Top Performances is a recurring feature in which we definitively handpick the very best performances from an iconic actor or actress.
Ben Stiller may be really, really ridiculously good looking, but there’s something even more impressive hiding beneath those chiseled abs and stunning features. The actor’s versatility isn’t the kind of thing that shows up on a magazine cover, but it’s a huge reason why he’s been able to carve out a 30-year career that encompasses indie dramas (Permanent Midnight), satirical black comedies (The Cable Guy, Mystery Men), and parodies that walk the line between subversive and mainstream (Zoolander, Tropic Thunder). Stiller has even cornered the market on children’s entertainment, voicing Alex the Lion in the computer-animated Madagascar franchise and starring in an interminable series of Nights at the Museum. You don’t get this way by being one-dimensional, despite what the blank look on Derek Zoolander’s face might suggest.
With Zoolander 2 set to hit theaters this week, we thought it’d be a good time to reflect on Stiller’s career and celebrate the roles that stand out from the rest. Stiller has embodied quite a few archetypes on screen — the schlemiel, the everyman, the antihero, the luckless lover — but all of his best roles reflect the same dedication to craft and character. Whether your favorite version of Stiller is Roger Greenberg or Gaylord Focker, it’s easy to appreciate the unique cocktail of humor and pathos that shows up in different potencies across all of his films. It’s just a shame he’s such a bad eugoogoolizer.
–Collin Brennan
Associate Editor
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