You know that question; "what do you want to be when you grow up?" It turns out that Ben Stiller's subconscious knew he was going to be a director before he did. In an interview to promote his recent directorial outing, Tropic Thunder, he recounted his time as an extra in Empire of The Sun and how he piddled upon Spielberg's chips:
"There was a long steady cam shot, where a young Christian Bale is coming into this American barracks. He walks through the whole barracks and gets to the end of the barracks and there's John Malkovich and Joe Pantoliano and me. It's a six-minute shot... And then I screwed up my line. I said, 'Oh whoops, sorry. Maybe we should cut.' Steven Spielberg is in another building watching on the monitors and I just hear silence. Then I hear him: 'What happened?' I'm like, 'I just yelled cut because I screwed up,' and he's yelling, 'No, no, you never cut!' I literally turned white and shrunk because my hero and idol, Steven Spielberg, is yelling at me. I learned you never yell cut as an actor. The director yells cut. For years I lived with this shame... but we've laughed about it since because he remembers it too. I was mortified."
While I throw on Empire of The Sun to engage in some Stiller spotting; why not look at the LA premiere of Tropic Thunder. You know, where real celebrities turn up. Where those who aren't quite so well known wear red to get noticed, while Surfer Dude's definition of "dressing up" is wearing confining footwear and big boy pants. Where Jack Black gets to sport the zany lightening jacket he purchased off eBay. and his wife on his back. Where Tom lets Katie wear heels. Where Nick Nolte manages to stand upright while smuggling his pet albino bats in his nostrils... Where magic happens.
