Ben Stiller Found It ‘Depressing’ He Couldn’t Keep up With Chris Rock’s Comedy in ‘Madagascar’
Comedian Ben Stiller has made many laugh with his projects like Meet the Parents and Dodgeball. But as funny as he is, he felt he might have finally met his match when teaming up with Chris Rock.
Ben Stiller and Chris Rock improvised in ‘Madagascar’
Stiller and Rock got together for the animated series Madagascar. One of the reasons Rock enjoyed doing the films was to team up with Stiller himself.
“It was getting back with Ben. We had fallen out,” Rock once told Collider.
Stiller agreed, and shared that watching Rock work was one of his favorite parts of doing the movies.
“Honestly I was impressed with Chris because we did work together one day and I love him in the movie, outside of being a friend of his I find the character of Marty very entertaining. To watch Chris do his thing in the studio was fun. He riffs very well and has fun with it,” Stiller said.
The two comics would also improvise while working together. But Stiller felt Rock put him to shame when it came to going off script.
“Chris and I got to improvise together a few times and got to go in the booth a few times, ’cause usually you’re by yourself,” Stiller once said according to Female First. “Chris is great. It’s kind of depressing to record with him because he comes up with all of these funny things and my character’s like, ‘Ha ha, yeah…'”
Chris Rock referred to Ben Stiller as the ‘Jude Law’ of comedy while working with him on ‘Madagascar’
Rock felt that the second Madagascar, Escape 2 Africa, was funnier than its predecessor. But Rock personally made sure the sequel would be a better film by working with Stiller more closely than he did in the original.
“Me and Ben made it a point to do some of our scenes together this time figuring it would be a lot funnier. Not that the first one wasn’t funny enough, but if we are in the same room we could bounce off each other and it would work different. It worked when I did Bee Movie with Jerry Seinfeld. We did all of our scenes together and I wanted to do the same with Ben,” Rock once said according to Black Film.
Teaming up with Stiller was also entertaining for Rock since he dubbed his co-star the Jude Law of comedy films.
“Like Jude Law’s in everything, Ben Stiller’s in every funny thing. And they’re all funny. I love Dodgeball. I do. I liked the Polly movie, too,” Rock said.
It wasn’t the first time Rock singled out Law. The comedian once did a playful bit about Law’s prevalence in movies while hosting the Oscars.
“You want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law? Who is Jude Law? Why is he in every movie I have seen the last four years? He’s in everything,” Rock once said according to The Hollywood Reporter. “He’s in everything. He’s gay, he’s straight, he’s American, he’s British – next year, he’s playing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a movie.”
Chris Rock and Ben Stiller almost lost faith in their ‘Madagascar’ sequel
Although the first Madagascar film was a success, the sequel wasn’t guaranteed. Eventually, both Stiller and Rock questioned whether a second film would become a reality.
“We’ve seen the first one, and we know where it’s headed towards,” Stiller once told The Oklahoman. “The first time, we were just both like, ‘They’re telling us there’s going to be a movie, we take their word for it, and they say it’s going to be in four years.’ You almost start to lose faith at a certain point.”
But Stiller’s and Rock’s faith in the film paid off, with the series spawning a hit franchise that included five successful movies.
