Meet the parents

The film grossed more than $300 million worldwide, making a sequel virtually inevitable, and it's finally arrived with Meet The Fockers. In the follow-up, Greg has managed to earn his way inside the Circle of Trust and things are going great. He and his fiance, Pam (Teri Polo), are planning their wedding and there's only one tiny, itsy-bitsy little thing left to smooth the way to the altar: the future in-laws need to spend a weekend together.

So, Greg and Pam climb aboard Jack's new state-of-the-art vehicle for a trip to Focker Isle, the Coconut Grove domicile of Bernie and Roz Focker (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand).

The next 48 hours will provide the parents of the intended bride and groom with a little time to get to know each other, but more importantly, give Jack the opportunity to study Greg's parents.

Things start off well enough, but that's before Jack discovers that the lawyer and doctor Greg presented are, in fact, a liberal stay-at-home dad and a senior citizen's sex therapist. Then there's a toilet episode, the overly zealous game of touch football, the saucy Cuban caterer with the secret, the incident with the toddler and the glue Ready or not, it's time to Meet the Fockers. It's just one weekend together. What could possibly go wrong?

"I initially had this image of who Dustin Hoffman was supposed to be," explains Ben Stiller, who originated the role of the Focker scion and reprises it in the new film. "The actor from The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy and Rain Man a real body of work with an iconic stature. But in reality, he's a really funny and goofy guy, actually closer to Bernie than to some of the famous roles he's played."

"Bernie Focker is basically the kind of a guy who wouldn't mind leaving the door open while he went to the bathroom on an airplane just so he could continue a conversation with the people that he was talking to around his seat," says Hoffman.

"In looking at Bernie and Jack," he continues, "I guess I would say that opposites are sometimes the same. We appear to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, ideologically speaking, but in a way we're both overbearing to our children, not allowing them to individuate. This is the third time I've worked with Bob De Niro, and it's always easy and fun to be in a project with him.

Streisand had not acted in eight years (since The Mirror Has Two Faces) by her own volition.

"I felt I had settled into a relaxed way of living at this point in my life, not worrying about getting up at five in the morning. But, Jay Roach, director was very persuasive, and I adore him. It's always nice to be asked by a director who wants you, specifically, in a part. Ben Stiller called me from Europe and was very insistent that I should play his mother, so I resigned myself to getting up at five in the morning," recalls Streisand. "And it's turned out to be a good decision and a wonderful adventure."

Streisand and Hoffman have been friends for more than 40 years but the new film is the first time the two have worked together. "We went to an acting school together, and Dustin was dating my roommate at the time," recalls Streisand.

"He was the janitor at the school to pay for classes and I was babysitting for my teacher in exchange for classes. Working with him is really fun, because we both like to improvise like musical riffs, instruments playing around the melody."

"It was, in the beginning, a surreal experience," adds Stiller, "coming to work and seeing De Niro and Hoffman and Streisand on the set together. I would just step back and take in the enormity of it. But the really surprising thing for me was that after the first week or so, it really felt like a family.

"Dustin and Barbra are so good and so committed to the characters, that they had a great connection and it was fantastic to just plug in to that. I just felt like it was a once in a lifetime experience to get to act with these people."