1999

Cranky Critic StarTalk: Matthew Broderick

By Cranky Critic

Despite his presence in last year's Godzilla spoof, this is Broderick's irst face to face with Cranky. Over a decade ago, Ferris Bueller's Day Off set the standard for high school flicks. Now the shoe is on the other foot in Election, as the once-upon-a-time-Ferris takes on responsibility as teacher Jim McAllister in Omaha Nebraska. Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), a student responsible for getting his best friend fired, is running unopposed for Student Body President, and Jim can't stand that. So he meddles in that race...

He also meddles around in his friend's now ex-wife's life as well. Alexander Payne's Election is a rude and brutally funny look at two generations side by side in Omaha Nebraska

CrankyCritic: This may be, in some ways, the first adult adult movie comedy that you've done.
Matthew Broderick: Yes. I think that's true. He's not coming-of-age in any way, he's sort of losing whenever position he's come to this evaporated in this movie. So it is unusual for me.

CrankyCritic: Was that part of the appeal?
Matthew Broderick: Yeah. The script is very original. Most movies about high school are all, you know, teachers are idiots and the students are great or there's a heroic teacher and some students that the heroic teacher battles into shape. But this one is really kind of even handed. You see a point of view from different students, from different teachers, and you have a balanced look at that kind of school. It's also about more than school, I think, it could be set someplace else and it's still a similar story. It's not just about school it's really about what happens is characters as they interact.

CrankyCritic: Did it strike you at all that you make such an impact as a student in Ferris Beuller's Day Off all those years ago and now you're playing a teacher, have thought "well now I've gotten old"
Matthew Broderick: That strikes me everyday [laughs]. You know it wasn't a surprise to me.

CrankyCritic: How do you look back at your career over the last decade? It's really a lot wider than a lot of actors that we talk to.
Matthew Broderick: Well, that's nice to hear. You know I'm cautiously from my career. When I started I didn't know if I'd ever get any work. A lot of friends that started when I did are not acting anymore. My father was an actor. So, I always wanted to be a working actor and I knock wood have. I'm still here. I'm still talking to you all [laughs] so that's good. That is an achievement.

CrankyCritic: Was there any particular teachers that you had that may have helped you put together this character?
Matthew Broderick: I didn't they sit on any particular future but I certainly remember and talk about futures I had had, cause he's a good teacher. And also when I was in Omaha I set in on some classes and watched some people teach and it was interesting because it's been a long time and then to remember how important it is; you know which teacher you get makes a huge difference in your life. And to see the people that are good at it, do it, is extremely impressive. Playing a part looking at other actors and looking at all these young people staring up a few, it's intimidating. You know they performed for an audience that doesn't want to be there, some of the students, and they have to connect to them and they do it. It's remarkable. They got really interesting discussions going from children of all different walks of life. You know you can tell, there's all different characters in that classroom but most all of the four really listening and it's good. It's involving, get interested in.

CrankyCritic: Were you a good student or one who didn't care?
Matthew Broderick: It was a little of both. I was good in some subjects but I was mostly not very good. Then I got into the theater in high school and once I started doing that I just paid more and more attention to that and less and less to my studies.

CrankyCritic: This movie has some pretty gritty seems to it, such as when Jim is inspired to take action by watching a porno flick. Was the dark side something that inspired you to play the character? That it was a little different?
Matthew Broderick: Yes, well that's what was nice about it. When I read the script I thought well this is sort of different, you know. It stood out from the other scripts that I read. The dialogue is just so good, funny.

CrankyCritic: Some of it is pretty shocking [we can be explicit in the interview, but I can't tell you what he said 'cuz this here is a family page]
Matthew Broderick: Yes. Some scenes we did six times because Alexander scared that it wouldn't be allowed, it was too nasty. So we said other things.

CrankyCritic: It's a dark movie and it doesn't have a happy ending...
Matthew Broderick: And that's a new ending. It was less happy, originally. It was more in keeping with the book. Jim became a car salesman. It was good, actually. I liked it. They wrote the new ending and it was happier and I said "I hope it's not too happy." Alexander said "You and me will be doing it, so it won't be too happy. Don't worry."

CrankyCritic: When you do a movie like this to say to yourself "this one's for me"? Like it will be a miracle if it turns out to be a phenomenon
Matthew Broderick: Oh yeah. This movie I never thought was, nobody thought it was commercial, particularly. But it's not like something I think about a lot. They think about it. And once I was asked to be in Godzilla or Inspector Gadget I get caught up in that. I hope that it does work in that way but in some ways our responsibility is really to the character, to telling the story. I guess, also, that the bigger movies paid for these movies and make these movies possible. The sad truth about independent movies is, not all the time but generally, they need to have at least one actor in them that has been in, say, Independence Day. They are related. You don't get the money for them unless [there's at least one big name]

CrankyCritic: Did you ask any of the teachers that you've talked with in Omaha if they had ever faced situations where the students have made passes at them?
Matthew Broderick: I didn't ask them directly. It's not an issue for most students; most of the ones that I spoke with. I think [the teachers are] aware that something that is going to happen. It's not an issue for them. But they also say how they've got to be more and more careful. Some of the schools we wanted to use as locations wouldn't even let us shoot.

CrankyCritic: Because of the script?
Matthew Broderick: Yes. The thing I remember is that one school person objected that I left my class to go set up an extramarital affair, which he thought reflected poorly on teachers. My character is not supposed to be the poster boy for teachers. And he certainly suffers for whatever mistakes he makes. If you want to look at it as a morality tale, he certainly pays for it. He seems to be living in total oblivion at the beginning. He's a happy teacher and he's going to be doing this the rest of his life. He's happily married. I think it's true that, right beneath the surface is waiting to burst out a whole different person. He's just happy and not aware of it. And I think that happens to people all the time, where they have to do something wrong or make a huge mistake, just to realize that all they really wanted to do is say "Well, I don't want to be a teacher anymore. I'm going to something else" but you don't even have it in you to think that, So instead you just blow off, whatever, or make the kind of mistake that Jim does.

CrankyCritic: Your next film is Inspector Gadget
Matthew Broderick: and I do play an evil version of myself in the movie as well. Robo-Gadget [laughs] he's called.

CrankyCritic: Which was more fun to play?
Matthew Broderick: Well they were both fun to play. Robo-Gadget was a little more freeing.

CrankyCritic: Wasn't that a cartoon, originally? Don Adams doing the voice?
Matthew Broderick: Yes.

CrankyCritic: I'm too old to know it.
Matthew Broderick: So am I. The kids today know it. I never thought of the movie as flushing out a cartoon, really. The writers had to do that. By the time I'm involved it's really its own thing. I watched the cartoon but I didn't think "How can I interpret how Mr. Adams performs?" It was a pretty straightforward story. A comedy for children.