January 2, 2006

Matthew Broderick

By Joey Berlin, Merced Search

He is now 43, but Matthew Broderick still has the boyish charm that has kept him popular since the early 1980s when he really was a boy, starring in "WarGames." On Broadway, Broderick has won two Tony awards, and he was nominated for "The Producers," a musical farce that is now coming to the big screen.

Mel Brooks turned his 1968 comedy classic - about staging the worst Broadway musical ever - into a Broadway musical. It was an instant smash. Now the Broadway hit has been faithfully brought to the big screen, with the dynamic duo of Broderick and Nathan Lane returning as the title characters. Will Ferrell also appears as the Hitler-loving playwright and Uma Thurman plays the luscious secretary.

Broderick, a New York native, is an accomplished star of the stage and screen. After all, Sarah Jessica Parker wouldn't marry just anybody. They have been married for eight years and have one child, a 3-year-old son.

Q: Was the filming of "The Producers," with all the usual sitting around between shots, very different from doing the Broadway show?

A: Yeah! Well, on this particular movie there wasn't all that much sitting around, truthfully. It seemed like I was always doing something, either learning steps for the next thing or whatever. But yeah, it's totally different. You have to be ready to be very energetic for 15 minutes. But that could be two hours from now, it could be four hours from now. They could say, "Go home and come back tomorrow." So you get in this strange state of readiness, but also you can't exhaust yourself.

Q: How do you explain the ongoing appeal of "The Producers" and these characters?

A: I think it's a great comic story. You know, it's really well constructed and it's also really funny. And the central idea of making Nazis into show business, that Mel Brooks had the nerve to treat them in that way, was probably groundbreaking at the time. Now we're all used to that, but it's very shocking.

Q: How did you find the balance between respecting Gene Wilder's portrayal of your character in the original movie, while making it your own?

A: Yeah, that was always the challenge. I know Gene Wilder's performance so well. In fact I know all of Gene Wilder's performances well. He's one of my favorite actors in the world, so he's always an influence. I basically treated it as if I was playing a real person, and that person was Gene Wilder in a way. I wanted to tip my hat to him. I never wanted to shy away from his performance too much. I think it's OK to steal whatever you can from his performance. I mean, that's what it is. It is his ideas, and this is my interpretation of his performance.

Q: Was the comic chemistry you have with Nathan Lane apparent instantly when you met, or was it more of a gradual discovery?

A: It was probably gradual. We're both pretty shy at the beginning. But a few weeks into rehearsal we started to loosen up. And when we did the play in Chicago, we spent a lot of time together because we didn't have much to do. So we'd just rehearse and then go eat together and rehearse more. And that's when the whole cast really became a good family group.

Q: You say Nathan Lane is shy in the beginning? Is there much difference between his everyday demeanor and what the world sees in his performances?

A: Oh, yeah. Well no, I mean he's not shy. He's like me. He just doesn't immediately come out shaking everybody's hand, saying, "Hi! What can I do for ya? It's great to meet ya!" I don't know if shy is the right word. He's just a little quiet at first.

Q: You seem quite comfortable with all the dancing you do in the film. Do you have a background in dance?

A: I don't really have a dancing background, beyond high school, in my own room. I danced a little bit in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," and I think that's the only other time. In some movies, I've had to dance a little bit, but I never took any dance classes or anything like that. I can fake tap dance but I can't really make my feet make every sound they're supposed to make. But I really tried. And I almost did. I'll give myself a pat on the back for working very hard on that. I worked on it a lot.

Q: Was there a person early in your life who inspired you to succeed as an actor?

A: My father was an actor. I used to adore watching him. I used to hang out in his dressing room all night, with my comic books. I always wanted to have something to do with the theater, and I just kept at it. It's not like anybody said anything, except they were very supportive and sweet to me. My father never said to me, "You should get into this business," or, "You shouldn't." They just let me grow. I had great teachers in school and I did more and more plays through high school, and it just was something that kept developing.