Ben Stiller used to make comedies for grown-ups, from his late night sketch comedy show to famously R-rated hair gel comedies. As he inched towards the PG-13, he suddenly got very family friendly recently. He did a voice for Dreamworks' animated Madagascar and now stars in the holiday comedy Night at the Museum.

"I just think I’ve become more aware of these kinds of movies," said Stiller. "I actually started working on Madagascar before my daughter was born. I mean, they take so long to do. I think you just become more aware of it, because when you have kids you want to be able to go to movies and take the family too. And actually all enjoy together. And I don’t think there are that many great, live action family movies that everybody can enjoy. So, that’s what was exciting to me about this one."

In Night, Stiller plays a security guard who must survive his shifts when a mummy's curse brings all the museum's exhibits to life. "This movie purely was, I wanted to do it because I really loved the idea. When I first heard the title, I loved the title. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a great idea.’ I grew up near the Museum of Natural History. I just felt like a gut reaction that I really would love to be a part of this movie. As a kid, I would love seeing this movie and I thought as an adult, the kid in me would love to see this movie too."

Those exhibits include historical figures, cave men, miniature warriors and dinosaur bones. Oh, and a pesky monkey that keeps messing with Stiller's character.

"Well, I guess there’s a lot of screen teams, sometimes they are on screen they have good chemistry, but off screen they don’t get along? I’d say that sort of what me and Crystal [the monkey] had. First of all, she’s a female monkey and she’s playing a guy, so I think she already had a chip on her shoulder about that. And she wears a diaper and I think she resents that she can’t control herself. And then she got to hit me, but I guess some rule, I guess the animal protection laws or is it just because you can’t hit a monkey because they will bite you? But she could hit me as hard as she wanted. She was encouraged to hit me very hard. And she had this way of doing it when she connected that was really annoying. I couldn’t hit her back. I’d have to go like that and stop. And when it came to my close up I’d get the monkey puppet to hit or the green tennis ball. It isn’t satisfying. I have unresolved issues with Crystal. And if I see her now, I’d probably want to smack her."

For some of the film's action sequences, Stiller's previous impersonation talents came in handy. "I just studied Tom Cruise running in all the Mission: Impossibles. I think he’s one of the best screen runners and I just wanted to emulate that."

For all the time spent around educational exhibits, Night at the Museum is more about fantasy fun than historical fact. "I love history, I’m very interested by it and I think it’s great to have a movie that brings it alive in away. It’s sort of that romanticized version of it but that’s sort of like what you get into when you’re a kid and then when you’re older you can learn the realities of history and then get depressed that more people have died in the name of God than anything else and all that stuff. This is the fun version."

Night at the Museum is now playing.