Series 1 - Ben Stiller

Episode 2
Ben Stiller of Zoolander
Episode no.	2
Original airdate	21 July 2005
Written by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Directed by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Guest stars	Ben Stiller

The second episode of the first series of Extras.

Plot

Andy and Maggie.

Andy, Maggie, and Greg are working on a war film directed by Ben Stiller. On the set, Andy befriends Goren, a man who lost his family in the war. The film is based on his story and Andy is hoping Goren can help him get a line. Meanwhile, Maggie meets a new man, John, that she fancies and although she gets stuck going to a birthday party because she couldn’t think of an excuse, she’s excited to find out that he will be going to the party as well. Andy also agrees to go to the party with Maggie when he discovers that the producer will be there. At the party, Maggie gets close to John and plans to leave with him until Andy points out that one of his legs is shorter than the other one. She tries to let him down gently, but he figures out why she’s blowing him off when she compares his shoe to Herman Munster. The situation with John creates tension with the producer’s friends causing Andy to embarrass himself when he refers to a Japanese woman as “yellow.”

Back on the set the next day, Goren informs Andy that he got him a part as Journalist 2. Yet Andy would prefer to be Journalist 1 because it has more lines so he convinces Goren to talk to Ben about swapping the parts. Ben is tired of Goren’s demands and he insensitively tells him to stop going on about his dead wife. The set goes quiet after the awkward interaction and Maggie attempts to come to Goren’s defense. After Ben yells at her Andy comes to her defense and ends up insulting Ben and getting kicked off the film.

Quotes

• Andy: Never get involved with a man who’s wife has been murdered, rule one, choose someone else.
  Maggie: Well who then?
  Andy: It’s as easy as that innit, to you?

• Goren: This is why I want film to be made by Ben Stiller.
  Andy: Ben Stiller of Zoolander, sure.
  Goren: (Shows Andy a picture of his dead wife) You look, dead. Naked. You look.
  Andy: I am but I’m only looking at her dead naked face.

• Ben Stiller: Who are you?
  Andy: Nobody.
  Ben Stiller: What’s that? Who?
  Andy: Nobody.
  Ben Stiller: That’s right nobody, yeah. And who am I?
  Andy: It’s either Starsky or Hutch, I can never remember.

• Andy: Well done, bye nerd.
  Ben Stiller: Oh I’m a nerd?
  Andy: Yeah.
  Ben Stiller: I’m a nerd. I’ve kissed Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, I slapped Jennifer Aniston’s butt.
  Maggie: In films.
  Ben Stiller: It still counts… it still counts.

Cultural References

• Akira Kurosawa: a prominent Japanese filmmaker, film producer, and screenwriter. His first credited film (Sanshiro Sugata) was released in 1943; his last (Madadayo) in 1993.
• Yasujiro Ozu: an influential Japanese filmmaker. Marriage and family were among the most persistent themes in his body of work.
• The Magnificent Seven: a 1960 western film directed by John Sturges about a group of hired gunmen protecting a Mexican village from bandits. It is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film, Seven Samurai.
• Seven Samarai: a 1954 Japanese film co-written, edited and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film takes place in Warring States Period Japan (around 1587/1588). It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven masterless samurai (ronin) to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops.
• Herman Munster: a fictional character in the CBS sitcom The Munsters, played by Fred Gwynne. The patriarch of the Munster household, Herman is an entity much like Frankenstein's monster along with Lurch on the show's competitor The Addams Family.

Gallery

• 

  Greg and Andy.

• 

  You look. Dead.

• 

  Would that be funny?

• 

  One leg shorter.

• For more images go to: Gallery:Extras - Series 1 Episode 2

External links

• HBO episode guide: "Ben Stiller"