April 2008 Issue

Urbane Legend

Matthew Broderick can't be typecast.

He's a brand-new breed of classic leading man-tough but with a soft edge (after all, he's a dad now), smart but with a quirky sense of humor (hey, he's a diehard New Yorker), and, as we found out within minutes of meeting him, absolutely, devastatingly charming.

By Anne-Marie Guarnieri, Gotham Magazine

MANY COLUMN INCHES have been devoted to lamentations about how the city just ain’t what it used to be, what with stratospheric housing prices, the gentrification of some of its more colorful neighborhoods, and the shuttering of many beloved local shops and restaurants to make way for banks and drugstores. Like many native New Yorkers, Matthew Broderick views these developments warily.

We talked over sandwiches at a true New York landmark, Florent—which, according to recent news, is about to close its doors after 23 years as the spot for post-carousing diner food in the Meatpacking District. It’s been reported that the space will rent for a whopping $50,000 a month. “It’s kind of an institution,” says Broderick. “I never went to clubs, but I did go out drinking, then come here and eat.”

With the exception of the one year he lived in LA when he was 20, Broderick hasn’t strayed far from the West Village—nor does he plan to anytime soon. And why would he? Many of his closest friends live nearby. His son with wife Sarah Jessica Parker, five-year-old James Wilkie, goes to a school within walking distance of their home. And, well, “I just never moved,” he says.

Though he claims to dislike change, Broderick, 46, seems to be adjusting pretty well to his adult years, which have brought him more mature, grown-up roles than the ones that made him famous. This month he stars with Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, and Bette Midler in Then She Found Me. The film, which also marks Hunt’s directorial debut, is about the vagaries of marriage and family. Hunt’s character is approaching 40 and badly wants a child. Broderick plays her husband, a hapless man-boy who wants to bail out of the relationship.

“I feel like I’m at another chapter, and I gotta figure out what I am,” he says. “But there are good roles at this age. You keep hoping to transition. I was a successful juvenile, then you try to be a successful thirties guy, then a dad, then a grandpa, then just dead! But I always hoped to have a long career.”

GOTHAM: Did you get involved in this project because of Helen Hunt? I didn’t know you two had had a relationship...

MATTHEW BRODERICK: Yeah, we did. I guess there’s no secret about it. Twelve years ago? Something like that. We’ve remained friends. I just thought it was very grown-up of her to cast an ex-boyfriend. And also funny, because I play a heel—which, I suppose, one could say I’d been…. But I was very excited for her to have the chance to direct something.

G: Is it hard to be directed by people you know well?

MB: I’d be afraid that a director, if we were friends, would be shy about telling me, “That’s not what I want.” But she made me feel comfortable. You know, she’s tough, but reasonable.

G: Do you think that men can relate to her character’s intense desire to have a baby?

MB: Some men can. I’ve known men who desperately want children and their wives might not, or want to put it off—I’ve known that a lot. I had my son when I was 40. My dad had my sister when he was 21, then me—I was the last one—when he was 35, and it was his third child. Now it seems like everyone puts it off till the last second.

G: I think, too, that it has a lot to do with women wanting to establish careers. It’s hard to believe in the whole “you can have it all” thing because I’ve never seen anyone “have it all.”

MB: You can’t. The biology part doesn’t give a shit about your career. It’s hard when you get older.

The complete article appears on page 136 in the April 2008 issue of Gotham.