Matthew Broderick: The Hollywood Interview

Matthew Broderick in Wonderful World.

THE EDUCATION OF MATTHEW BRODERICK
How the most (arguably) iconic juvenile lead of the 1980s has not only matured into one of our finest character actors, but just keeps getting better

By Alex Simon

If we are all a combination of nature and nurture, actor Matthew Broderick is both. The son of acclaimed character actor James Broderick (best-known as the father on the 1970s hit series “Family”) and playwright/author/painter Patricia Broderick, Matthew’s upbringing in an artistic environment led him to take the stage at age 17, opposite his father in a production of On Valentine’s Day.

Two Tony awards and many decades later finds Matthew Broderick’s resume filled with some of the most iconic films of the 1980s: WarGames, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Glory to name a few, where Matthew established himself not only as one of the finest, and most versatile, young film actors of his generation, but distinguished himself on Broadway as well, in now-legendary plays such as Torch Song Trilogy and Neil Simon’s autobiographical Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues (a role he repeated in the film version, directed by Mike Nichols).

The ‘90s saw Broderick step into more mature roles such as the voice of adult Simba in the Disney hit The Lion King, and that of the hapless, but well-meaning, high school teacher in Alexander Payne’s scathing satire Election, a part which has become somewhat archetypical of Broderick’s later work. He also made his directing debut with Infinity in 1996, penned by his mother. The new century found Broderick again a star of the Broadway stage, originating the role of nebbishy accountant Leo Bloom in the musical of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, opposite Nathan Lane, for which he received a Tony nomination.

Matthew Broderick’s latest big screen outing is writer/director Josh Goldin’s Wonderful World. Broderick stars as Ben Singer, a failed children’s music composer struggling to find meaning in his life. When his Senegalese roommate (Michael K. Williams) has a health scare, Ben finds himself drawn to the roommate’s beautiful and kind-hearted sister (Sanaa Lathan), whose gentle, loving nature forces Ben to reevaluate his cynical view of life. Also starring Ally Walker, Philip Baker Hall and Jodelle Ferland, the Magnolia Pictures release opens in New York and L.A. January 8.

Matthew Broderick sat down with The Hollywood Interview during a recent visit from his native New York to discuss his latest role and other adventures in the screen trade. Here’s what followed:

Tell us about your character of Ben Singer and how you found the heart of this very cynical, “glass half-empty” man.

Matthew Broderick: Well, I have my cynical side so it was fun to explore that. The film is written and directed by Josh Goldin, who’s been a very dear friend of mine for about 20 years, and Ben is very much like Josh in many ways, although Josh is much more cheerful. It was nice that our friendship was able to turn into a professional relationship, and thank God it didn’t go too disastrously, so we were able to remain friends. (laughs) But I liked the part a lot.

Does it make a difference working with a director with whom you have a personal relationship? Is there more of a shorthand present in terms of communication?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I haven’t done it that often, but I have a little bit and, knock wood, it’s always been a pleasure. I can see how it would not be. I mean, if you’re friends, you might be too careful with each other or it might be strange to be bossed around or directed by somebody with whom you’re close. But that’s never happened with me, particularly with Josh. He didn’t change personalities when he became a director. We still had the same relationship. He was not afraid to be honest with me, and vice-versa, and we always ended up having a drink after we’d shoot, so we never went to bed angry, as they say. (laughs)

L to R: Matthew Broderick, Michael K. Williams and Sanaa Lathan in Wonderful World.

How do you think people will relate to Ben’s character and what he's going through, particularly in terms of what the country has gone through in the past year?

It’s interesting because the story seems to be sort of a litmus test for people in terms of whether you see things as positive or negative, and whether your life is the way it is because of your actual circumstances, or because of how you’re looking at things. Ben sees everything in a kind of negative light when the movie begins, and he’s done it to such a degree that he’s almost bringing it on himself. He’s making things worse than they are, and his daughter, which is an interesting part of the film, his relationship with his daughter, he begins to see that he’s actually hurting her, and that’s when he says ‘Wait a minute.’ Then he has a roommate who gently nudges him along in terms of how he’s thinking about things, and then he gets involved with a romance, which wakes him up and gets him out of just thinking about his ex-wife. So he suddenly has a little luck, and also an internal change in his attitudes that makes him end up in a slightly better place than he was in the beginning of the movie.

I’ve been a huge fan of Michael K. Williams since The Wire and it was great to see him do such great work here. Tell us about working with Michael.

