BEVERLY HILLS -- Matthew Broderick knows how to succeed in movies without
really trying.
Between film projects, Broderick, 34, keeps himself busy doing stage
work, television and directing.
His last film was the 1994 art house flick Mrs. Parker And The Vicious
Circle. In Cable Guy which opens June 7, Broderick plays the hapless victim
to Jim Carrey's cruel prankster.
Between these big-screen appearances, Broderick won a Tony award for
starring on Broadway in the musical How To Succeed In Business Without
Really Trying. He also directed himself and Patricia Arquette in a low-budget
romantic drama called Infinity.
Broderick is still singing and dancing up a storm nightly in How To
Succeed for another month. For the past three months, he has shared the
Broadway spotlight with his live-in partner Sarah Jessica Parker.
"Starring in How To Succeed has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Sharing the stage with Sarah is the icing on a very big cake," admits Broderick.
Parker and Broderick have been a couple for four years but there still
isn't a whisper of marriage.
"You'll never know our plans from me. That's one subject I refuse to
discuss."
Broderick is certainly not tight-lipped about his Cable Guy co-star.
"Jim Carrey is a charming, wonderful, generous actor. He's so powerful
that he could really be a bastard if he wanted to be.
"What was encouraging for me was that Jim wanted to make a good movie
and not simply be good in it. He protected all of his co-stars and solicited
our input."
Broderick had a small taste of fame in 1986 when he starred in the
runaway teen hit Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
"I never actually had trouble walking around. People would smile, wave
or call me Ferris but I never feared for my safety.
"I feel sorry for Jim having to live in a compound, be chauffeured
around everywhere by body guards and have everyone act is if they were
his long lost friend."
When he is asked to sign autographs these days, it's for children who
realize he provided the voice of Simba in The Lion King.
"They want me to sign as Simba not Matthew. There are days I'd like
to strangle every stuffed lion I come across."
Disney is planning a direct-to-TV sequel to The Lion King but Broderick
refuses to acknowledge whether he is going to supply Simba's voice once
again, insisting that "marriage and The Lion King are my two taboo subjects."
