Ben and Dick VS. the Dinosaur!

We're at the upper crusty Beverly Wilshire Hotel at the end of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to interview two very funny guys; one is our contemporary and one a classic actor for all generations. Ben Stiller has played everything from a talking giraffe in Madagascar to a male model in Zoolander and a nervous suitor in Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers. Classic actor/showman/dancer Dick Van Dyke won every child's heart in Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang.

In the new Christmastime comedy Night at the Museum, Dick plays a retiring security guard at a natural history museum who is up to no good and Ben plays his replacement, a down-on-his-luck dad trying to impress his young son while the whole museum comes to life after dark. As we sat down at the hotel, we noticed that Dick, who isn't a spring chicken, was really keeping Ben on his toes. It was a comic interview as Ben, reacting to someone saying that he was "magnetic", pulled my tape recorder close to him and turned it on accidentally. It started playing the Rachel Weisz interview from The Fountain.

Ben: Whoops. I'm sorry. You're gonna hate me now. Hey, is that The Fountain press conference?

Someone comments that it was far more literary than this interview is going to be. We laugh and get our recorder from Ben.. turning it back to "record" and here we go. We pick up a drink we had been offered and the silly fun begins...

Ben: Is that really egg nog?

Dick: Is that a Margarita? I'd have one, but I have to be somewhere in February.

TeenHollywood: We try to get a straight face and launch with..... Dick, you are very selective in what you do at this stage in your life, so why did you pick this film?

Dick: Well, it was a coup. This question answers itself. There was so much talent. I've been a fan of Ben's for so long.

Ben: What? You've got that backwards.

Dick: Some of the best things in my life have been when somebody said, 'Why don't we get him to do it?' They thought of me and called me and I said, 'I gotta be in this movie.' It's a classic family movie. It's right down my alley, except for the fact I get to play a bad guy, which I love.

TeenHollywood: Did you like that?

Dick: Yeah! (he laughs)

TeenHollywood: Could you follow up on that, because you don't generally play a bad guy.

Dick: But, he's not a really bad guy. The way I rationalize it is what he's trying to steal is eternal life and eternal youth and anybody would steal for that. And he turns out to be an OK guy, but I get to sneer and leer at Ben a lot and I got a kick out of that. And I get to beat him up too.

TeenHollywood: Which object in the museum would you actually most like to see come to life?

Ben: I was always into the mummies when I was a kid. And for some reason mummies and dinosaurs children are attracted to. So, sure, seeing a mummy come to life or, I dunno, what else is in that museum that you'd like to see come to life?

Dick: Mickey Rooney? (big laugh.. classic, also not a spring chicken actor Mickey plays a guard along with Dick).

TeenHollywood: Ben, with movies like this and Madagascar, are you trying to be in movies for your kids? Have they asked what 'Focker' means yet?

Ben: No, I have not had my children ask me, I have not had my daughter say 'Focker' yet. I'll keep that from happening for as long as possible. No, I just think I've become more aware of these kinds of movies. I actually started working on Madagascar before my daughter was born. I think you just become more aware of it, because when you have kids you want to be able to go to movies and take the family too and all enjoy together. I don't think there are that many great, live action family movies that everybody can enjoy. So, that's what was exciting to me about this one. I grew up near the museum of natural history. I just felt a gut reaction that I really would love to be a part of this movie. As a kid, I would love seeing this movie and I thought as an adult, the kid in me would love to see this movie too.

TeenHollywood: Ben, you work with a feisty and cute monkey. What was that like?

Ben: Yeah, well I guess there's a lot of screen teams that, on screen, they have good chemistry, but off screen they don't get along? I'd say that is sort of what me and Crystal (the monkey) had. First of all, she's a female monkey and she's playing a guy, so I think she already had a chip on her shoulder about that. And she wears a diaper and I think she resents that she can't control herself. And then she got to hit me as hard as she wanted. She was encouraged to hit me very hard. But I guess there is some animal protection law so I couldn't hit her back or is it just because you can't hit a monkey because they will bite you?

TeenHollywood: So you were attacked by this monkey?

Ben: The trainer was like 'Get him, get him, get him, smack the crap out of him'. And she had this way of doing it when she connected that was really annoying. I couldn't hit her back. I'd have to go like that and stop. And when it came to my close up I'd get the monkey puppet to hit or the green tennis ball. It isn't satisfying. I have unresolved issues with Crystal. And if I see her now, I'd probably want to smack her.

TeenHollywood: Ben, I haven't seen you run so much in a movie before. It seems full tilt and you end up sliding across the polished floor...

Ben: Yeah, full tilt. I just studied Tom Cruise running in all the Mission: Impossibles. (Laughs.) I think he's one of the best screen runners. And I just wanted to emulate that or Risky Business. It all goes back to Cruise.

TeenHollywood: Did you improvise at all with wild Robin Williams?

Ben: He kept on doing this hilarious improv where he would do Teddy Roosevelt in old newsreel footage where it would just be the fast motion and his voice coming in and out and it was so brilliant. It was like a perfect Robin Williams bit, but we couldn't figure out a way to put it in the movie.

TeenHollywood: And you and Owen are together again in some very strange scenes where he's a tiny cowboy...

Ben: I didn't really get a chance to really work together too much, because they shot all that stuff with him after we were finished.

TeenHollywood: The director says you were talking to a little toothpick pretending it was Owen.

Ben: Yeah, and then we would take that toothpick and put it in a club sandwich and eat it after the scene to complete the process. (Laughs.)

TeenHollywood: Dick, you seem to be really enjoying this. Do you have a secret to staying young at your age?

