VANCOUVER, CANADA — Ben STILLER handed them out to cast and crew at the conclusion of a punishing 13-week location shoot as a gesture of thanks, but also contrition: T-shirts that read "I SURVIVED BEN STILLER'S COMEDY DEATH CAMP."
Sitting at a bayside restaurant in Vancouver, where he's currently filming "Night at the Museum 2," Stiller -- who co-wrote, directed, co-produced and stars in the ensemble action-comedy "Tropic Thunder" -- waved it away as a joke, a riff on marquee star Robert Downey Jr.'s acerbic nickname for the production, most of which unfolded in the steaming jungles of Kauai last year.
But according to actor Jay Baruchel, Stiller might have had a different rationale for his choice of "wrap" gifts. He called Stiller a mensch and "one of the kindest directors" he's worked with but continued: "I think for everybody, it signaled the end of the madness.
"The pressure got to every single person on that movie at some point," said Baruchel who, like Stiller and Downey in the film, portrays an actor caught in the middle of real paramilitary strife while filming a big-budget Vietnam War epic. "It rained 12 times a day. There were a tremendous amount of things to worry about, from prolonged exposure to mud to the leptospirosis virus caused by every animal in creation [defecating] and having it flush down the mountain. A lot of people were getting sick. You had to cross a river out of 'Jurassic Park' every day to get to work and then go up a mountain that was like something out of a cartoon."
Added Jack Black: "A couple of people got bit by centipedes. It's like getting shot by a gun, apparently. You have to go to the hospital."
More than simply an inside joke, the shirts provide a telling glimpse of comedy death camp's head counselor. After two decades in the business, Stiller has become one of Hollywood's most consistently hit-making A-listers; his movies have collectively taken in more than $3.5 billion in worldwide box-office receipts, landing him on Forbes magazine's list of the Top 10 most bankable stars. But under the gun, the man responsible for bringing "Zoolander" to the screen may not be as far from Werner Herzog -- in terms of director-despot dedication -- as you might think.
