Ben Stiller Seemingly Walked Past An Unhoused Person & Critics Called Him A ‘Hypocrite’

Share
LinkedInPin
ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images

On his way to Game 4 of the NBA finals, Ben Stiller seemingly walked past a homeless person. Apparently, this really bothered a lot of people on social media. Footage of the 60-year-old Zoolander star walking to the arena has been circulating on X, where people have called him a hypocrite.

The backlash seemed to center on the fact that Ben has spoken up about homelessness before, yet did not do anything to help the homeless person in the clip (or even acknowledge their existence).

“Ben Stiller is a hypocrite and a loser,” one critic wrote on X. “Multimillionaire wants you to help the homeless but won’t himself.”

And there were lots of similar comments.

Podcaster Alec Lace referred to Ben as a “Hollywood Fraud.” He saw Ben’s behavior as evidence of “hypocrisy,” writing, “Ben Stiller urged New Yorkers to ‘do something’ about homelessness. Today he walked straight past a homeless man on the street like he didn’t exist.”

In the same post, Alec referenced a Ben Stiller quote from 2016: “Are you enjoying a home right now? Thousands of others can’t.” The quote is from a video in which he was trying to help recruit volunteers for New York City’s Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE). One night per year, volunteers visit locations around the city in an attempt to get an estimate of how many people living in the city are currently unhoused.

So, because of this one clip, some critics decided this activism was “performative.”

Because Ben was caught on camera walking past one unhoused person, some critics took this to mean that he does not actually do anything to help the unhoused population, and merely tells other people to do something.

“He cares more about the image of doing good than actually doing good,” one critic wrote in response.

Someone else acted like people misunderstood what Ben meant when he expressed concerns about homelessness. “No no no… When these people say that stuff, what they mean is ‘YOU GUYS, need to do something about that homeless thing!'” they said. “‘I almost tripped over one while buzzing into my gated community.'”

Some of the naysayers called him “out of touch” and said he has benefited from living in a bubble with “comfort, safety and luxury.”

But several people also jumped to his defense.

They didn’t really understand what the critics thought Ben should do in this particular situation. “Homelessness is Ben Stiller’s responsibility when he’s walking down the street?” one person questioned.

Someone else had a question for the critics: “What would you have done?”

After all, as some people pointed out, just because Ben seemed to walk past this one person does not mean that he’s not involved in any activism. “This is not hypocrisy,” another person wrote. “The homeless problem is so huge in many metropolitan areas that you can’t stop to help every single person if that’s not your job. People do advocacy and charity work. It doesn’t mean they can help every single case.”

“So he walks past one singular homeless man and you form an entire opinion about the kind of person he is?” a fourth person wrote in his defense. “Have you never walked past a homeless person in your entire life?”

Ben is actually pretty well known for his advocacy work. He has been a public advocate for refugees for years now, and has supported the UN Refugee Agency since 2016.

READ NEXT: Ben Stiller Says His 4-Year Separation From Wife Christine Taylor Strengthened Their Relationship

Paige Sheffield (she/her)