Ben Stiller Surprises ‘Zoolander’ Audience by Reprising His Character

Ben Stiller’s Derek Zoolander made an appearance at a Los Angeles screening of his hilarious 2001 comedy.

Stiller, 59, appeared on stage to introduce his classic comedy Zoolander as the title character at a Saturday, Aug. 16 screening of the film in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Forever Cemetery. While the actor-writer-director did not dress up as Zoolander, a high-end male model, he spoke in his character’s iconic accent as he welcomed fans to the event, as shown in a video shared to X by The Hollywood Reporter.

“Hi. Thank you all for coming,” Stiller told the audience as Zoolander as he recreated the character’s model facial pose. “I’d like to thank all of the People at Cinespia for having the courage to have the first-ever nine year anniversary screening of Zoolander 2!”

“What? Zoolander 1? Okay, cool,” he added, to laughter from the audience. “Well, I hope you really enjoy it, and don’t get freaked out by all those creepy gross dead people underneath you. And just relax and have a good time.”

Stiller also appeared with Severance star Trammel Tillman at the event, where Tillman led the University of Southern California’s marching band for a performance in reference to Severance’s March season 2 finale, which Stiller directed

Zoolander was Stiller’s third movie as a director after 1994’s Reality Bites and 1996’s The Cable Guy. The movie, a satire of the fashion industry, follows his male model character Derek Zoolander as the villainous mogul Jacobim Mugatu (Will Ferrell) attempts to brainwash Derek into assassinating the prime minister of Malaysia. At the same time, Derek unites with his rival in the modeling industry, Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson), and falls in love with a journalist named Matilda Jeffries (Stiller’s real-life wife Christine Taylor, whom he married the year before Zoolander released.)

The original Zoolander was received positively by critics and fans alike. Its 2016 sequel, Zoolander No. 2, was reviewed poorly, as Stiller hilariously alluded to during his surprise onstage appearance. The actor and filmmaker has spoken openly about being surprised by the negative reaction to the sequel over the years.

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“It’s hard to think it was that bad, that people didn’t like it that much. But maybe I’m wrong,” Stiller said on a December 2024 episode of Hot Ones, when asked which of his movies he feels “was most misunderstood or treated unfairly by critics.”

“It really freaked me out because I was like, ‘I didn’t know was that bad?’ ” he added at that time. “What scared me the most on that one was l’m losing what I think what’s funny, the questioning yourself … on Zoolander 2, it was definitely blindsiding to me. And it definitely affected me for a long time.”

Stiller, who most recently appeared in Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2 and is releasing a documentary about his parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara in October, made reference to Zoolander on the red carpet at the 2025 Oscars in March when he struck the character’s famous “Blue Steel” pout for E!’s “Glambot” camera in a clip shared on Instagram.