Matthew Broderick - Articles: 2006

Matthew Broderick: From Here To Infinity

November 26, 2006

Nice guy gone bad?

Matthew Broderick reinvents himself for upcoming movie

By Chicago Sun-Times

When your wife is fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker, can you buy her clothes for Christmas? Just mention it and her husband, Matthew Broderick, shudders: "I can't do clothes for Sarah, forget it," Broderick says. "She's what they call 'fashionable.' People just give her things with Gucci and Dior on it. I don't think I'd ever buy her an entire outfit. Maybe pajamas with feet."

Well, now that we've ruined SJP's holiday gift, it's safe to say Broderick has Christmas on the brain for another reason. He stars in "Deck the Halls" as a crazy suburbanite competing with his neighbor (Danny DeVito) to do the best holiday lights and decorations on the block.

I guess guys get competitive like this, but I just don't understand it. Well, I do understand it. Guys are stubborn. If they decide they're in charge or the boss, look out. Of course, I'm not that way. I'm just a laid-back type of guy. A typical Christmas for me is my wife, Sarah, has a lot of brothers and sisters. The family comes over and we try to juggle going to other people's houses. It's actually a lot of work. Are you allowed to say that? We do splashy entertaining. We definitely like good champagne. I also love the decorations I still have from when I was a child. My father had beautiful lights from the 1940s and I would love when they would come down from the closet. I do that with my own son.

My son is obsessed with Scooby Doo. You could write Scooby Doo on a card and that would be perfect for him as a holiday gift.

In New York, the photographers follow us everywhere if we go out as a family. If I go out alone, no one cares. Hey, what do you think that means? He [son James] sees these people around us or our faces on TV, but he doesn't like it. He will turn off the TV. I guess he doesn't want to share Mommy and Daddy with anyone. And frankly, we're not Scooby Doo, so why would he want to watch?

It's funny that I'm this age. I've been acting for 30 years now, which also seems odd. I hear that every seven years on screen you're supposed to reinvent yourself. I guess that's a good idea, and I'd be happy to play a bad guy. But they still see the nice face from "Ferris Bueller." Wait, let it be said that I'm a bad guy in a movie Helen Hunt just directed that comes out next year ["Then She Found Me"]. I play her husband and we get married at the beginning. Cut to six months later and I tell her that I can't stand being married. I break up with her and then I keep sleeping with her. So, you can say I finally get to play a pretty awful person. Bette Midler plays her mother, and let's just say she's not too pleased with me either. But in real life, I'm a great husband. Honestly. I was asked the other day if I believe men should just give in and say their wife is always right. I was reading about all the women elected to Congress. I feel like they're there to tell all these men who went crazy the past years to cool it now and the grown-ups are coming in to fix things. Honestly, I really do admire women.