June 14, 2004

Matthew Broderick comes alive

Is Matthew Broderick the shy quiet guy? Don't be fooled

By Liz Braun, Jam! Movies

As major celebrities go, Matthew Broderick is oddly nondescript. The man who's been wowing 'em on Broadway in The Producers and at the movies in The Stepford Wives has regular guy looks and a laid-back demeanor. He is, in general, understated. He doesn't say much at a New York press conference for The Stepford Wives.

On the other hand, once he shows even a hint of his very dry humour, the "quiet man" pose starts to look like a disguise.

In a recent interview, co-star Nathan Lane had fun with that image of Broderick: "He loves the notion that people think of him as the kindly husband of Sarah Jessica Parker, you know, that he's just kind and nice and quiet. But he's not that way at all. He's evil incarnate. He is Ferris Bueller."

Broderick, 42, uses that didn't-see-him-coming ability nicely in The Stepford Wives, a comedy that hints at his potential for menace. Broderick plays Walter Kresby, the supportive if seemingly weak husband of a powerhouse career woman (Nicole Kidman) named Joanna Eberhart. Walter moves his family from Manhattan to Stepford, an idyllic spot where the women are strangely perky and domesticated.

There are several strictly New York laughs in the movie, but Broderick reckons everybody will get the joke.

The native New Yorker says, "Real or fictionalized, I think there's a version of New York everybody has in his head. I think audiences know how hard it is to find an apartment here, and they know people read the obituaries to find one."

Speaking of the real or fictionalized front, there is a funny parallel between his role in the movie -- husband of media darling and famed career woman -- and his role in real life as the husband of media darling and famed career woman Sarah Jessica Parker, whose success in Sex And The City was huge.

"In reality, I don't think Joanna and my wife are at all alike. She's extremely successful and mega-powerful. She could destroy this whole hotel just by looking at it," he says, mildly.

"My wife, I mean. But so far I feel perfectly safe around her."

When the laughter subsides, Broderick adds, "We're both from New York, the real New York, and anything we can do to promote the fake New York, we will."

Is his wife Stepford-like at all?

"She makes cupcakes. She's not very Stepford-like but she's old-fashioned in some ways. She likes cooking and home-making, when she has time.

"There's nothing I would change about her."

Broderick, a two-time Tony winner, was born into acting.

He made his stage debut at 17 opposite his late father, James, and his mother Patricia is a playwright and an artist.

He's been married to Parker since 1997. They have a two- year-old son.

"I've discovered playgrounds." he says, "and I wish there were more of them. They're crowded.

"We live down in the village and there's a whole string of new ones, because they're turning the riverfront into parkland. As soon as they open a new one, there's a line to get on the swings."

And a line of paparazzi following his family around?

"They follow us, they do," he says, mildly.

"That's a new thing. I'm hoping that will become dull."

MATTHEW BRODERICK FILE

Matthew Broderick started in movies in 1983 with Max Dugan Returns and War Games, but the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off made him high-profile.

Among his more than 30 movies are such memorable outings as Godzilla, The Cable Guy, Inspector Gadget, You Can Count On Me, Election and The Freshman.

Broderick won Tony Awards for his work in Brighton Beach Memoirs and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, and was nominated for yet another Tony for The Producers.