Ben Stiller has opened up on how the ‘worst deci­sion’ of his life dam­aged his rela­tion­ship with his daugh­ter for a con­sid­er­able peri­od of time.

The actor and come­di­an has quite the resume under his belt, includ­ing star­ring in the likes of There’s Some­thing About Mary and Meet the Par­ents.

Stiller’s impres­sive work in Hol­ly­wood has seen him col­lect many awards, includ­ing three MTV Movie Awards and a Direc­tors Guild of Amer­i­ca Awards gong

But away from the career, the 59-year-old has spo­ken open­ly about his per­son­al strug­gles, includ­ing a dis­tant rela­tion­ship with his daugh­ter, 23-year-old Ella.

Stiller revealed in his new Apple TV doc­u­men­tary, Stiller & Meara: Noth­ing Is Lost, that he axed his own daugh­ter out of a role in his 2013 movie, The Secret Life of Wal­ter Mit­ty.

While direct­ing and star­ring in the adap­ta­tion of the 1939 James Thurber sto­ry, Stiller’s daugh­ter, Ella, was set to play a younger ver­sion of Odessa Mit­ty, the sis­ter of his char­ac­ter, Wal­ter Mit­ty.

Ben Stiller has opened up about his rela­tion­ship with his daugh­ter (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Sir­iusXM)

Yet he con­fessed he ‘cut’ her out, which led to a ‘dam­aged’ rela­tion­ship in the years that fol­lowed.

Dis­cussing the move on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show on Wednes­day (Octo­ber 22), Stiller said: “What a huge mis­take. She was eight, Howard. She was eight.

“It just dam­aged our rela­tion­ship for so many years. It was a good les­son for me. First of all, if you’re going to put your kid in some­thing … put them in a scene you’re nev­er going to cut no mat­ter what.”

Stiller opened up on his deci­sion in the new doc­u­men­tary, explain­ing: “I cut you out of The Secret Life of Wal­ter Mit­ty. It’s prob­a­bly the worst deci­sion I ever made in my life.”

Ben Stiller described axing his daugh­ter as the ‘worst deci­sion’ of his life (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Today, Ella shrugged off the move, telling her father that she recalled feel­ing ‘real­ly scared’ dur­ing film­ing. Fur­ther­more, Ella explained how the scene ‘did­n’t make sense in the movie’ any­way

Despite all of that, Stiller is seem­ing­ly still beat­ing him­self up about the deci­sion he made over a decade over.

He added: “For me, it kind of goes deep­er. What it relates to is my own issues with my own obses­sion with my work, or ‘per­fec­tion­ism’.”

“The irony is, I thought I was doing so much bet­ter than my par­ents. I thought I was pulling it off,” he con­tin­ued as he reflect­ed on grow­ing up under the acclaimed com­e­dy duo, Jer­ry Stiller and Anne Meara.

“I was fly­ing home on the week­ends and hav­ing spe­cial places for the kids to play when they come vis­it the set, but in real­i­ty – and just hear­ing them talk about it – for them, it was the same thing I was going through as a kid, and I just couldn’t see that at all at the time.”

Ben Stiller makes unexpected admission on ‘worst decision’ of his life

Ben Stiller has admitted his ‘perfectionism’ has had an unintended consequence on his relationship with his daughter

Ben Stiller has made a frank con­fes­sion about the ‘worst deci­sion’ he’s ever made in his life.

The 59-year-old famed come­di­an and actor is renowned for his slap­stick jokes and knife-sharp wit, as exhib­it­ed in his roles from There’s Some­thing About Mary to his part as Gay­lord ‘Grey’ Fock­er in the film series Meet the Par­ents.

Through­out his career span­ning the decades, Stiller boasts a hefty tro­phy cab­i­net from an Emmy Award, three MTVMovie Awards to a Direc­tors Guild of Amer­i­ca Awards, and even the Char­lie Chap­lin Award for Excel­lence in Com­e­dy

Per­haps unsur­pris­ing­ly, as the son of two come­di­ans who has gone on to make his own mark in the indus­try, Stiller defines him­self as a ‘per­fec­tion­ist’.

How­ev­er, despite his keen eye for pre­ci­sion in his career, the Zoolan­der star revealed he does have one major regret that involves his per­son­al rela­tion­ship with his daugh­ter and his work.

Stiller revealed in his new Apple TV doc­u­men­tary, Stiller & Meara: Noth­ing Is Lost, that he axed his own daugh­ter out of a role in his 2013 movie, The Secret Life of Wal­ter Mit­ty

While direct­ing and star­ring in the adap­ta­tion of 1939’s James Thurber’s sto­ry, Stiller’s daugh­ter, Ella, was set to play a younger ver­sion of Odessa Mit­ty, the sis­ter of his char­ac­ter, Wal­ter Mit­ty.

Yet he con­fessed he ‘cut’ her out and has appar­ent­ly had to live with the loss of what would’ve been her movie debut ever since

“I cut you out of The Secret Life of Wal­ter Mit­ty. It’s prob­a­bly the worst deci­sion I ever made in my life,” Stiller said to Ella.

Although it sounds pret­ty bru­tal, the now 23-year-old shrugged off the move, telling her father that she recalled feel­ing ‘real­ly scared’ dur­ing film­ing.

Besides, she also said the scene ‘did­n’t make sense in the movie’ any­way.

But Stiller sug­gest­ed the deci­sion still felt per­son­al, explain­ing: “For me, it kind of goes deep­er. What it relates to is my own issues with my own obses­sion with my work, or ‘per­fec­tion­ism’.”

“The irony is, I thought I was doing so much bet­ter than my par­ents. I thought I was pulling it off,” he con­tin­ued as he reflect­ed on grow­ing up under the acclaimed com­e­dy duo, Jer­ry Stiller and Anne Meara.

“I was fly­ing home on the week­ends and hav­ing spe­cial places for the kids to play when they come vis­it the set, but in real­i­ty – and just hear­ing them talk about it – for them, it was the same thing I was going through as a kid, and I just couldn’t see that at all at the time.”

Nev­er­the­less, and despite his snub, Ella has­n’t shied away from the spot­light, going on to earn cred­it­ed roles in TV shows and movies includ­ing And Just Like That..., Dri­ver’s Ed and Hap­py Gilmore 2.

Ben Stiller explains why he bans chairs and phones from his film sets

Severance director Ben Stiller has explained why he’s banned certain things on set from past productions he’s worked on

Ben Stiller has opened up about what ‘dri­ves him crazy’ when work­ing on a set as a direc­tor. 

Despite being known for star­ring as an actor in movie hits such as Zoolan­der and Night at the Muse­um, in more recent years, Ben Stiller has been don­ning that hat of the direc­tor — most notably for an Apple TV+ series which has been brand­ed ‘one of the best TV shows ever’.

And Stiller has since opened up about his past expe­ri­ences with direc­tors and how their prac­tices have informed him when tak­ing on the role him­self