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EW As the three of you went about de-Carrey-izing the script, how did the writing process work?

ROACH Through most of the production John Hamburg [working from initial drafts by Jim Herzfeld] was around or available to us. Jim's original script had great comic set pieces, like the dinner scene. John especially brought in this psychological duel aspect. And there were [Election's] Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, who gave us the third act. It was this really great meld of those four minds.

STILLER And Jerry Stahl brought in the male nurse thing.

ROACH I was in a great place in that all the writers who were involved remained involved. They were all reading each other's pages, all calling in with ideas. But John was the guy who was kind of on payroll through the shoot. There were a lot of moments where new scenes would be coming in, and I'd be running back and forth from trailer to trailer. Bob would give me something and I'd go, ''Oh, I don't know if that's gonna work with what Ben is working on.'' So I'd run out to Hamburg, ''Hamburg, we've gotta solve this.''

STILLER Those were days I was really, really glad I wasn't directing or writing the movie. And John, by the way, was incredibly intimidated by Bob. [Everyone laughs] I remember the first time he came in. He wrote or rewrote this tuxedo-shop scene, where Bob sort of interrogates me. He gave it to Bob to read. But he didn't expect Bob would literally read it that second. It was that scene where Bob's character says, ''I will bring you down. I will bring you down to Chinatown.'' John told me later he was thinking ''De Niro is going to read that line and either I'm going to be fired or it's going to end up in the trailer.''

DE NIRO Is it in the trailer?

STILLER Yeah! But it was one of those flop-sweat moments, having an actor read your work right in front of you.

EW Is that power to intimidate something Bob actively cultivates, Ben, or do people just crumple around him because it's their vision of him?

STILLER The intimidation factor remained throughout the movie. Bob really is one of my favorite actors. I never got used to being in the same room, and that was a good thing.

ROACH Ben was terrified of Bob up front, and I tried to encourage that. I'd say, ''Oh, I don't know if Bob's gonna like such and such, Ben.''

STILLER The first day of shooting, you want to be good. And scene 1 take 1, we're out by the front of the house making uncomfortable small talk. I was looking up at the house to try to fill the moment. And Bob immediately looked back to see what I was looking at. I couldn't believe he picked up on that little, tiny thing. It was so funny, I instantly burst out laughing. It was a combination of him being so funny and me being so nervous. Here it is, my big shot, and I'm being Harvey Korman right in De Niro's face.

EW Did things go more smoothly after that?

STILLER From then on, it was okay. Or it became somewhat more okay.


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