Ben Stiller recalls David Bowie cameo as he live-tweets original ‘Zoolander’ film

Ben Stiller live-tweeted as he re-watched the original Zoolander film yesterday (January 31), answering questions from fans along the way.

During the live-tweet, the 2001 film’s writer-director-star revealed that “the opening scene was a reshoot after we finished the movie because no one knew what was going on in the movie when we screened it”.

He also expressed his discomfort when the character played by his father, Jerry Stiller, made a suggestive comment about his wife Christine Taylor’s character, Matilda Jeffries.

Stiller later admitted he was “in shock” that the late David Bowie agreed to cameo in the film, judging a fashion runway “walk-off” between Stiller’s Derek Zoolander and Owen Wilson’s rival male model Hansel McDonald. Bowie was later nominated for an MTV Movie Award for his brief but memorable appearance in the film.

Ben Stiller’s Derek Zoolander and Owen Wilson’s Hansel McDonald will return in Zoolander 2, which hits cinemas on February 12. The sequel follows the dim-witted models as they struggle to find their place in the cutthroat modern fashion world, before a secret agent played by Penelope Cruz recruits them to infiltrate a dangerous organisation which is systematically killing off the world’s “beautiful people”.

Stiller shot Zoolander 2 in Rome last year from a script he co-wrote with his Tropic Thunder collaborator Justin Theroux. Alongside Stiller and Wilson, Will Ferrell and Christine Taylor are also reprising their roles from the original Zoolander film.

Joining them in the sequel are Cruz, Kristen Wiig and Portlandia‘s Fred Armisen, while Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ariana Grande and Willie Nelson all take on cameos.

READ MORE: David Bowie At The Movies: Each Of His 12 Big Screen Roles Rated And Remembered