There's something so wholesome and reassuringly American about Matthew Broderick that it's no surprise he pops the most in roles that let him play against it. Whether it's the subversive streak he brought to Ferris Bueller's Day Off or the more venal elements of his character in Election, Broderick's nice-guy persona lets him get away with things that other actors would be unsympathetic doing. His latest addition to the rogues gallery is pot-smoking misanthrope Ben in his friend Josh Goldin's Wonderful World, who's relentlessly pessimistic until he falls for an upbeat immigrant (Sanaa Lathan).
I spoke to Broderick today at the Standard in Los Angeles, where the 47-year-old actor opened up about the way he sees the world, his relationship with Ferris director John Hughes before he passed away, and the thorny case of Kenneth Lonergan's eternally-delayed Margaret.
You've done your fair share of projects with first-time directors. Are there certain qualities they have in common when they get it right?
Yeah, I'm trying to think who that's been. Kenny, Josh...
Helen Hunt.
Helen Hunt, of course. One thing for me is that they've all been friends, they've all been people I know personally more than professionally. My experience with first-time directors is that they're all extremely prepared, because I guess they're worried. They spend weeks preparing everything, and they have to get used to the fact that once you get there, everything goes wrong and you have to make everything up. [Laughs]
Do you help them through that, as a veteran actor?
I don't know. I always try to let directors do things with their own style. That's interesting, I'm thinking of all the similarities between the three of them. Helen is an actor, so she was very easy. The others were writers, which is different. They're not used to actual human beings -- they don't like it, I don't think. Now Kenny, I've worked with again. He's done several things, so he's not a first-time director anymore. I've known him when he was and when he wasn't, and he's getting more and more relaxed. Maybe too relaxed.
While we're on the subject of Kenneth Lonergan, I have to briefly ask you what's going on with his long-delayed Margaret. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel there?
I hope there is. Yeah, I mean...there is, of course there is. The movie has some lawsuits attached to it now, there's some problems, but I think those are all solvable. I've seen the movie, and it's a wonderful movie. He doesn't feel quite finished with it, I guess. It feels to me like it's just ten percent away from where he would say it's done, I think. It seems to be very hard for him to get to that point, though.
What do you think it's going to take?
Well, we just did a play together and now he's back, so maybe that will work. I don't know. I could hit him with a wiffle ball bat, maybe?
If you think that will be of any help, please do.
I would love it to come out. I would love him to finish it. I have a very small part, a teacher to Anna Paquin. It's about her, basically, and I'm just a teacher at her school. I worked only about two days, but it's a nice, funny little part. It's based loosely on a teacher we had together. It's good.
You were a friend of Josh Goldin's and he wrote Wonderful World with you in mind. Is that a lot of pressure to do the project when he pitches it to you?
He never quite said he wrote it for me, I don't think, but he said while he was writing, "I think this would be good for Matthew." I think he saw me as a good way to get a little money for his movie, certainly, but yeah, it would have been very awkward if I didn't like it. Fortunately, I did. It's hard enough to read something and think about whether you should do it -- when it's your friend, you go, "I hope I'm not just doing this because he's my friend. This movie has to be worth doing." I certainly wasn't sure, but I enjoyed reading it and I wanted to work with him.
I've heard that the main character is not unlike Josh. Did you feel like you were playing him at all?
A little bit. Most of the time when I've been in something where I've known the writer, usually I feel like I a sort of playing that person, whether they admit it or not. Like when Josh says, "Maybe you shouldn't shave," or "I like this shirt better than that shirt," suddenly you realize more and more through the rehearsal process that you're looking more like Josh. The externals were very Josh-like, but he's not a dismal person like this guy. Josh has a pretty positive view of things, I think, although occasionally not.
Ben's outlook changes when he sees things through the eyes of an immigrant. Do events in your life, like becoming a father, ever give you that sense of fresh perspective?
Yeah, absolutely. I think that everything that happens to you does. I've never been one to think that you should always be positive and look on the bright side constantly. Too much of that, it takes you out of reality. You have to ring a bell if there's a fire -- if something's wrong, you have to face that. There are times in your life that are luckier than other times. It's easy to feel positive and chipper when you've just gotten a good job or just had a baby or whatever it is. Ben's just been through a divorce, his relationship with his daughter has clearly gone off the rails, so he's not in a very good mood.
I also wanted to ask you about John Hughes. When he passed away, I was struck by how many people quoted Ferris Bueller or would post scenes from it on Twitter or Facebook.
Oh really? Huh. That's nice.
Had you kept in touch with him?
Not so much. I did for a little while, and every now and then we would speak on the phone, but I hadn't seen him in twenty years. It was a long time, like everybody -- for most people in show business, at least the ones I know, he pretty much disappeared. It was very upsetting that he died so young. It was nice for me to go and reconnect a bit and talk to his sons and his wife [at the funeral]. You know, his life [after Hollywood] seems like it was very good. Some people think he turned into some hermit, but he didn't really. He was just doing different things -- he was clearly active, and a family man.
Well, there's that presupposition in Hollywood that once you start working there, you have to keep working there constantly until the day you die.
I know! And that if you don't, there must have been some horrible failure. I don't think that's the case with John, I think he got interested in other things. He kept writing -- he apparently has reams of writing -- and he did a lot in his community.
Did you read the New York Times piece that Molly Ringwald wrote about him?
Yes, I did. I thought it was excellent, very heartfelt. I haven't seen her. I used to know her -- I'd love to see her again. I'm glad she did that.