Ben Stiller Explains How 'Seinfeld' Changed His Late Father's Life | THR News - video Dailymotion

Ben Stiller credits the role of Frank Costanza on Seinfeld as the shot in the arm his late father's career needed.

Transcript

00:00Ben Stiller is opening up about his father Jerry Stiller and crediting

00:03Seinfeld for reinvigorating the late actor's career. Jerry Stiller died last

00:08week at the age of 92 and in his long and illustrious career he is best

00:13remembered by most as the bad-tempered Frank Costanza on the iconic NBC sitcom.

00:17Why'd you put the bananas in there? George likes the bananas! So let him have bananas on the side!

00:24All right, please! Talking to The New Yorker for an interview published Tuesday, Ben Stiller

00:28explained why his late father's iconic Seinfeld role was a much-needed second act, saying,

00:33I think Seinfeld really changed his life because he was at a point in his career where the phone

00:38wasn't really ringing. So for someone who's thrived on work and thrived on being funny and having an

00:42interaction with the audience, it really changed everything for him. The elder Stiller had opened

00:47up in a previous interview saying that he actually passed on the character initially because he had

00:51not heard of the show and was in the middle of a Broadway play when he was approached.

00:55Another actor was cast but did not have the right feel for the producers, so Stiller was asked again

00:59to join Seinfeld, to which he agreed to the second time around. The elder Stiller made Frank Costanza

01:04a fan favorite, but the character was fairly shocking to the actor's own children. Stiller notes that

01:09watching his father's character on TV was amusing because, quote,

01:12he never once raised his voice to me, ever, as a kid, ever. So I watch that and I laugh because

01:17I'm like, who is that person? Because that really was not him. And I think he was unleashing something

01:22that I think was suppressed in his real life." As for being remembered primarily for Seinfeld,

01:27Ben Stiller said his father would have something of a problem with that notion,

01:30but only because his work with his wife, Anne Meara, as the comedy duo Stiller and Meara,

01:34was so important to him. Stiller says in part,

01:37I think the only thing that might have bothered him a little bit was that he wanted people to

01:40remember his work with Anne because he loved my mom so much. And I can understand that because they

01:45did such incredible work together over the years. For more on this story, head to the article on THR.com.

01:51For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.