But Stiller did entertain the thought of delaying its Friday release after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. "It was very important to me not to be offensive to anyone," he says. "I thought about it a lot."

Ultimately, the therapeutic value of laughter won out.

"I wouldn't want to not put out a comedy right now," Stiller says.

Still, in an effort to avoid offending  or distracting  his audience, Stiller hastily edited out views of the World Trade Center in an establishing shot of the New York skyline.

"I thought it would be jarring," says the 35-year-old actor, who was born and raised in New York. "I don't know if I would have taken them out if it was a year from now. I'm proud of the city. But since it was coming out at this time, I thought (the shots) would just drag you out of the movie."

Stiller says he hopes people will see the movie for what it is: "just a really silly, stupid comedy."

"No matter how it affects the box office," he says, "I do want people to have an option to go out and see a comedy and forget about everything for a while."

During the interview, however, it wasn't always easy for Stiller  who was warmly low-key  to follow his own advice.

"What I was really torn about was having to do the press for the movie," Stiller says. "Everything feels insignificant. Entertainment pieces feel just kind of ridiculous. I wish I could just not do anything and kind of let the movie just be out there. I don't feel like being funny. My emotions change day to day, like everybody's. It's just a weird time."

Though he doesn't feel like cracking jokes, Stiller has found himself needing his own comedic catharsis.

"I heard a comedian on the radio yesterday doing some routine, and I started laughing and I thought, 'Oh, my God, it feels so good to actually be laughing,' " he says. "It was refreshing."

Also on the plus side for the actor  known for his hilariously hapless characters in Meet the Parents and There's Something About Mary - is the focus away from Hollywood glitz.

"There is a disproportionate amount of importance put on celebrities in this culture," Stiller says. "And this tragedy has righted the scales in terms of who the real heroes are: the people who are saving lives and risking their lives. It's good for people to see that."

The dark-haired actor is the son of comic actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. He cast both in Zoolander, along with his wife of more than a year, Christine Taylor. (Meara also had a small role in her son's feature directorial debut, Reality Bites.)

"I'd never really worked with my dad, and it was fun because he's probably most comfortable when he's working," Stiller says. "I guess I'm like that a little bit, too. ... My folks have always had a really healthy perspective on fame and show business  even from just never wanting to move out of New York."

Though he lives in Los Angeles now, Stiller speaks fondly of his birthplace. "New York is the type of place where you can't really avoid all the different facets of life because everybody's on top of each other. In L.A., people segregate themselves off more because it's just possible to do that."

As the self-absorbed model in Zoolander, Stiller realizes there may be more to life than "just being really, really, really good-looking." Stiller's endearing personality makes Zoolander inherently likable.

"He's kind of like a lost little puppy," says the actor.

The events of Sept. 11 and their aftermath have left many feeling lost, prompting Stiller to do some soul-searching.

"Something like this makes you kind of look inward and figure out what's important to you in life," he says.