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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a Focker-Byrnes reunion!<\/p>\n
Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Teri Polo and director Jay Roach gathered for the 25th anniversary of \u201cMeet the Parents,\u201d a comedy of errors about male nurse Greg Focker (Stiller) who endures a lot of painfully awkward hijinx while visiting his girlfriend\u2019s parents for the first time. De Niro plays Polo\u2019s character\u2019s father Greg Byrnes, a cat-loving retired CIA agent who rules with a well meaning (maybe?) but iron fist. They reunited at Manhattan\u2019s Tribeca Performing Arts Center as part of this year\u2019s Tribeca Festival, which was co-founded by De Niro and Jane Rosenthal in 2002.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so much fun to hear laughter in a theater with comedy that\u2019s 25 years old,\u201d Stiller said during the Q&A after the screening. \u201cIt still works.\u201d<\/p>\n Though a quarter century has passed since \u201cMeet the Parents,\u201d Stiller finds that audiences continue to associate him with Greg Focker. He admits that he doesn\u2019t always love when people in the wild address him by his character\u2019s name.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen someone yells \u2018Focker!\u2019 on the street, it doesn\u2019t necessarily feel respectful,\u201d Stiller said with a laugh. \u201cWhenever I\u2019m treated by a male nurse,\u201d he added, \u201cI feel a connection.\u201d<\/p>\n On stage, Roach reminded Stiller that he was almost never in the movie. Steven Spielberg was in talks to direct the film with Jim Carrey as the lead role. When the duo chose to depart the project, Roach was hired as the filmmaker and Stiller as the star.<\/p>\n \u201c[Jim Carrey] was going to be me?\u201d Stiller said. \u201cShit. I totally forgot that part.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Polo joined the cast as the better half of Stiller\u2019s fianc\u00e9e-to-be at the last minute. \u201cIt was really late in the casting process, a few days before we started shooting,\u201d Roach recalled. \u201cShe was thrown into it with these heavyweights.\u201d<\/p>\n Polo joked that she spent the entire shoot \u201cjust sitting there, listening and reacting\u201d to the ensemble around her. She remembers De Niro telling her that he doesn\u2019t approach comedy any differently than he would a drama.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said, \u2018It\u2019s the same thing, It\u2019s the honestly in which you say the line. You\u2019re not trying to be funny. You say it and really mean it,’\u201d Polo said.<\/p>\n \u201cMeet the Parents\u201d was a commercial hit, grossing more than $330 million worldwide against a $55 million budget. The foursome returned for 2004\u2019s sequel \u201cMeet the Fockers,\u201d which introduced Greg\u2019s parents (Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman) who memorably taught audiences of the family\u2019s bathroom policy: \u201cIf it\u2019s yellow, let it mellow; if it\u2019s brown, flush it down.\u201d A third movie, 2010\u2019s \u201cLittle Fockers,\u201d was critically panned but managed to earned $310 million at the box office.<\/p>\n Now, the \u201cMeet the Parents\u201d universe is expanding again. A fourth movie is in development with Ariana Grande among the new cast members. Stiller teased the fourquel, saying they needed an \u201corganic reason\u201d to revisit these characters.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat spurred the idea is that I\u2019m the age that Bob was when we did the first movie,\u201d Stiller said. \u201cIt felt like a mirror to the first film, where one of my kids is thinking about introducing his person to the family.\u201d<\/p>\n Though they didn\u2019t share any plot details, De Niro revealed he\u2019s read the screenplay. \u201cThe script is really fun,\u201d he shared. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, De Niro claims he\u2019s been pushing for another sequel for years now. \u201cWhen we filmed the last one,\u201d he said, \u201cI was sitting with Ben and [screenwriter] John Hamburg. I said, \u2018Let\u2019s start writing the next one now. And they were just humoring me. Now we are finally doing the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Focker-Byrnes reunion! Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Teri Polo and director Jay Roach gathered for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[11914,77,69641,69645,69644,35230,69642,3943,7791,69643,69646,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-166386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ben-stiller","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-greg-focker","11":"tag-jane-rosenthal","12":"tag-jay-roach","13":"tag-jim-carrey","14":"tag-meet-the-parents","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-robert-de-niro","17":"tag-teri-polo","18":"tag-tribeca-performing-arts-center","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114645106019275887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}