Ben Stiller came away from his Super Bowl collaboration with Benson Boone convinced the breakout musician could easily make the jump into acting if he ever wanted to.
Stiller teamed up with Boone for an Instacart Super Bowl spot promoting the platform’s Preference Picker feature, and the experience left the actor genuinely impressed by Boone’s instincts on set. Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Ben Stiller said, “What I was most excited about is that this guy’s really an actor, and it was cool to see that, oh, he could do this if he wanted to do it.”
Stiller noted that Boone’s creative path has been anything but conventional. “He also seems like he discovered he was a singer when he was, I don’t know, 18 or 19. He didn’t even start out singing when he was a kid. He was more of an athlete, then he discovered he could sing,” he said, adding that the Instacart shoot revealed yet another skill. “So I feel like on this spot, he discovered he can improvise and do comedy, too.”
The Zoolander star was particularly taken with Boone’s openness and willingness to jump into unfamiliar territory. “That guy is incredible. I loved him,” Stiller said. “First of all, he’s so talented. He’s got such a great, open attitude towards trying something new. I don’t think he’s done a lot of acting, and he just jumped into the improv… To me, it was just such a blast to work with him.”
Directed by Spike Jonze, the ad draws inspiration from over-the-top 1980s variety shows and culminates in a physical comedy moment where Stiller’s character, Gary, embarrasses himself trying to outdo his brother John after Boone nails one of his signature flips.
Those acrobatics, Stiller admitted, still leave him baffled. “He just does these insane flips. I don’t even understand how he does it,” he said. Recalling one shoot day, Stiller added, “I’m like, ‘What did you have for lunch?’ He’s like, ‘I had a couple of cheeseburgers and a milkshake.’ And then he goes and does these crazy flips. Yeah, I love him.”
Boone reportedly repeated the stunt dozens of times without breaking a sweat, something Stiller says he still can’t wrap his head around. “I was standing right next to him watching him do it, and I still don’t understand how he does it. It’s crazy. It’s crazy.”
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