Ariana Grande won’t be forgetting the first time she met Ben Stiller anytime soon.
During a recent episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Grande, Stiller and Robert De Niro made a joint appearance to chat about their new film Focker-in-Law, which releases on Nov. 25.
At one point, host Jimmy Fallon asked the Grammy-winning singer about the first time she met Stiller, to which she replied, “I met Ben in a very different way,” drawing laughter from the audience.
“He was directing me in an orgy scene in Zoolander 2 with a hippo and Susan Sarandon,” she revealed.
In the 2016 action-comedy, directed by Stiller, Derek (Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) are lured into the fashion world again, in Rome, where they find themselves the target of a sinister conspiracy. Grande makes a cameo as part of Hansel’s eccentric romantic circle, which he calls his “orgy” group.
“So right off the bat, we had a comfortability,” Grande added, as Stiller quipped that they had an instant connection due to the unusual encounter. “It sounds like two truths and a lie, but it’s my reality,” the Wicked star said.
The pair have now reunited in Focker-in-Law, which sees Greg (Stiller) and Pam Focker’s (Teri Polo) son Henry (Skyler Gisondo) get wrapped up in family chaos when he decides to marry a strong-willed woman, Olivia Jones (Grande), who appears to be his complete mismatch.
The “Petal” singer also told Fallon that their first scene together in Focker-in-Law was another interesting experience.
“We were thrust into rehearsing the Heimlich scene, where I give you [Stiller] the Heimlich,” Grande said. “So I thought maybe we’ll sit in [director] John [Hamburg’s] office with a script and talk a little, get to know each other a little more and work on the scenes and talk about Greg and Olivia.”
“But no. We met the stunts team, and they were amazing. And they were like, ‘All right, Ben, bend over. Ariana, you’ll get behind and just put your arms around him.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, perfect. Yeah,’” she added with a laugh. “My mom was like, ‘How was your first day, honey?’ I was like, ‘Well, I gave Ben Stiller the Heimlich for a few hours.’ It was crazy.”
Grande’s appearance on The Tonight Show marked her return to the public eye after stepping back from the spotlight once her Eternal Sunshine Tour wrapped in September. The Hollywood Reporter learned in August that the singer would be “taking a step back from visibility” for a “much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.” Grande has faced a wave of online commentary surrounding her health and body over the last year.
