“I thought everyone wanted this. I thought people wanted to see this sequel.”
If Zoolander became a cult film, it took a long time to be appreciated. Only $60 million in revenue upon its theatrical release and quite a few scathing reviews. However, as the years went by, satirical comedy was seen from a new angle and gained popularity. This will not happen with Zoolander 2. Never.
During David Duchovny’s podcast, “Fail Better” – intended to explore life’s failures – Ben Stiller recounts the failure of Zoolander 2 in 2015 and how he “shocked“, even “traumatized” by this flop that he didn’t see coming ($56 million in worldwide revenue).
“I thought everyone wanted this. I thought everyone wanted to see this sequel. And then suddenly it was like, ‘Wow, I must have really screwed up! Didn’t anyone go see it? And all The reviews are horrible? But why?’ It really freaked me out because I thought I didn’t understand anything. How did I not see that it was so stupid?
Ben Stiller continues and confides that he then entered a spiral of doubts. “What scared me the most after that was that I thought I had lost what made me funny. I was deep in self-questioning. This failure definitely took me by surprise. And it definitely traumatized and affected me for a long time.”
With hindsight, Ben Stiller estimates that the flop of Zoolander 2 also allowed him to do other things. “What was wonderful for me was having a space of possibilities to bounce back. If the film had been a success, people would have said to me: Do Zoolander 3 right away and I probably would have done it. Or I would have made another film proposed by the studio.” In place, Ben Stiller has been exploring other horizons, notably directing the series Escape at Dannemora (2018) with great success.
“I had this space to sit with myself and deal with other projects I had been working on – not comedies, mostly. I took the time to work and develop. Even if someone asked me to do another comedy… Because I probably could have found something to do, but (after such a failure) I just didn’t want to.”
In the end, it’s a flop Zoolander 2 which certainly allowed Ben Stiller to make one of the most exciting series of recent years: Severance.
