Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost with Ben Stiller and Ethan Hawke (Ep. 583)

The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Directors Guild of America

Tv & Film

4.6 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Director Ben Stiller discusses his new film, Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost, with fellow Director Ethan Hawke in a Q&A at the DGA theater in New York. In the conversation, he discusses how the project began as a reaction after his father passed, how the title originated from some of his mother’s personal philosophies, and how interviewing his family members and going through archives revealed much about his parents he did not know. Screened as part of the DGA’s Documentary Series, the film tells the story of comedic duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, exploring their impact both on popular culture and at home. In the process, Ben turns the camera on himself to examine the generational lessons we all can learn from those we love. See photos and a summary of this event below: https://www.dga.org/events/2025/december2025/docseries_stillerandmeara-1125

Transcript

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0:00.0	somewhere inside of him he they had to figure out how to make it work and I think
0:04.4	it was a couple of things the main ones because he loved her and looked up to her
0:08.1	and he's he recognized her genius you know he really recognized her genius and
0:12.9	they also had to keep the act together but you see that core passion in the
0:17.1	beginning but then it evolved into this thing that's even more harder to do, which is to have a 60-year marriage that is real.
0:48.8	Yeah. Hello and welcome back to the director's cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.
0:56.0	In this episode, a comedy icon examines his parents' relationship and legacy, and director Ben Stiller's documentary, Stiller and Mira, Nothing is Lost. Scrained as part of the DGA's documentary series,
1:03.5	the film tells the story of comedic duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Mira, exploring their impact
1:09.0	both on popular culture and at home.
1:12.2	In the process, Ben turns the camera on himself to examine the generational lessons we can all learn from those we love.
1:20.5	In addition to Stiller and Mira, Nothing is Lost, Stiller's other directorial credits include the feature films, The Secret Life of Walter Middy,
1:28.7	Tropic Thunder, Zoolander, and Zoolander 2, The Cable Guy, and Reality Bites,
1:35.3	and episodes of the television series, Stiller and Mirra, and The Ben Stiller Show.
1:41.4	He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television
1:46.0	and Limited Series for his 2018 series Escape at Danamora and was nominated for the DGA's
1:52.0	Dramatic Series Award for his 2022 episode of Severance, The We We We Are.
1:58.8	Following the documentary series screening of the film at the DGA Theater in New York,
2:03.6	Stiller spoke with director Ethan Hawke about filming Stiller and Mira,
2:07.1	Nothing is Lost.
2:09.0	Listen on for their conversation.
2:25.7	I thought he was going to say the stars of reality bites back together again for the reunion.
2:28.6	Thanks for coming out to see it.
	...

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