Ben Stiller talks about documentary about his parents

NEW YORK (CBS, KYMA) - CBS Newspath sat down with actor and director Ben Stiller to talk about his new and first documentary, "Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost."

Stiller tells the story of his parents, comedy icons Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, exploring their impact both on popular culture and at home, where the lines between creativity, family, life and art often blurred.

When asked why now was the right time to share the story of his parents, Stiller said:

"It was just when my dad passed away and this apartment was gonna be going out of our family. My sister was going to be selling it and I knew that I wanted to capture it. I wanted to film it for the memory of it, really. And it was COVID, it was 2020, and we weren't able to have a memorial for my dad. And so, I was thinking in, you know, in terms of that, when you lose a parent, you know, it's just such a heavy thing, and there's so many different feelings. So, I felt like this film, I knew I wanted to make something that that was about them. I didn't know it would evolve into what it did."

Stiller shared what the process of telling his parents' story was like, and how he was able to connect with them through the film.

"I think any documentary, you know, you have to find the story, and this was the first one I ever worked on, but it's so personal that it was kind of really wondering like what is going to resonate with people that I know resonates with me, but also with people who didn't know my parents. And that really ended up being just kind of continuing to go deeper and deeper into the personal kind of universal experiences, I think that we all go through in families and with the loss and in relationships and those things."

Ben Stiller

When asked what he learned about his parents while making the documentary that he may have not known before, Stiller said:

"I learned how deep they are as people. I kind of knew that though, honestly. It's more I think about like how, like how much work they did and how hard they worked at a time when I wasn't aware of it as a kid, because you're not supposed to be when you're a kid, you're just living your life, but they were working and working and feeling a lot of pressure to have to deliver, you know, to be able to to go on the Ed Sullivan show. And every time you have to write a new sketch and you have to, you know, it has to go over and 30 million people are watching it and you have to be invited back. And that's to like put food on the table for your family and to have a successful career and get other opportunities. So, that [is] a real appreciation of what they went through and what they did."

"Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost" premieres in select theaters October 17, 2025 and streams globally on Apple TV+ on October 24, 2025.