“The goat orgy was something that they didn’t care for,” Stiller remembered about his experience fighting for the film’s PG-13 rating. (The MPAA wanted to bump it up to an R.) Calling the whole affair “ridiculous,” Stiller continued: “I wrote, like, a little speech and I had to go through it all. I think I had to talk about other movies that had come out that had worse things in them.” In the end, the goat was cut but the orgy remained.
This is a silly anecdote, of course, but it also speaks to the considerable influence of the arbitration board on what actually makes it in front of an audience. “This was a real thing. It was nerve-racking because it was so important,” Stiller explained. “When you have a comedy and you have jokes that you know work, the last thing you want to do is have to cut them for a rating.”
This isn’t the only time Stiller has had to deal with this type of thing. He also had to prove that Focker was a real name someone out there actually had, because it was, unsurprisingly, “too close to Fucker.” He didn’t mention having to conduct any similar processes for Severance—TV isn’t under the jurisdiction of the MPAA, of course—but season one did get weird at certain points. (Remember the waffle party? We wouldn’t blame you if you’ve chosen to forget.) We’ll see how much Stiller manages to push the Apple TV+ envelope this time when season two finally premieres on January 17.
