He's With Him

MICHAEL GRECCO FOR TIME
Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller

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TIME: It didn't sound at all like you were singing that. It sounded as if it had more computer-generated effects than Shrek.

STILLER: It's Owen's voice put through that auto-tunes thing. He broke two of them.

WILSON: They said, "You're going to take some guitar lessons and sing." And I'm not musical at all.

STILLER: That and your predisposition against preparation.

WILSON: I saw the hard work you put into driving the Gran Torino paid off great. You're one of the worst drivers I've ever seen.

STILLER: What did I do wrong? I hit all my marks. I did power slides.

WILSON: Ben always had a technical term for every mistake he made. If he hit the wall, it was a power slide.

STILLER: There's a fine line between aggressive driving and bad driving.

WILSON: Ben and I used to do some brainstorming. You've never heard two guys less interested in another guy's idea. We had a tape recorder. We walked around New York with it. I'd get excited about one of my ideas, and Ben would click it off, like he was worried about using up tape.

STILLER: Remember the girl?

WILSON: We were standing on the corner of the street and talking about our ideas, as a shortcut to avoid working, like we found a way out from having to actually sit down in a room for three months and write. And we see this incredible-looking girl walking her dog, and we both trail off. And after she goes by, Ben says, "I'm tired of letting my insecurities rule me." And I'm like, "I know. Why didn't we say hello to that girl?" Then we both start bucking each other up.

STILLER: We have successful careers. We should be more self-confident. Then she turns and comes around the corner again, and we do the same exact thing.

WILSON: Right after saying that was the last time we'd let that happen.

TIME: You know what? We all feel much better knowing that you guys do that.