Ben Stiller Explains Why This Was the Right Time to Revisit ‘Meet the Parents’: “Life Informs Everything”

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Casting for Meet the Parents 4 is well underway, with Owen Wilson the latest star to rejoin the franchise with Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Teri Polo in the upcoming film that also has Ariana Grande on board.

But why was this the right time to revisit Meet the Parents? Stiller explained after a recent 25th anniversary screening of the original film at the 2025 Tribeca Festival.

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“I think what spurred the idea was that at this point in time, I’m the age that Bob [De Niro] was when we did the first movie,” he said. “And there was this sort of mirror to the first film in terms of the fact that my kids are grown. And, yeah, that my kid, one of my kids, is thinking about introducing his person to the family.”

Stiller, De Niro and Polo, who reunited with original director Jay Roach, who’s set to produce the fourth film, for a Q&A after the Meet the Parents screening at Tribeca, remained tightlipped about what else to expect, despite Stiller joking that he could tell the audience “the whole plot.”

Nevertheless, The Hollywood Reporter has learned that one part of the upcoming film revolves around the son of Stiller and Polo’s characters getting engaged to a ball-busting woman (Grande) who seems all wrong for him.

As to whether Grande will get Stiller, De Niro and Co. singing and dancing, Stiller joked that the movie would be titled Wicked 3, but De Niro indicated that it was unlikely he’d be singing, given what happened on a previous film in the series.

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In either the second or third film, De Niro recalled, “We tried to do a song or something that I was singing and [producing partner and Tribeca co-founder] Jane [Rosenthal] wasn’t happy with it.” They ended up cutting the scene.

Still, De Niro teased that the script for Meet the Parents 4 is “really good.”

“It’s exciting that we’re going to do it again and be together,” Stiller said of Meet the Parents 4. “And I think life informs everything that’s happened in the last 25 years, and it’s been a while since we did the last one. … So, it’s kind of great to look at it as a sort of a new thing. But of course, there’s all these great memories, and I feel like our connections are still there when we get back together. It’s just all baked in there.”

De Niro even said he tried to get the ball rolling on a fourth film when they were working on the third movie, Little Fockers, which came out in 2010.

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“When we filmed the last one, I was with Ben and John [Hamburg, who co-wrote all three prior films in the franchise and is set to direct the upcoming movie] in my camper,” he said, “And I said, ‘Let’s start writing one now, to be ready for another one.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.’ They were humoring me.”

Roach was encouraged by how the upcoming film, just based on Hamburg’s approach, seemed reminiscent of the first movie.

“It’s always about the predicament,” he said. “I fell in love with that script, the first film script … because imagining what it’s like when you care so much about winning the approval of someone, and you’re right away going to start screwing it up, and the harder you try the worse you’re going to make it. And I think that’s what John has come up with again, and that’s what always you need. That predicament is everything in a story. And I think in this one, John found a really great new predicament. I think everybody’s going to love squirming through it.

Stiller added, “The audience has this history with the characters and they’re going to bring that to the film too. So, there’s something that’s kind of emotional about it, I think, for me, for the actors, to the connection that people have with the movie.”

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During the panel, Stiller was also reminded that his part in the first film originally was meant for someone else: Jim Carrey.

The comedy icon, who Stiller directed in the 1996 black comedy The Cable Guy, was originally set to star in the film with Steven Spielberg planning to direct. Carrey even came up with the Focker last name. But after Spielberg and Carrey left the project, Roach and Stiller took on the director and lead actor roles, respectively.

Remembering that turn of events, Stiller confirmed, “Jim Carrey was going to be me? Shit … I totally forgot that part.”

For his part, Carrey praised Stiller’s performance in a 2008 interview with Larry King.

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“It was perfect that Ben Stiller did it,” Carrey said. “When I saw it, I went, ‘That’s the way it’s supposed to be done.’”

Stiller did remember getting the call offering him the part, indicating that De Niro’s involvement was part of what made him say yes.

“I was on like the 5 freeway or something in L.A.” he recalled. “I think you [to Roach] called me up and said, like, ‘Robert De Niro wants to do the movie,’ and I was like, ‘He wants to do the movie with me? … Well, yeah.’”

Roach tried to reassure Stiller that he was the first choice.

“I think you turned it down before,” Roach told Stiller. “And then I went back to you.”

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And Stiller ended up being well-suited for the role, as he explained that the film unintentionally mirrored his life around the same time, as he was dating his now-wife Christine Taylor and found himself ready to propose and ask for her father’s permission.

“It was while we were in rehearsals for the movie. And her parents lived in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and her dad owned a security company,” Stiller recalled. “We had to go back for her grandfather’s funeral, and I think I found myself in the basement of her house with her father after the funeral telling him that I loved his daughter. It was good research for the movie.”

Polo was cast relatively late, a few days before filming began, Roach revealed, with the actress sharing more about her whirlwind experience of joining the film after getting the call while she was in an elaborate Halloween costume and quickly finding herself in rehearsal.

“If I remember correctly, I think it was Halloween. It was a Sunday, and I was in full Halloween get-up. I was a vampire laying in a coffin, and I got a phone call … from my agent about five o’clock saying they wanted me to be on a red eye tonight for a screen test tomorrow with Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. There’s going to be a cast read-through first, but then you’re going to do the screen test, and it’s the first time in my life I was speechless,” Polo recalled. “I had about three hours sleep … I remember saying to myself, ‘If I don’t give everything, if I mess this up, I will never forgive myself. I will never have this chance again.’”

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After two more days of rehearsal, Polo was finally told she got the part before having to quickly go home on a Saturday night to come back on Sunday and start making the movie on Monday.

In addition to holding onto memories and forming a close bond with the cast, Polo also had a lingering connection to one of the cats who played the memorable Jinx family pet. The trained animal was on the verge of retirement, and Polo’s mother ended up adopting it.

The cast and Roach were asked about their favorite lines, with the early dinner, in which Stiller’s character describes milking a cat, getting a couple of shout-outs. But though fans may love De Niro’s “I have nipples, Greg, could you milk me,” De Niro himself has a different favorite line.

That quote comes from when his overprotective father character thinks that Stiller’s character has been smoking pot and threatens him by saying, among other things, “I will bring you down to Chinatown.”

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De Niro couldn’t remember if the line was scripted or ad-libbed, but Stiller knew what happened and reminded his co-star that Hamburg rewrote the scene and when De Niro got the revised script, he read it and nodded approvingly.

Meet the Parents 4 is set to be released on Nov. 25, 2026.

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