Ben Stiller lifts the lid on 'tension' created by Jim Carrey on 'The Cable Guy' set

Ben Stiller recently confessed that he could not make himself comfortable with Jim Carrey’s energy while filming The Cable Guy.

For those unaware, Stiller directed the 1996 American black comedy-thriller film as well as played Sam Sweet alongside Carrey’s titular character, The Cable Guy, “who intrudes on the life of a customer, Steven M. Kovacs (played by Matthew Broderick).

On Friday, June 12, a new 4K restoration of the film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival 2026, where the 60-year-old American actor and comedian opened up about the challenges he experienced while making the cult classic film.

PEOPLE magazine’s President Leah Wyar moderated a post-screening panel, where he admitted that there was “tension” on the set, especially due to Carrey, as his envy for his co-star Broderick was no secret and dealing with both of them on the set was a challenging task.

Stiller, who was accompanied by Broderick during the session at New York City's SVA Theatre, said, “We're like the same age but Matthew, his career began when he was a teenager, and every young actor in my position in New York was looking at Matthew Broderick going like, ‘Oh my God, I love him. I hate him. I want to be him… God damn, he's so good.'’

The Zoolander director was in awe of the Godzilla star’s “incredible run of movies and stage” before he got a chance to direct him in the 1996 film alongside Carrey.

He said of Broderick, “I get excited even thinking about it because there's nothing like that really. It was very inspiring for me as an actor, what you were doing.”

Stiller went on to state that he was sort of “starstruck and excited” about the fact that he had to put Broderick and The Truman Show star together.

“And of course that was a little bit of a tension, I think, of making the movie because my memory of it, which was like… I'd never worked with Jim and Jim is this kind of, you know, energy, powerhouse kind of thing where he comes in and his working style was very different,” he explained.

Stiller and Broderick were “trying to figure out how to navigate” Carrey’s energy.

“Yeah, that's true. I think we did… we did it,” Matthew Broderick said.

It is pertinent to mention that The Cable Guy had a starry cast such as Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann, Jack Black, Eric Roberts, George Segal, Diane Baker, Bob Odenkirk, and others.