Josh wanted him so badly, from seeing The Wire, and the two characters couldn’t be more different, but Michael just has such great energy and is such a bright and interesting actor. I loved working with him. He’s always surprising, and very present, and has a great attitude. He’s always very happy, as is Josh, and thank God, because we shot the thing in 21 days. When you’re on that tight of a schedule, people can get cranky, but by and large, everyone stayed cool and wanted it to come out well and there was no craziness, and a lot of that was due to Michael and the attitude he brought.

Broderick and Ally Sheedy in WarGames.

We should talk about some of your other films. Why don’t we start near the beginning, with WarGames. You did that right after your triumph on Broadway with Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and you didn’t see a lot of that in the early ‘80s, with actors going back and forth between the stage and screen, as you do now.

Yeah, that happened purely by luck. I was auditioning for WarGames the same time I was auditioning for Brighton Beach and they both worked out and there was time to shoot before the play began. I was cast in the play before I was cast in WarGames, I think, and then luckily the film shot in time for me to be able to do the play, as well. So it was just luck. I didn’t have some master plan to do both. It just worked out that way.

How does your early work hold up for you now?

I don’t know. It’s hard to…my younger things, there are always moments I think are not very good, and I would do better now but at the same time, there’s a lot that I probably wouldn’t do as well. There’s something very nice when you start out and you don’t know too much and you’re more trusting and there’s an ease about the work that’s good. You can’t lose because you’re just thrilled to be there, basically. Then also the nice thing when you’re starting out is the audience is just happy, or hopefully happy, to see this new guy. After a while, that goes away and they’re saying “Hm, is this different from the other thing you did?” And they start to have opinions about you, preconceived things, so you never get that fresh feeling again. So that was an exciting time, because nobody knew what to expect from me, nor did I.

Broderick in an iconic pose from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Speaking of that, we have to talk about Ferris Bueller, which is your most iconic role. I remember reading an interview with you a few years back where you said, after the film’s huge success, you were afraid of getting typecast as that guy for the rest of your career.

It’s not that I didn’t want to be typecast, I just wanted to make sure my career could withstand being identified with such an, as you say, iconic character. It’s like when, back in the old days, if you were cast as Superman, it was hard for audiences to see you as anything else. So, as silly as it sounds now, that part almost had people thinking of me as that guy. So I was just trying to make sure I had a career, and I did, so no complaints.

What was the experience like of making the film itself? It looked like everyone was having a ball.

We were. It was really fun to shoot. It was all about John Hughes. He was so bright and funny, and had such an original mind. It kind of seemed like a new type of film at the time, something that hadn’t really been seen before. It was a big shift, and John’s work was very much on everybody’s mind at the time. I had seen The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles, and then to be asked to do his next one was really thrilling. We shot it in Chicago, which is where John was from, and knew every inch of. He showed us around and we just formed this great camaraderie: me, Alan Ruck, Jennifer Grey, Mia Sara. It was a very special time.

L to R: Alan Ruck, Mia Sara and Broderick in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

What film after that would you say helped redefine your career in terms of moving into another genre comfortably?

I don’t know that there’s any one that redefined me. I just think that, after a while, if you keep working you start to feel as though you’re not so defined by one thing. I mean, I liked Election a lot. That was a different way to go. Glory, I think, was different. Then a lot of the plays I’ve done, like The Producers those are different, too. So I’ve had a lot of variety, and a lot of things that didn’t work, too.

Broderick in Ed Zwick's Glory.

Glory is one of those movies with a blessed cast: you, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Andre Braugher, Cary Elwes, and others. You all either launched your careers with that film, or sent your careers into a new arc.

It was amazing, wasn’t it? I don’t really run into Denzel that much anymore, but his career has really been magnificent from then on. Some of my favorite actors are in that film, so I was very happy to have been in it with them. Morgan Freeman was one of those people. I mean, I grew up watching him on “The Electric Company,” playing Easy Reader. (laughs) Of course Morgan has had a tremendous career, as well. The director, Ed Zwick, too. So yeah, it’s fun to look back and say ‘I knew them when,’ although we were all pretty established at that point, but no one was really a “star,” per se.

You’ve gotten to work with some amazing directors during your career: Mike Nichols, Sidney Lumet, John Hughes, to name a few. When you directed your first feature, what lessons did you take from them?

