Ben Stiller Still Shudders At 'Most Embarrassing' Moment With Steven Spielberg

Ben Stiller grew up in a show business household but apparently didn’t learn a critical lesson from his comedian parents Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara: Directors say cut, not actors. (Watch the video below.)

And that goes double if Steven Spielberg is the director.

On Thursday’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers ,” Stiller recalled an “awful” moment with Spielberg while they were working on the 1987 war drama “Empire of the Sun.”

It was among his first jobs, and Stiller tried to impress the director by losing 28 pounds for the role.

But what happened during Stiller’s scene only annoyed the filmmaking legend.

Stiller explained that his character was supposed to say to Christian Bale’s character, “Hey kid, would you like a Hershey bar?” but instead, he said, “Hey, kid, would you like a chocolate bar?”

The actor remembered that he immediately stopped himself and said, “Oh damn, sorry, cut.”

“I screwed up my line,” he explained to the crew behind the monitors.

Then one authoritative voice emerged: “You never yell cut,” Spielberg said.

“Most embarrassing thing ever,” Stiller recalled.

Stiller, who later directed in his “Zoolander” movies, recently directed the new Apple TV+ series “Severance.” Presumably, now he can yell “cut” whenever he damn well wants.