Ben Stiller has had a successful acting career for the past 36 years, but it appears to have come at a cost, according to his 20-year-old daughter, Ella Stiller.

In a February 2022 interview with Esquire, he discussed his changing connection with his daughter.

Stiller stated in the interview that his daughter believes he was not present enough during her childhood. “She’s quite vocal about it, and sometimes she says things I don’t want to hear. It’s difficult to hear because I’m not present in the same ways I saw my parents not present,” he explained.

He said he felt the same about his parents, performers, and comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Ben had always promised himself that he would not follow suit. “But then there’s that issue where I was trying to navigate my desire to realize my ambitions and dreams,” he explained.

Ella Stiller was born in 2002 to Ben Stiller and his wife, Christine Taylor, as their first of two children together. The pair met in 1999 and married the following year. They temporarily split up in 2017 but then reconciled while living together amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ben’s career has skyrocketed to legendary status in the two decades following Ella Stiller’s birth. He appeared in films such as Meet the Parents, Zoolander, Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball, Along Came Polly, Night at the Museum, Blades of Glory, Tropic Thunder, and others.

“I’ve discovered that your children aren’t keeping track of your career. “It would be solipsistic to imagine that my kids care about it,” Stiller stated in an interview with Esquire. His remarks are something that any parent can relate to, especially those who have hectic schedules and are frequently required to work.

“What they want is an emotionally engaged and supporting parent. That’s probably what they want more than”—a deep, big laugh—” for me to go off and push the boundaries of my creativity,” Stiller said, referring to his children’s wants. It’s something he’s becoming more conscious of as he gets older.

While Ben Stiller has not considered stopping his work, he has become more interested in spending time with his family and including them in his life. This is evidenced by his numerous red-carpet appearances with his daughter, Ella Stiller, in recent years.

The two were last seen together in September 2022 at the 74th Emmy Awards, where Ben Stiller brought his daughter as his date. As the producer and director of Severance, he was nominated for various prizes. But his smart outfit, mixed with his daughter’s sleek appearance, drew attention.

Later that night, the father-daughter combo was also sighted at the Apple TV+ Emmy celebration, which was held at Mother Wolf in Hollywood, CA. They also appeared on the red carpet twice in 2019: once at Rosie’s Theatre Kids Autumn Gala in New York and again at the 2019 Golden Globes.

Stiller has previously stated that he tries to avoid having his children see his movies and does not force them to pursue performing careers. Ella and her younger brother, Quinlin, participated in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and have since pursued acting careers.

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