"Yeah, they should be saying, 'Never work with adults,' " says Janson, who goes by Uli. Stiller shoots him a very Ben Stiller look, wide-eyed. "I think you got something there, kid." Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. Join our Watch ...

Nutcrackers is based on a true story in the sense that the kids in Nutcrackers are not actors, and were more or less being themselves on screen. They are the kids of a friend of David Gordon Green’s, and it was their real-life dynamic that inspired Green to make the movie in the first place.

Ben Stiller tells USA TODAY’s Marco della Cava what it was like working with kids and animals on his new Hulu movie “Nutcrackers.”