LOS ANGELES - Ben Stiller admits that there may be someone in the cast of Tropic Thunder who wasn’t particularly happy with his work as director. “Have you talked to Downey?” he asks in an L.A. hotel room.

A few minutes later, the Straight asks Robert Downey Jr.—controversially cast as an actor who dons blackface—to describe their relationship. He says that Stiller could be a bit rough on his cast and crew.

“Even after just the first day of shooting, everyone went home and said, ”˜He is a monster.’ But later we figured out that he is a leader and an artist, and as capable in every single department as the people he had hired to head the departments. He probably could have shot it and done the transportation.

"He is a hands-on guy, and in relentless pursuit of perfection. If I had been shooting the movie, it wouldn’t have turned out that well, because I would have been saying, ”˜It’s really hot and it’s raining, let’s wrap for the day.’ We would shoot a scene and I would say, ”˜We’ve got it,’ and he would say, ”˜Let’s do this 300 times and then go in for coverage.’ I was saying what everyone else was thinking. I would say, in the character’s voice, ”˜Welcome to Ben Stiller’s comedy death camp.’ ”

In Tropic Thunder, now playing in Vancouver, Stiller—who cowrote the film with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen—plays Tugg Speedman, a veteran of cheesy action films who wants to make the most of his role in a drama about the Vietnam War.

John Tayback (Nick Nolte), the author of the book the script is based on, tells director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) that it would be more realistic if cameras were set up in the jungle and the actors were sent in on their own. But things go wrong and the actors become the prey of drug dealers. While the others realize what is happening and try to make their way back to civilization, Speedman stays in character and continues with the movie.

Stiller says that more than eight years elapsed between the day he and his partners first started writing the screenplay and the first day of principal photography. By the time he started shooting the film, he was just happy to be on-set in Hawaii with cameras, cast, and crew.

“I was so excited to be doing it because I had been making it for so long,” he says. “We spent a lot of time on drafts of the movie over the course of eight or nine years, and there were times when I thought we would never get it made. There were other times when I thought, ”˜This is a good idea, but how do we figure it all out?’

"The idea was there for a first act and a second act right at the beginning, but not the actual articulation of it. I think I stuck with it because it is the kind of film I would like to see, and it has been a long time since I have made a movie for which I am the core audience.”

Stiller admits it’s possible that, considering the logistics that come with making an action comedy in a jungle, cast members may have felt he was a bit of a tyrant. However, he says that as an actor, he has always appreciated directors who are in charge of the operation.

“There are control issues because you have a vision and you have to carry it out,” he says. “But I like to work with directors who know what they want. It was important for me to get what I wanted. I like it when I walk on a set and a director says, ”˜I was thinking you might do this and this. I am going to put the camera here, and I want you to do this.’ You don’t want the director to say, ”˜Okay, what should we do?’ That’s horrible. You begin to ask, ”˜Who is running the show here?’ So I think you have to strike a balance.

"The toughest part of acting and directing is you want the actors to feel like they are being directed, and you don’t want them to think that you are not there for them or that you are too concerned with your own performance. But you have the responsibility of getting it shot”¦and you have to get the day done. People are looking to you for what you want, so it can be difficult. But I think we had fun, and I think it comes across in the film.”