June 8, 2004

INTERVIEW: Matthew Broderick on "The Stepford Wives"

By Thomas Chau, Cinema Confidential

New York City - He may be Broadway’s brightest star and Hollywood’s most down-to-Earth comedic actor but above his celebrity persona, one thing is for sure: Matthew Broderick can be damn funny in person as well.

Broderick recently had a room of reporters in laughter when he was talking about the brilliance of his newly acquired TiVo system. “I’m a TiVo person so I’ve freed myself from the schedule. I watch what I want, when I want!” he proclaims defiantly.

His entertaining nature isn’t surprising for a star of classic 80s films such as “WarGames” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Broderick appears in Frank Oz’s reimagining of the 1975 film “The Stepford Wives,” which takes a more comedic spin to the story rather than a thriller approach as seen in the original. He plays Walter Kresby, a vice president of a television network married to one of the most powerful women in the world. His wife Joanna (Nicole Kidman) is fired from her job and the family decides to leave the bustling nature of New York City for the quiet and quaint community of Stepford, Connecticut. Immediately, Joanna notices something funny about the men and women of Stepford but Walter isn’t so quick to judge anybody. Could he be in on the mysterious conspiracy?

I ask Broderick how it was to adjust to Frank Oz’s unique approach to comedy, to which he responds, “He’s very funny and he’s very serious about comedy, as most people who work in comedy are. It gets very technical sometimes and very often, it gets to ‘Take a pause before this word’ or ‘Don’t make it a question.’ A lot of times in comedy, it’s almost scientific. I think Frank works that way about comedy and I’m used to that. That’s how I work so I found it quite easy to work with him.”

He also goes on to say that filling in the shoes of John Cusack (who left the project due to a family illness) was not a daunting task. “It came to me all ready with this wonderful cast assembled.” Regarding what he liked about the script and his character, Broderick states, “I would ask in rehearsals, ‘When exactly does Walter know what’s going on here and how much do I push it?’ I wanted to know what I was up to in the story because it isn’t always clear. But as I got into it, I think it’s important for me to know that but for an audience, it’s better to not really know how much Walter knows when. I guess that’s what I found that was interesting. It was a delicate interesting role to play.”

Broderick also has great memories of working with co-star Nicole Kidman. He will be seeing her again when they work on “The Producers” movie in February 2005 – a job and opportunity he reveals that he is looking forward to. “Working with a wonderful actress is always a pleasure and I think it comes out funny.”

So does Matthew find parallels between his character, who is married to a high profile female executive, and his real-life wife, actress Sarah Jessica Parker? “In reality, I don’t think Joanna and my wife are alike at all. She is extremely successful and mega-powerful. She could destroy this whole hotel by looking at it,” he jokes, where he is quick to add, “My wife, I meant. But so far, I feel perfectly safe around her.”

He goes on to say, however, that Sarah does have the homemaker side to her when she is not out working. “She enjoys some of those things. She’s not very Stepford like but she’s old fashioned in some ways. She likes cooking and homemaking so when she has time for it, that’s something she does.” He points out that he would never put Sarah through the Stepford-izing process like in the movie. “There’s nothing that I would change about her,” he smiles proudly.

With his run on “The Producers” coming to an end and Sarah’s departure from “Sex and the City,” the two find more time to spend with their child. But like in any other celebrity marriage, they have their own problems with shielding their son from the paparazzi. Broderick reveals, “They do follow us. That’s sort of a new thing. I’m hoping that will begin to get dull because I’m bored of it.”

He humorously adds, however, that having a child in New York City has led to an interesting discovery.

“I’ve discovered playgrounds. I wish there were more of them.”