Ben Stiller Dressed as One of Broadway's 'Cats' Is a Must-See

An unhinged howler for Stiller's Soda and NYC's famous Katz's Deli

Ben Stiller is a curious cat—and there’s no doing anything about it.

His namesake soda just arrived on the menu at NYC’s legendary Katz’s Delicatessen. Naturally, the Zoolander icon dons full Cats garb and makeup for a promo at the eatery. Riotous riffing ensues, with Ben growing more cat-tankerous with each exchange.

The absurdly amusing 3-minute film co-stars New York Nico, who also directed.

Ben: I thought you wanted to do a whole Cats thing.
Nico: Yeah, Katz’s Deli. “Katz” with a K. And a Z.
Ben: Right. I understand that … now. It was a misunderstanding. I should’ve read the email.
Nico: You didn’t read the email?
Ben: I have my emails read to me. Forget it.
Nico: Well, sometimes you gotta do things for yourself.
Ben: And what do you do? They told me you’re, like, an influencer?
Nico: We don’t like that term.

There’s legit chemistry between the two. Stiller’s pitch-perfect line deliveries and comic timing never quit, while Nico provides the perfect pissed-off foil as he grows increasingly peeved/

Ben: I feel like you’re just looking at my whiskers.
Nico: No no no no.
Ben: Because I just want people to know I don’t usually dress like this. I thought we were doing a tie-in with Cats, the musical.
Nico: Do they sell Stiller’s at Cats, the musical?
Ben: I don’t know. I’ve never seen it.

Ultimately, Stiller drops an F-bomb, fiercely proclaims “I’m a cat! The kitty cat!” and threatens to “pee on your slippers.”

Sarah Edwards, costume designer for Ben’s mega-hit Severance, helped tailor the Munkustrap outfit.

Here, Nicolas Heller—New York Nico himself, who worked with M ss ng P eces on the promo—gives Muse the deets:

How’d this project develop—who approached who?

Katz’s Deli reached out and told me they were doing something with Stiller’s Soda and wanted to tap me to do some sort of collaboration with them. Initially they wanted me to shoot something simple on my iPhone. I pitched them to do something a little bigger that pokes fun at the concept of marketers reaching out to social media personalities and connecting them with celebrities to promote something for free. It’s something we’ve all done at some point, and sometimes it feels contrived and awkward and we agreed to incorporate that feeling into the concept.

You and Ben make a great comedy team.

It was interesting because generally I’m mostly behind the camera, but I knew that if we were going with this awkward forced promo video concept that I would have to be in it as well. I presented that idea to Stillers and their copywriters came up with the idea for the Cats musical/Katz’s deli mixup, and then we took it from there.

You say Ben was always slated to appear—but was he always going to dress as a cat?

This was the third concept and it was the one he was the most interested in because his team was able to track down an original costume from the musical. He’s amazing at physical comedy, so it worked out great. The Cats/Katz’s idea came from Ben Stiller’s writing team. The final product involved a lot of collaboration and improvisation.

Did prepping Ben take long?

About an hour.

To backtrack, how’d you get involved?

I have a longstanding relationship with Katz’s Delicatessen. I won a NY Emmy for the commercial I made for them in 2024. And in exchange, Katz’s let me use the restaurant for my wedding venue. They like working with me and I like working with them. When they told the Stiller’s Soda folks they wanted to work with me, it turned out they were already fans of my work on social media so it all worked out well.

Put us on set. Did fun stuff go down at the restaurant?

The entire spot was captured in one 3-hour shoot, in a small locked down section in the back. It was a little chaotic, but we knew how to maneuver in the space because we shot our last Katz’s spot when the restaurant was open. Because it was open for business at the time, it gave us the authenticity that we would not have gotten otherwise. For example, seeing an Uber delivery guy in the background picking up sandwiches isn’t something you can really cast for.

Did the New Yorkers take it all in stride?

Nobody bothered Ben because they didn’t recognize him behind the makeup.

Tight script? Mostly ad-libs?

We didn’t have a ton of time so Ben and I riffed with one another–we just captured without cutting and knew we would pick the best bits in the edit. The best part was that we were able to invite special guests into the shoot–some iconic New York characters that people might recognize from my social media channel.

CREDITS

Client: Stiller’s Soda
Creative Director: Benny Moore
VP Marketing: Matt Salvatore
Copywriter: Nathaniel Lawlor
Prod Co: Mssngpeces and Heller Films
Director: Nicolas Heller
Prod Co EP: Dinah Rodriguez
AD: Rita Warkov
DP: Joe Bressler
Cam Op: Myles Caba
Post: Bandit Edit
Editor: Pat Hayes
EP: Laura Relovsky
Asst: Amelia Mickelson
VFX: Chris Davis, Prez Radlowski
Color: Stephen Picano
Mix: Bronx Audio
Mixer: Hayley Livingston
Mix EP: Zach Fortin

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