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Beanie Feldstein joins the Meet the Parents franchise as Greg Focker’s daughter Samantha in Focker-In-Law
She tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue that it is “such a dream to be a Focker” after growing up a fan of the movies
Focker-In-Law is in theaters Nov. 25
Beanie Feldstein is about to take on the holiday box office with Focker-In-Law alongside her personal “heroes.”
The actress, 33, joins Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro’s hit Meet the Parents franchise as Samantha, the daughter of Stiller’s neurotic Greg. Led by De Niro’s feisty patriarch, the family is rocked when Greg’s son (Skyler Gisondo) introduces his mysterious new girlfriend (Ariana Grande).
For Feldstein, who grew up watching the Fockers films in Los Angeles, it’s “such a dream to be a Focker.”
Though she admits she was “nervous” to join the Hollywood legends on set (“there’s high stakes when you’re a Focker”), when she met De Niro, 83, and Stiller, 60, “my nerves were immediately made comfortable.”
Beanie Feldstein ; Robert De Niro ; Ben Stiller
“They’re really exceptional actors, really exceptional stars, but also just very exceptional people,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “They’re very kind and warm and we just had genuinely a fantastic time.”
The experience turned out to be “an embarrassment of riches,” Feldstein adds. “You sit across the family dinner table from Robert De Niro, and it never gets old.”
Even among Hollywood legends, Feldstein held her own, improvising scenes with Stiller and Grande, 33, that made the final cut. “She just made every moment more special than even on the page,” says director John Hamburg.
Beanie Feldstein and Ariana Grande in Focker-In-Law
Credit: Universal
No one has been more surprised by her comedy chops than Feldstein. “The joke with my wife and my mom is that I’m not funny,” she says, describing herself as “very sincere in real life” and “very earnest.”
Though her brother Jonah Hill, 42, had a career that was already skyrocketing when she was a teen (the siblings’ oldest brother Jordan, a music manager, died in 2017 from a blood clot), Feldstein initially focused on pursuing musical theater.
In college, she began to think of trying TV and film acting, and after roles in 2016’s Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and 2017’s Lady Bird, her comic reputation was cemented with her Golden Globe-nominated role as a high-strung high school senior in 2019’s Booksmart.
Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever in Booksmart
Credit: Everett
She reunited with Booksmart‘s Gisondo and Eduardo Franco (“my boys!”) in Focker-In-Law and added a new friend to the group: Grande. The foursome became known as the “Millennial Van” as they shuttled to the set in the same vehicle together.
“I love being a part of an ensemble,” says Feldstein. “I would always joke with Ben, I was like, ‘I’m just here for vibes.’ And he was like, ‘You’re totally here for vibes.’ And it was our bit. I was like, ‘How are the vibes today?’ He like, ‘The vibes are incredible.’ “
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The actress adds: “I love making things that make people happy…And so it just felt like the perfect step for me of being a part of something just so profoundly good and funny and heartwarming. And it’s a very delicious world, the Focker world. It’s really uncomfortable at times, and it makes you squirm in your seat. But at the end of the day, it has huge heart.”
Focker-In-Law arrives in theaters Nov. 25.
PEOPLE VIPs can read our full conversation with Beanie Feldstein in this week’s issue, available right now in the app.
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