Ben's grown up from gross-out

Ben Stiller arrives almost an hour late and immediately scowls at the dingy, airless hotel room. "Jesus! Let's get some air in here!" He flings the window wide open. "Is that okay with you? Not too cold? So, they've picked the darkest, dankest room in the hotel.

"I'll be fine. Oh man, I just got here from a press trip in Rome. Sorry to keep you waiting. Do you mind, I'm going to grab a Coke? Oh ... no ice." He opens the door, shouts down the corridor to an assistant. "Hey! Can we get some ice?"

He carefully moves the decorative cushions from an armchair and collapses into it. "I'm sorry," he says, and almost smiles. It's unclear what he is apologising for: being late, complaining about the room or demanding ice. Whatever, just 5ft 8in tall and dressed in a battered leather jacket, jeans and lace-ups, he looks more like the boy next door than a demanding Hollywood prima donna.

But with two major films being released in the next three weeks - Along Came Polly tomorrow, and the eagerly awaited Starsky and Hutch next month - Stiller's renowned edginess and melancholic moods have been replaced (at least for today) with the sort of playful openness he rarely grants interviewers.

"Work has been a lot of fun recently, especially Starsky and Hutch. I was so nervous yet excited about making it. We didn't want to spoof or make fun of it but we knew it had to be a comedy, to have a different energy to the original TV series which I loved.

"And working with David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser was a real thrill - they both have cameo roles in the film, so I got to spend a lot of time with Paul. He is an incredible person," Stiller says, looking genuinely in awe of the actor who lost both a wife and a child to Aids. "Paul has been through so much in life. A lot of tragedy. Yet he has this great outlook. He's very in touch with what is important in life. I was really, really impressed with him as a person."

Ironically, that sort of struggle is mirrored in Stiller's own life. For despite his endearingly slapstick on-screen reputation, the 38-year-old star of comedies such as There's Something About Mary and Meet The Parents is something of a depressive character, having spent much of his youth in therapy.

So does he allow his dark moods to overwhelm him? "I know what you mean, I've heard that. It's hard to know what the definition of dark is. I've been described as ... moody."

He fiddles with his silver wedding band. "About halfway through my wife's pregnancy, I was sitting in my office one afternoon having a melancholic moment, wondering what to do. You know when you have so many choices you end up doing nothing? I think it's called manic depression or something." He laughs nervously. "Anyway, I was thinking that once the baby came, I wouldn't have time to be melancholic. And it proved to be true. I really welcomed it."

Even before the arrival of baby Ella almost two years ago he says his wife, fellow actor Christine Taylor, refused to indulge his moodiness. "If I'm going to that place, my wife won't have it. She's the opposite to me; I just admire her ability to have a positive outlook." He sighs. "My wife doesn't have the neuroses. I don't want to have them, believe me. I'm trying to fight through it."