Ben Stiller Wants to Make ‘Severance' More Quickly—but First, He Needs to Get It Just Right

Ben Stiller Wants to Make ‘Severance’ More Quickly—but First, He Needs to Get It Just Right | Vanity Fair

Stiller goes deep on his busy year, from filming the “daunting” new Meet the Parents movie to planning Severance season 3—right after that huge Emmy noms haul.

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Ben Stiller’s Hollywood hustle shows no signs of slowing down. After a surprise cameo in Netflix’s Happy Gilmore 2, he’s gearing up to reunite with Robert De Niro (plus Ariana Grande!) in the new Meet the Parents sequel Focker In-Law and wrapping his heartfelt debut doc Nothing Is Lost, a tribute to his parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, due in theaters and on Apple TV+ this October. Meanwhile, the brainy sci-fi thriller Severance—on which he serves as executive producer and director—just hauled in a whopping 27 Emmy noms for its second season, proving that slow-burn perfection still pays off.

But Stiller admits there’s a tension between taking the time to get every scene just right and the desire to ride the wave of Emmy glory. He’s vowed that Severance season three will hit screens faster, yet he’s equally determined not to sacrifice the methodical precision that made seasons one and two such critical darlings. As he puts it, there’s nothing worse than waiting on reviews (or rushing a passion project), so he’s learning to balance the tug-of-war between patience, process, and perfection.