it in with his divorce and the deaths of his parents might seem a bit over-the-top (even Esquire acknowledges as much), but when these things are coming fast and furious, they all come together to form something.

Stiller deadpanned that the flop was “not a great experience,” noting that since he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the movie, it felt like the failure was all on him, and that the world was watching. He is hoping to exorcise some of the negative energy of all these recent events with his new project, Severance, for Apple TV+.

Zoolander No. 2 hit theaters almost exactly six years ago, earning $56 million against a reported $55 million budget. Even if it was profitable by $1 million, that would have been a disappointment, but the nature of the film industry is that you’re expected to make at least twice your budget back or be considered a failure. Even ignoring the context within Stiller’s life — he had also recently had a cancer diagnosis — that kind of flop was going to hurt.

Pile that on top of years of expectations, and it’s worse. The original Zoolander was a sleeper hit in 2001, earning $60 million against a $28 million budget with basically no expectations. For 15 years, fans asked Stiller if he was interested in a sequel, and they eagerly awaited No. 2 once it was announced, only to be disappointed when they saw it. An animated tie-in movie was quietly released on Netflix a few months later, with reviews speculating at the time that the intent had been to make a series, but the failure of the sequel nixed that.

Severance reunites Emmy and DGA Award winner Ben Stiller with Academy Award and Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette (Escape at Dannemora, Boyhood), who stars alongside Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation, Step Brothers), Emmy Award winner John Turturro (The Plot Against America, The Night Of), Britt Lower (High Maintenance, Casual), Zach Cherry (You, Succession), Dichen Lachman (Jurassic World: Dominion, Altered Carbon), Jen Tullock (Before You Know It, Bless This Mess), Tramell Tillman (Hunters, Dietland), Michael Chernus (Orange Is the New Black, Patriot) and Academy Award winner Christopher Walken.