Ben Stiller

You know, you want people to like what you do and you can't really control that.

And the question, of course, in life is how much you care about that or not.

And he would talk about this too.

He'd talk about it very openly that he said, I need that love from the audience.

And I mean, you know, it's kind of armchair psychology, but, you know, he had a couple of parents who

he didn't get a lot of nurturing from when he was a kid.

They fought a lot and they were very poor and nobody was encouraging him to go into show business.

And he found that acceptance when he, you know, went into the theater, he went to Syracuse University and he performed in plays and he, you know, found his people and found this warmth and acceptance in the theater.

And

And he was always, you know, always connecting with people.

I think he loved talking to people.

He loved when fans would come up and, you know, say hi to him.

And it meant something to him.

And my mother had a very different relationship with it.

I mean, there wasn't, honestly, it was a lot of fun.

It's so interesting because when you really analyze it,

to think about what the downside was.

At the time, there wasn't a downside for us as kids.

We were just living in this world where my parents would go out, and either they'd go out late and play a nightclub.

I remember when they played nightclubs in New York, and that was really exciting for us.