Sunday, 26 October 2008

Ben Stiller: I'm drawn to dark roles

Actor doesn't want to get stuck doing comedy

Ben Stiller directed recent smash hit Tropic Thunder, with Robert Downey Jr and Jack Black

Ben Stiller has admitted that he wishes people didn't find him funny.

The actor, famous for his comic leads in films including Meet The Fockers and Along Came Polly, admits he would prefer to be cast in more serious roles.

‘I totally get why people see me as the comedy guy,’ he says. ‘That doesn’t mean I don’t have different ideas of where I want to go.

'Darkness. That’s the direction I want to go in right now – both as a director and an actor.

'There’s this whole other side of me that I’m drawn to and that I just haven’t been able to do.’

Ben, 42, admits he fell into doing comedy roles, rather than setting out to be hilarious.

‘All of a sudden you do a couple of comedies and that’s that,’ he tells The Guardian.

‘It defines who you are and how people see you. But I have to accept it. Even if I wish people didn’t see me like that.’