Ben Stiller on Crazy Farm Adventure with 4 Young Brothers for ‘Nutcrackers’ (Exclusive)

Ben Stiller is starring as a straitlaced, work-obsessed man who’s suddenly thrust into being a caregiver for his rambunctious orphaned nephews in the new holiday film “Nutcrackers.”

The movie co-stars Linda Cardellini, as well as the four Janson brothers, on whom the film is based, in their first-ever acting gigs, and it was shot on the boys’ real-life farm in Ohio. 

“Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi sits down with Ben and two of his young co-stars, Arlo and Homer, to dish on the experience.

Ben opened up about walking into the boys’ real-life world, saying, “It was really the reason I wanted to make the movie. When David Gordon Green told me that he was inspired by these kids and had this movie created around them and he was gonna shoot it at their farm with them playing themselves — they'd never worked as actors before — it was, for me, that was, you know, like I’m in. Let’s go. Let’s see what happens.”

Stiller described the farm as a “magical paradise,” adding, “It’s like a kind of a Never Neverland of just fun happening all the time with these animals and games being played… I just want to, like, live there all the time.”

Homer weighed on letting the cameras in, saying, “It was so fun… showing all the crew what our lives were like and being able to show people all those little things that we do every day, which seems so magical and wonderful for them, I feel like is so special.”

Homer’s family farm has goats, cats, dogs, peacocks, chickens, guinea pigs, and hogs. 

Ben noted, “Every day was sort of an adventure 'cause the animals are in and out of the house, too, so, like, you never knew what was going to happen.”

"Might be a kid coming in or a pig," Homer quipped.

"Yeah, exactly," Ben replied.