Ben Stiller opens up on 'worst decision' of his life

Los Angeles, Oct 13 (IANS) Hollywood actor Ben Stiller wants to revisit some old lanes to course correct his path. The actor recently opened up about one of the biggest mistakes he's made.

In his new documentary, ‘Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost’, the actor and filmmaker, 59, chronicles the relationship and careers of his parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, reports ‘People’ magazine.

It also shows how it affected both him and his sister, Amy Stiller. In the film, Ben reflects on how his parents' marriage directly influenced him as a father, specifically through inheriting Jerry's perfectionism. The actor and director admits to his daughter, Ella, 23, that he often thinks about one mistake he's made with her in the past.

Ben said, "I cut you out of Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It's probably the worst decision I ever made in my life”.

As per ‘People’, Ella would've played the titular character's younger sister in the 2013 film, which was directed by and starred her father as Walter Mitty.

Now, she says that although her dreams of debuting in a feature film were taken away from her at the time, she admits that she was "really scared" during the scene and that it "didn't really make sense in the movie”.

However, Ben admitted that cutting the scene was driven by his own perfectionism. He told Ella, "For me, it kind of goes deeper. What it relates to is my own issues with my own obsessions with my work, or perfectionism”.

Turning to his son, Quinlin, Ben asks if he's ever felt the same way as Ella. The 20-year-old says his father's work ethic can sometimes drive their family away.

He said, "I think there's things, you know, after a tough day or something was going wrong, you can get very much in your own head”.

“And I think, once you kind of go into that place (it's) hard to get you out of it. So that would, kind of, put a damper on the fun part about being on vacation”, he added.

--IANS

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