Streisand was 'dream choice'
2004-12-24 07:38
Los Angeles - Ben Stiller cannot believe Barbra Streisand agreed to play his mother in the new comedy Meet the Fockers.
"Nobody thought it would actually happen and it did, which was incredible," Stiller said in an interview. "She was so cool and funny, and it was great to see her have a chance to sort of go back to that comedy that she's done."
Streisand won an Oscar for her role in 1968's Funny Girl.
Stiller says the 62-year-old actress was his dream choice, but he never thought she would agree to do the movie, a sequel to 2000's Meet the Parents.
In the new film, Stiller, who plays Greg Focker, and his fiancee (Teri Polo) are preparing to wed, so it's time for her parents - the reserved Byrnes (Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner) - to meet the irrepressibly liberal Fockers (Streisand and Dustin Hoffman).
Stiller said he was not as nervous around De Niro as he was while shooting the original movie.
"The first time around I was just so sort of intimidated and sort of like you know, in awe," he said.
"And this time around I was intimidated and in awe ... but at least I'd done it once before and so it was slightly more loose."
On the net:
www.meetthefockers.com
- AP