Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro On Unscripted ‘Meet the Parents’ Moment

“Meet the Parents” has provided laughs to fans since it came out nearly 25 years ago, but there’s one unplanned moment that had stars Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller laughing.

“I always liked the reactions that he would give me when I’d look at him, and he’d kind of give me that look. And, like, knowing that I’m doing something weird,” De Niro told NBC’s Joe Fryer in an interview with Stiller and their co-star Teri Polo at the Tribeca Festival that aired June 13 on TODAY.

Case in point: the first scene De Niro and Stiller shot together, in which Stiller’s Greg Focker meets De Niro’s Jack Byrnes, the father of his girlfriend, played by Polo.

Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller in the famous lie detector scene in “Meet the Parents.”Alamy

“I don’t even remember the line, something like, ‘Hey, nice house,’ or something,” Stiller recalled. “And then, I looked at the house. And then Bob was there (looks up) — and he went (looks up). Like you reacted to what I was looking at, and it wasn’t in the script. I was like, ‘Oh, he’s listening, and he’s watching me, and he’s reacting, and it’s so funny.’”

“Meet the Parents” was one of the first big comedies of the new millennium, with a relatable premise honing in on how tough it can be when meeting the people who may become your in-laws. It also doesn’t hurt that the movie has several quotable lines, including Jack threatening Greg to “bring you down to Chinatown” and the infamous one at the family dinner gone wrong.

“I have nipples, Greg,” Jack says to his future son-in-law. “Could you milk me?”

“I don’t think any of us had any idea that it was going to be so stinking successful,” Polo said of the movie, which spawned two sequels, “Meet the Fockers” and “Little Fockers.” A fourth installment is on the way.

“I’m Bob’s age now, when he was when we made the first movie. And so it seemed like there was sort of this mirror to the first film,” Stiller said.

Ariana Grande will join the cast for the new movie, with great things expected from the Oscar-nominated “Wicked” star.

“I think she’s going to bring a whole new life to the franchise,” Polo said.

“The character she’s playing is — she’s going to be really, really funny and kind of the whole engine of the new movie. So it’s exciting,” Stiller added.