Ben Stiller’s new movie contains real audio of child actor’s fart

The cast of child stars in Ben Stiller’s new holiday comedy Nutcrackers really let it rip with the Meet the Parents star on set — in more ways than one.

Following the David Gordon Green-directed comedy’s world-premiere screening Thursday night at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, Stiller and the four real-life brothers who costar in the film appeared on stage for a Q&A, where they told the crowd that things got a little gassy on set.

“Before we stop talking, I’d like to talk about the farting at some point?” Stiller said, turning toward the Janson brothers — Homer, Ulysses, and twins Atlas and Arlo — before the kid actors confirmed that one of them did, indeed, let out a sustained fart that Green captured on film during one of their scenes.

“It was incredible, because we all cracked up,” Stiller, 58, continued of the nixed scene. “I wish it was in the movie. It’s not in the movie.”

Green, 49, then revealed that he actually snuck the sound effect back into the movie. “The moment in my life they’re referring to is when the two twins are coming up to Ben’s character and trying to get a bedtime story out of him,” the Halloween and Pineapple Express helmer continued. “There’s an eight-second fart that happened that we edited out of the film, but I took the sound effect and put it [back in] earlier at the dinner table [scene], so the fart is still there, displaced. Nobody will ever know. It’s my secret!”

Stiller joked that the exchange was “probably the only fart conversation we’ll have at the whole festival,” as TIFF is set to continue through Sept. 15 in Canada.

The movie’s story centers on a heartwarming tale of a single Chicago real estate professional, Michael (Stiller, who also produced the film), who, after the death of his sister, travels to rural Ohio to assist a child services worker (Linda Cardellini) in finding a home for his four eccentric, misbehaved nephews (portrayed by the Janson brothers) who harbor untapped talents as ballet dancers.

Stiller said that the film’s heart and soul attracted him to the lead role, and that he hopes the project finds a new home in theaters if it acquires distribution at the festival.

“I think David and a bunch of filmmakers probably of our generation had this experience of going to movies and seeing movies like this in theaters,” he said before the end of the Q&A, after Green earlier compared the film to nostalgic classics like the 1976 comedy Bad News Bears.

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“It’s important for us to try to have movies like this … theatrically because we need more movies like this on screens,” Stiller finished. “For us it’s nostalgia, going back to what we grew up with, but I think it’s what people enjoy, gong to theaters to have an experience that can only happen in the theater. For me, the movie has so much heart.”

Nutcrackers does not yet have a confirmed distributor or release date.