Dick: I think I picked the correct ancestors for one thing. I dunno. I've always kept singing and dancing. I do a lot of exercise; just swim and work out with the resistance and stuff. When you get to my age you have to or you'll freeze up like the tin woodsman. Just keep moving is the idea and don't eat too much.

TeenHollywood: When you look back at some of your early movies on television, what do you see? Is it like looking at an old home movie for you?

Dick: Well it's funny, if I look at something I've done recently, I just die for myself and I'm critical and I pick it apart. But if ten years go by, and I happen to see it on television, I go, 'That wasn't too bad. Isn't that funny'? You forget all the problems you had.

Ben: Dick is incredible. I mean, all the dancing. I think there were two or three times when I turned to you and said, 'You're 80? Really? I don't believe you.' And also the character is working at the museum to keep him young. So, I think there is a portrait of Dorian Van Dyke somewhere in the closet.

Dick: [laughing] Some of the dancing is over the credits I understand. But we laid down some dancing!

TeenHollywood: Ben, did you learn anything about history from the film?

Ben: Well I learned to speak Hun, which was great. And that is actual Hun. It's ancient Hun so you really can't check it. But, y'know, I love history, I'm very interested by it and I think it's great to have a movie that brings it alive in a way. It's sort of that romanticized version of it that you get into as a kid. Then, when you're older, you can learn the realities of history and then get depressed that more people have died in the name of God than anything else and all that stuff. This is the fun version of all that.

TeenHollywood: Is there any particular time frame of history you are personally interested in?

Ben: I'm very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together. I'm also interested in ancient Rome. I told some press guy I was interested in ancient Rome and he says, 'Oh, you would like to be in the orgies?' (Laughs.) That would be nice. To be in the orgies.

TeenHollywood: Mr. Van Dyke can you talk about your interest in computer animation? We hear that you have your own little studio.

Dick: It started out as a hobby about 15 years ago when they first came out with a little machine that would actually do animation and I've been doing it ever since. Now I have a room full of equipment and I'm struggling to keep up with technology, but it's an addiction. It is so much fun. I've gotten pretty good. I've been actually offered a job as an animator and I realize the minute there's a deadline, the fun's over. So I can play as long as I want to with it and I have some good stuff in there, but I've never sold any or even showed any of it.

TeenHollywood: Ben are you recording Madagascar 2 yet?

Stiller: We're starting to record it very soon. I think all the animals head back to New York on that plane that you know was up in the trees and then they crash in Africa and Alex gets reacquainted with his real family and it goes from there.

TeenHollywood: Ben, you get to have a scene with your real mom, actress Anne Meara in this. Was that fun or weird?

Stiller: It was really fun to get a chance to work with my mom. We did some stuff a long time ago like a cable TV show and my mom had a little thing where she appears and throws an egg in Zoolander, but this was the first time we did a scene together and it was really fun. It's funny because we've got the same DNA and it's interesting to go back and forth with someone you're related to when you're not playing mother and son. There's a thing when I sort wink at her that we cut out. It was weird.

TeenHollywood: Ben, you seem comfortable in an ice hockey scene in this film. Have you been on the ice before?

Ben: I don't play hockey at all. I'm not comfortable on skates. I've had a problem with skates since I was about six. My parents took me to this sports camp in New York and I brought my skates, they said bring skates. I had the double edged Brinker trainer skates and I was mocked by the counselor and ever since I've stayed off the ice. I wasn't even on skates. What am I talking about? I was wearing my shoes.

TeenHollywood: Ben and Dick, would you both like to see your work in a museum of films some day?

Ben: Well I think Dick would definitely be in a museum of movies. He's already got a couple of classics there. More than a couple. I don't know. I mean I think time only tells what lasts and what doesn't. You just don't know what's going to last.

Dick: [looking at Ben] I think this one is going to be around a long time. But, my own movies? That would be very nice. I'm so happy it's lasted as long as it has already. It's lasted over 40 years.

Ben: It is amazing though. Coincidently though my daughter, I just started watching both Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins before we started working together and for me it was almost like a weird sign and those movies do last. I'm still seeing a therapist from the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Still have nightmares of that guy. These movies have a huge affect on you when you're young so it's great to be able to be a part of something and work with someone who's so great.

TeenHollywood: What is it about a movie like Mary Poppins that makes it so lasting?

Dick: Well I think it was Walt Disney who just had the touch. The child in him or something. He knew how to entertain children and how to get through to them. I've often thought 'wouldn't it be like a man in a candy store if they had computer graphics back then'? Walt would have gone crazy with that.

TeenHollywood: Ben, you're one of the best reactionary comics. In this, you are often reacting to future CGI critters and people that aren't there. Is that harder for you?

Ben: For me, the challenging thing in the movie was reacting to things that weren't there. I know that I'm better as an actor when I'm working with a good actor. I think anytime you're working with a better actor, it makes you a better actor. So the hard thing for me was working with the dinosaur or some of those animals that weren't there because you have to really figure out a way to make it real, but also you're totally creating it. I found that hard. I think there are a lot of other actors who are better suited to that kind of thing and are better at it.

TeenHollywood: We hear your director Shawn Levy pretended to be a dinosaur chasing you, complete with roaring and posing etc.

Ben: Oh yeah. He really took it on. He really got the whole thing. It was weird. Then he was like 'you have to stay in character in between takes' and then he'd start running down the hall [as the T-Rex] and the animators were like video taping him to get the motion right. But, it made a huge difference for me to have somebody to react to for sure.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.