BY PHILLIP NAKOV | Phillip recently visited the set of "Starsky and Hutch", and had an opportunity to talk with Ben Stiller.

What are your memories of Starsky and Hutch?

I just remember watching it growing up, 1975 when it came on. I have a kind of funny memory cause my mom is an actress and she actually had a series that was like 10 episodes on CBS, in 1975 called ‘Kate McShane’? Where she played a lawyer, it was a one hour drama and it got scheduled against ‘Starsky and Hutch’, and that’s the one I would watch. So I do remember and I was a big fan of the show.

So how does she feel about you doing the movie?

You know, it’s kind, my parents, it’s not their demographic, so it kind of had not registered with them that much. But it’s funny, because that was her first reaction, when I told her I was doing ‘Starsky Hutch’ movie… She was “Oh yeah that’s the show that got us cancelled…” Laughs…

So in this scene you guys are in disguises coming to get Vince’s character?

Yeah, this is the end of the movie and we’ve come under cover to this raffle at this police benefit auction thing he has going on. We are under cover as sort of high roller guys Owen’s like this Texas oilman and I am this… I don’t know what I am… this guy named Maury… Maury Finkle. So I am pulling off the wig at this point we got up on stage, and he’s got all this cocaine in the trunk of that Karmen Ghia.

You’ve been wearing these clothes now for 45 days, how do you like them?

You know, this (outfit) is actually ok. The jeans get a little tight… cause they are really tight. And also this wig gets a little tight on my head too.

So that is a wig?

Oh yes, definitely.

So in this scene you are wearing two wigs?

Yes, exactly. Which is what we were doing earlier. Is having to pull one wig off of the other wig but then the other wig gets screwed up… so it’s very involved.

Did you not want to go out and cut your own hair?

No, it’s like… my own hair is about, I’d say about 60% gray now, so … and my hair line is a little further back than Paul Michael Glaser who has like this pristine perfect [hairline] to this day like incredible… this guy is so cool.

What makes you and Owen such a good team?

I don’t know. I enjoy him as a person. I like working with him, doing this movie is the first time we worked together since ‘Tanenbaums’ and ‘Zoolander’, which we did after ‘Zoolander’ but really ‘Zoolander’ we worked a lot more. It’s just very comfortable, fun and we just know each other so well so it’s not really like working with someone you have to get to know them… cause there is always that thing when you are working with new people you have to understand on how far you can go and what ever… but with Owen we are pretty loose with each other and basically now it’s like some sort of bad Burt Reynolds/ Dom DeLuise sort of vibe on the set.

So how does your relationship play into Starsky and Hutch?

Well it’s kind of like I think we are trying to take uh whatever sort of dynamic there is between us in reality, into the movie. Because I think that is the most natural thing. Not try to force anything other than what natural tension there is between us sometime. Which hopefully can be funny sometimes. And watching the show, when I looked at the episodes of the show, that’s what the whole show is really, it’s just about these two guys and them just sort of interacting with each other. The rest is just sort of like cop/ drama. But the show’s chemistry is really about the two of them. So instead of like trying to do what they did, we are kind of trying to be who we are and hopefully that will work within the frame work I don’t know.

How much action is there?

There is a little bit of action… but its definitely more comedy. Hopeful comedy.

Does anyone get to slide across the roof of the car?

Yeah actually in this scene this is the scene where kind of hopefully we will kind of a little twist I am going to slide across the back of the Karmen Ghia. (Laughter)

So, it’s like a tongue in check version…???

Yeah but we are not trying to do it like a parody or a spoof. We are trying to do it as straight ahead and just let it be funny. Because I always thought if you took one of those scripts today and played it straight with the actors who are in this movie playing one of the Starsky and Hutch scripts straight, would be funny because of the situation and saying those lines, so we are trying to play it as if we think we are in a real movie in a real cop movie.

Are you actually doing it (the car slide) or is a stunt double doing it?

No, I’ll do it. I’ll attempt to do it. It’s a Karmen Ghia!

It’s not like going to be one of those chill moments where you (unintelligible) ?

Oh yeah it might be… (Laughter) But since it’s a comedy you can just forget it… if anything goes wrong you can just say yeah that’s what we wanted to do…

So is any of the wardrobe coming home with you after the shoot?

Um, you know… it’s all so too tight. It’s not really comfortable to wear at all. The leather jacket is really cool… because it’s really closer to almost the Fonzi jacket but I would never wear it in real life cause, the collars have all been made to stand up cause all their collars were always up.

Has Christine (his wife) seen you in any of these outfits?

Oh yeah, she has come down. And it’s funny she has actually come down with our daughter a couple times and the last time she came down was when we were doing this scene a couple of weeks ago and I had that crazy wig on which scared her… she is like one year old and she just saw this crazy like Wolverine in his old age… like if he was a middle aged Jewish guy.

Do you get to drive the car?

Yeah, yes… that’s been the most fun… cause it’s the Grand Torino and they are really not that… they just got a bunch of old Grand Tornio’s and fixed them up.

(Unintelligible…. question…)

Yeah! I mean the whole idea of doing this movie is like always one of my favorite shows as a kid and the chance for me to do something like this, cause I don’t get a chance to do these kind of things that often… if ever… so to be able to kind of run around and do it… I think the thing is you want to have fun doing it… and hopefully that’s what will make it enjoyable to watch… or it can be the Cannonball Run thing and where every one is having fun and you are going ‘what the hell is this’?

We watched a little bit on the monitor of you guys shooting the scene and it seems like you were really pumping up Vince Vaughn… is that something that you do?

Vince Vaughn pumps him self up… he brings everyone else along with him. And if you are not along… he’ll make sure you come along… I’ll talk to you a little later- thanks!