To sit down with Benson Boone almost guarantees one topic will come up: backflipping. The Gen Z pop sensation has made aerial flips a signature part of his live shows, pulling them off during countless performances — including high-pressure, live-televised moments like the 2025 Grammy Awards. At this point, fans and interviewers alike can’t help but wonder if he ever worries about missing a landing.
Turns out, not even a little.
Laughing over a Zoom call from Los Angeles, Boone admits he never doubts himself when he’s onstage. He says his confidence kicks in the moment the spotlight hits. In his mind, failure simply isn’t an option — and because of that, it never crosses his thoughts.
That unshakable self-belief didn’t just stay onstage. It followed him onto a very different kind of performance: Instacart’s new Super Bowl commercial. Airing during the first quarter of the Big Game on February 8, the ad — along with a longer, director’s cut by Spike Jonze — pairs Boone with none other than Ben Stiller. The unlikely duo play dramatic, vaguely European siblings in an over-the-top 1980s-style musical act. Their rivalry escalates quickly, ending in chaos when Stiller’s character attempts a backflip out of jealousy and crashes spectacularly into a drum kit.
Boone says working with the Zoolander star was surreal and inspiring. Having grown up watching Stiller’s films, he was impressed not just by his acting, but by how effortlessly he stayed playful on set. With Spike Jonze encouraging improvisation, the two were often given just minutes to create scenes — and they ran with it.
Despite sharing scenes with a comedy legend, Boone says he never felt intimidated. The same confidence that fuels his live performances helped him dive headfirst into acting. Much of the dialogue in Instacart’s teaser clips was improvised, something Boone credits to years of joking around with accents and characters while growing up. He believes Stiller was genuinely surprised by how easily Boone kept up.
Acting, he admits, is something he’s always wanted to explore more seriously. While the last few years of nonstop touring made that difficult, he hopes to take classes and pursue more roles in the future.
For now, Boone is easing back into everyday life after a massive 50-date arena tour across North America and Europe in support of his sophomore album American Heart, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. He says learning how to be self-reliant again and appreciating simple routines is shaping the creative direction of his next album. When asked about dream collaborators, he doesn’t hesitate to praise Olivia Rodrigo, calling her one of the most exceptional artists of this generation.
Then there’s the internet — specifically, the wave of Harry Styles memes Boone has found himself at the center of. When Styles began teasing new music earlier this year, fans joked that Boone would lose his unofficial title as pop’s favorite brown-haired heartthrob. The jokes only escalated when ticket prices for Styles’ upcoming tour sparked reactions saying they’d attend a Boone show instead.
Boone finds it all hilarious. He says the memes don’t bother him at all — in fact, he enjoys them. Friends have even texted to check in, asking if he’s okay after seeing the jokes. His response? He loves it. He even jokes that he’d be happy to give Styles a few real backflipping lessons after watching the singer’s stunt-heavy “Aperture” video.
All of this perfectly sums up What Benson Boone Really Thinks About the Harry Styles Memes—and Backflipping With Ben Stiller: he’s confident, self-aware, and genuinely amused by the chaos of pop culture.
And when he’s not touring, acting, or laughing at memes, Boone keeps things simple. His most-ordered Instacart items during downtime? Fruit snacks and Martinelli’s apple juice — a combo he admits sounds like a five-year-old’s dream diet.
