Gaylord Focker, the leader of the Frat Pack and the guy from “Zoolander” who is really, really ridiculously good looking. These are all names that one uses to allude to comedic poster boy Ben Stiller.
An aimless, dejected 40-something? Not so much. But that’s precisely who Stiller plays in his new film, “Greenberg,” out in theaters Friday.
We got the chance to catch up with both Stiller and director Noah Baumbach, who is best known for his Academy Award-nominated films, “The Squid and the Whale” and “Margot at the Wedding.”
At a proverbial crossroads of middle agedom, New Yorker Roger Greenberg flees to Los Angeles with the intent of making sense of his life after a mental breakdown of sorts. He sets up house with his brother and soon encounters an unexpected romance with his brother’s assistant, Florence, played by Greta Gerwig. At the helm is director Baumbach, known for his bent and flawed character portrayals.
“There are about four or five filmmakers that if you get a call from, you say yes, no matter what it is,” Stiller said. “Noah was one of those guys for me.”
One would expect a comedian known for his mullet-wearing and crude joke telling to hesitate to play a role so completely in the opposite direction of his ankle-deep characters. Yet Stiller knew almost immediately that Greenberg was a challenge he was ready for.
“It was a change to work on something that was just about the character and the specificity of writing,” Stiller said.
Baumbach, who wrote Greenberg with his wife, actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, considers Greenberg a 50/50 collaboration between him and Stiller. Although Stiller didn’t improvise any of the dialogue like he usually does in his films, Baumbach said Stiller inhabited the part so completely that Baumbach feels as if Stiller is just as responsible for portraying Greenberg as he is in creating it.
“I always wanted somebody who had a sense of humor to play this part,” Baumbach said. “This wasn’t a role that was created for the laughs. The more authentically it was played, the funnier it was going to be.”
Also on hand to provide a behind-the-scenes look into the filmmaking process was LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, who crafted the soundtrack to the film.
“The goal for me was to create songs that were more like a backdrop for what was on screen and let the soundtrack accent the emotions,” Murphy said.
The amity didn’t end there. Baumbach loved everything Murphy did so much that he said he used music more in “Greenberg” than he has in any other movie he’s worked on.
The combination of Murphy’s music, Baumbach’s superior story telling capabilities and Stiller’s portrayal creates a revealing and astute film that is sure to reach across a wide demographic of indie-loving moviegoers.
