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12 Feb 2026 14:02
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  •   Home > News > Entertainment

    Ben Stiller thinks Benson Boone could enjoy a successful acting career

    The Zoolander actor starred in a Super Bowl commercial with the Beautiful Things hitmaker for Instacart's Preference Picker feature and he was very impressed by the 23-year-old singer's acting and improvising talents, particularly because he didn't have much experience of either.


    He told Entertainment Tonight: "What I was most excited about is that this guy's really an actor, and it was cool to see that, oh, he could do this if he wanted to do it.

    "And he also seems like he discovered he was a singer when he was, I don't know, 18 or 19.

    "He didn't even start out singing when he was a kid. He was more of an athlete, then he discovered he could sing.

    "So I feel like on this spot, he discovered he can improvise and do comedy, too."

    Ben was in awe of Benson's "incredible" talent and open-minded attitude.

    He gushed: "That guy is incredible. I loved him. First of all, he's so talented. He's got such a great, open attitude towards trying something new. I don't think he's done a lot of acting, and he just jumped into the improv and he just has this incredible ability to put himself out there in his musical talent, his physical abilities, and his willingness to kind of go and have fun.

    "To me, it was just such a blast to work with him. And as I said, we started to improvise together and I'd never met him before, so it was really fun to see that he had that skill and was really into just kind of going for it."

    The advert, which was directed by Spike Jonze, was inspired by 80s variety shows and ends with Ben's character Gary failing spectacularly when he tries to upstage his brother John after his sibling pulls off the kind of back flip Benson's fans will be familiar with.

    And the 60-year-old actor admitted he couldn't "even understand" how the Sugar Sweet hitmaker is able to do such impressive acrobatics.

    He said: "He just does these insane flips. I don't even understand how he does it. We were shooting after lunch and he's about to do the flip.

    "I'm like, 'What did you have for lunch?'

    "He's like, 'I had a couple of cheeseburgers and a milkshake.' And then he goes and does these crazy flips. Yeah, I love him.

    "He probably did it... I'd say at least 20 times. And he told me he does 10 to 12 flips a show or something like that, and I was standing right next to him watching him do it, and I still don't understand how he does it. It's crazy. It's crazy."

    © 2026 Bang Showbiz, NZCity

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