Ben Stiller Lived 'Meet the Parents'

Ben Stiller has taken a break from promoting his latest film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (which he directed and stars in), to talk about his personal life. That is, his relationship with his wife-cum-co-star Christine Taylor. In an interview with Parade, Stiller revealed that proposing to Christine Taylor was a lot like his film Meet the Parents . Uh oh.

"[Our] relationship was a gradual thing that happened over a quick period of time, maybe seven or eight months. We just started hanging out with each other and it developed into, 'Wow, this feels great. I really like this person. I think I love this person. I really do – I love this person.' It hit me out of the blue," he said of his marriage of fifteen years to fellow actor Christine Taylor.

But that didn't mean it was easy to win her family's affections. "It was like Meet the Parents in real life, because Christine's father is an intimidating guy who owns a security company; we're good friends now, but at the time I was in the basement rec room saying, 'I really would like to marry your daughter.'" If you recall, the father in Meet the Parents, brilliantly played by Robert De Niro, is also a security enthusiast, even hooking up Stiller's character to a personal lie detector machine he keeps in a hidden room in his basement.

Luckily for Stiller, the circle of trust wasn't quite as hard to tap into as it was for his unlucky-in-love character. "He's a man of few words but he was very welcoming. I was more nervous asking him than asking her."

Image: tumblr