Ben Stiller ‘Dreading’ Watching His Performance During ‘Reality Bites’ Revival At Sundance

Universal Pictures is celebrating 100 years in show business in a variety of ways, including screening Ben Stiller’s 1994 hit (and directorial debut), “Reality Bites,” at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

“It’s just a bizarre experience. I haven’t watched the movie in a long, long time,” Ben told Access Hollywood correspondent Tim Vincent at Sundance in Park City, Utah, on Tuesday of watching the 18-year-old film. “So it will be kind of interesting, but I am kind of dreading it too!”

Now 46, Ben has learned quite a bit about filmmaking since first stepping behind the camera for “Reality Bites,” but the actor says naivete worked in his favor.

“On your first time out, you don’t know what you can’t do, so you have this sort of boldness because you don’t know any better,” he told Tim with a laugh. “I think we thought we knew what we were doing, but then as you get older you realize you really don’t know… you know less and less as you go along.

“But that blind enthusiasm is sort of what gets you through the experience,” he added. “I just remember having a really good time.”

As for whether Ben could remake the film present day, he said it would be a challenge as Winona Ryder’s aspiring TV producer character would no longer face the same challenges.

“It’s just a different generation in terms of access to media. And what Winona’s character is doing in the movie — in terms of trying to get her own show, [now] she could do her own show,” he told Tim. “She could just do it. She could do her own show on YouTube and there’d be no excuses. So, it’s a really different time.”

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