"I've never worked with a pig before," says Ben Stiller. "So when they started making these weird noises, I thought, 'Wait a minute! Am I safe?'" At which point, Stiller squeals and snorts like an enraged pig, imitating the scene-stealing sows from his new comedy "Nutcrackers."
Ben Stiller returns after 6 years in leading role with comedy called Nutcrackers
Stiller had to be prepared for anything when he made the low-budget indie film about a workaholic real estate developer who becomes the guardian of his wayward nephews after their parents die. That openness began with his costars, Homer, Ulysses, Arlo and Atlas Janson, four brothers ranging in age from 5 to 13, who had never been on a film set before. Instead of a Hollywood soundstage, the film was shot on their family’s Ohio farm, a bucolic estate filled with chickens, goats and, yes, pigs. Clearly, Stiller wasn’t going to be spending any time relaxing in a trailer or enjoying other movie-star perks.
"When I called Ben, I said, 'I hope you don't have allergies, because there's every animal imaginable in here,'" says David Gordon Green, the film's director. "And bring old shoes, because you're going to be stepping in shit."
“Nutcrackers,” which premieres at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival where it’s seeking a distribution deal, offered both men a chance to do something looser and more liberating. Green first emerged in the early 2000s with arthouse films like “George Washington” and “Undertow,” which were clearly influenced by his friend Terrence Malick. But he’s spent the past decade making bigger, more expensive studio films, and he recently wrapped up his “Halloween” trilogy. And Stiller hasn’t acted in a film in seven years. Instead, he’s turned to directing, making the 2018 prison-break miniseries “Escape at Dannemora” and then “Severance,” a workplace sci-fi thriller that thrilled critics and audiences alike when it debuted in 2022.
