In Ben Stiller's showbiz family, there was little separation between home and stage

"When both your parents are in show business, you get used to being stopped on the street. Just ask Ben Stiller, whose parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, formed a hit comedy duo in the 1960s and '70s. "My mom usually wouldn't want to talk to people for a long time ... and my dad would talk to people forever," Stiller says. "As kids ... you feel that your parent's attention [is] being taken away from you.""

"After his father's death, Ben Stiller found a stash of audio recordings his dad had made of his conversations and arguments with Meara about their marriage and their act. Those tapes are at the center of Stiller's new documentary about his parents, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost. Stiller says his father was always more committed to comedy than his mother, who studied under Uta Hagen and dreamed of being a serious actor."

"Stiller is currently the executive producer and director of the TV series, Severance, about a company that makes its employees get a procedure on their brain that separates the memories of their home life and the memories of their work life. The premise is almost the direct opposite of the lifestyle his parents modeled while he was growing up. "Their marriage, their relationship ... was also what their act was about," Stiller says."

Ben Stiller grew up as the son of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, a successful comedy duo in the 1960s and 1970s. The parents' public interactions often drew attention, with Jerry more gregarious and Anne more reserved. Anne Meara died in 2015 and Jerry Stiller died in 2020. After Jerry's death, Ben discovered audio recordings of conversations and arguments between his parents about their marriage and act; those tapes form the centerpiece of the documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost. Ben's own work on Severance examines enforced separation between work and home, contrasting his parents' merged professional and personal lives.

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