Funnyman Ben Stiller goes beyond laughter in his new film, ‘Greenberg’

The actor is known for such outlandish film characters as uber-pouty fashion model Derek Zoolander ("Zoolander”), macho action star Tugg Speedman ("Tropic Thunder”), neurotic fitness freak White Goodman ("Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story”), nebbishy Greg Focker (in the "Meet the Parents” films) and the zipper-challenged Ted ("There’s Something About Mary”).

But as shamelessly goofy as he can be on screen, Stiller also knows how to go for more than broad belly laughs, as he proves with fearless, misanthropic glee in "Greenberg,” a smart new comedy with dramatic overtones by that rising master of midlife angst, Noah Baumbach.

In this moody, understated character study, Stiller stars as the title character, Roger Greenberg, a single, 40-ish New Yorker who comes to house-sit his successful brother’s lush home in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills and is nagged by a past of failed expectations and a hefty case of middle-age depression.

"In my 20s, I felt like I had it much more figured out than I do now. And I think it’s that sort of blind sense of confidence that allows young people to take chances and do things,” Stiller, 44, said during a round of press interviews hosted by Focus Features. "But for Greenberg, it didn’t work out. And I think he also didn’t nurture friendships and relationships. He wasn’t thinking ahead; he was just thinking this is the way it is. And he’s been in that head space for the last 15 years.

"So Greenberg didn’t think that (his impulsive, youthful decision to turn down a recording contract for his college rock band) was a crossroads. And then as the years have gone by and as other opportunities didn’t happen, he found himself further and further away from what he thought he was going to be.”

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In his 40s, Greenberg finds himself working as a carpenter and being out of touch with his old L.A. band buddies. Stiller said he can identify with the source of Greenberg’s dogged sense of discontent.

"I definitely have those regrets,” he said. "You know, there are two or three things where I think, ‘Wow, if I’d done that movie, if I hadn’t said that to that person, things would have been different.’ But I’m lucky to have other successes and other people in my life that don’t make those bad decisions as fateful to me. But I still regret them. If I didn’t have those things I have now, it would be much more painful. And I think that’s where Greenberg is at.”

Stiller said he jumped at the chance to work with fellow New Yorker Baumbach, whose writing in "The Squid and the Whale” and "Margot at the Wedding” he deeply admires.

"What’s so interesting about Noah’s dialogue is he writes the way people talk, where they’ll be talking and then someone else starts saying something else while that first person is still completing her thought,” Stiller explained in a roundabout way. "Greenberg in particular is so into his own thing that he doesn’t listen that much. That was something I got out of the part, realizing that I don’t listen a lot of the time. You know, I’ll have a thought and say something, and you say something, but I’m thinking about what I want to tell you. You said something, and it brought up something for me. And so you’re finishing saying what you’re saying, and while you’re finishing, I’m thinking about what I want to tell you about what you said. So, I’m not hearing the rest of what you said.”

That clash of self-absorbed personalities carries over neatly into the relationship that develops between the emotionally closed-off Greenberg and his brother’s guileless personal assistant Florence (played by relative newcomer Greta Gerwig), charmingly neurotic and much younger than Greenberg.

"Greta is such a good actress and so real that interacting with her felt very natural,” Stiller said. "I think when you’re working with a great actor, that dictates everything. When someone is being very real with you, your instinct is to try to be as real back to them and react to what they’re doing. And she just had that special quality.”

Someone cited the prickly satirist Michael O’Donoghue’s famous quote, "Making people laugh is the lowest form of humor,” and Stiller nodded knowingly.

"The great thing about working on this film was there was no pressure to be funny,” he said. "When you say a movie is going to be a comedy, then people want to laugh. So, the pressure is on. With this we can say, ‘You know, this isn’t a comedy, it’s a Noah Baumbach movie.’ Then it has the ability to just be what it is. Then the context is totally different. I think we felt that making it; I think an audience knows that going in, hopefully.”