Well, you take different lessons from different people. There are so many ways to be a director, and those are three very different directors with different styles. Sidney’s technical skill is just incredible, and I wish I had that, which I knew I didn’t have. Sidney Lumet has directed ten thousand movies and four thousand live television shows, so he just knows everything. Mike is so great with actors and you just want to be around him. He’s a very fatherly director and everyone just wants to hang around near the monitor and talk to Mike. So I couldn’t do that, either. (laughs) John Hughes was a little more shy, a quiet director, but knew exactly what he wanted, but was a little more reticent, I think. But very, very funny when he wanted to be, and very smart. Plus, John wrote all of his films, and when the writers are directing they tend to have a more exact notion of what they want, whereas if the director didn’t write it, he or she is more likely to say “Well, what do you think we should do?” They’re a little looser sometimes. They’re all different, and those three are three of the best.

Broderick and Marlon Brando in The Freshman.

You’ve also worked with some of the greatest actors in the world. We’ve got to talk about Marlon Brando. Any stories about The Freshman?

Oh God, I’ve got a million. (laughs) I mean, he was just so thrilling to watch. He was very friendly to us, to all the actors. He really liked actors. Me and Bruno Kirby would hang out in his trailer, trying to get information. Marlon was very entertaining, liked to talk a lot, and I just hung on everything he said, and I loved watching him work. I can’t remember any stories, really. Sorry. (laughs)

Did he tape his lines on you?

(laughs) No, by that point he used an ear piece and an assistant would feed him his lines if he couldn’t remember. You didn’t notice it, and he rehearsed a lot, too. So it wasn’t that he didn’t care about it. He just didn’t like to know his lines too well. He said if he knew his lines too well, then it wouldn’t be spontaneous, because a part of you is always thinking “What’s the next line?” He didn’t want that part of his mind going. That’s what he said. But if he could read them or hear them, it took his consciousness away from “What am I saying next?” He was a very unique person, and a great actor.

What about all the great actresses you’ve worked with? Any who stand out in particular?

Well, the danger of these questions is that I’m going to leave people out that I don’t mean to. But I’ll tell you one who comes to mind, and that’s Sanaa Lathan, from this movie. She had to work very hard, and very late sometimes, and always cheerfully. She had to learn dances and accents and really make you believe she was from Senegal. She did all of it. What other actresses…Marsha Mason was terrific in my first film (Max Dugan Returns), Ally Sheedy was great. I’m just going chronologically. I don’t know…I’ve worked with great women. I don’t know where to begin. (laughs)

Reese Witherspoon and Broderick in Election.

In terms of the diversity of the roles you’ve played, where would you say Ben Singer falls?

Gosh, I don’t know. I mean, I hope he’s different. It’s nice because he’s not soft. He has an edge to him, which is nice, because I often get parts which are softer. At the same time I don’t like to play something that’s too foreign to me, because I want to serve the script. I don’t want to be doing some exercise for someone else’s enjoyment. I want to play parts that suit me. It’s tricky to know what those are sometimes, but I don’t necessarily think I should break too far away from how I am, or how I’m thought of. You can go a little bit out there, but not too far. That’s my opinion.

You’ve also managed to continue your balance of stage and screen work, again one of the few actors who has managed to do that now. Is it a different process acting on the stage versus acting on film, or are they first cousins?

They’re first cousins, I think. Technically the process is very different. You never have enough rehearsal on a film. Everything you’re seeing in a film is the first day of rehearsal. So I like plays, because it gives me time. On the other hand, there’s immediacy with film that’s very nice. The fact that you haven’t done the thing 200 times is kind of good. It’s fresh. But scenes either play well, and you either work in it, or you don’t. I either suit a role and bring something good to it, or I don’t. I’m never sure which way it will go, and it doesn’t matter if it’s the stage, film or TV. That part of it is always the same.

Broderick and Nathan Lane in The Producers.

But when you play a part like Leo Bloom in The Producers hundreds of times, I’d imagine that you are able to go deeper into the character just because you get to spend so much more time with him.

Yes. We did that for a year, not including Chicago. Then we did the movie, and then we jumped back into it on stage for maybe another four months, me and Nathan (Lane). I think for like six months you get better, and then after that, maybe you don’t, looking back on it. Some things get better, but some things don’t. Sometimes things can get too much better, too strange. I don’t know if that happened with The Producers, but luckily I had Nathan, and that kept me sane. That made it possible to do it 500 times. We kept each other awake.