May 20, 1998

Q & As: Matthew Broderick's Day On

By David Poland, TNT's Rough Cut

When I look at the body of your work, I see dramas, comedies, romance's, musicals even. Where does Godzilla fit into that?
Well, just another limb of the tree, which I call my career. I don't know what or where it fits in. When I take the big sleep it'll have to be categorized. I'm not sure. I mean, I like monster movies and disaster movies, I always have. I wouldn't want to only do the effects-driven movies, but it was fun to do.

The process was fun in this case?
It was, yeah. I liked the people is what it comes down to. I liked Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich a lot, and also the cast. The core four of us (actors Broderick, Hank Azaria, Maria Pittilo and Jean Reno) got along really well. And it was a ball.

We've heard that Roland kind of kept it very light on the set and very easy. Was that the case with you?
Yeah, he's so sort of smart and he knows what he's doing. So he's not panicked, almost ever. Sometimes he's overwhelmed a little, but .... Actually I think that he's never overwhelmed. Sometimes he gets a little frustrated, maybe. The teeniest bit. He's among the most friendly, calm directors I've worked with, and he's very funny too, and he's very, very bright. He's just good to be around.

Having to react to something that isn't there in these types of special-effects movies, does that help you in your craft at all? Is it something you can take to another project that's not special-effects driven?
I tried not to just be looking at the monster again, and be afraid again, and whatever. I tried to ask, you know, why is this type different than the other? How close is he? You don't want to coast, and you could. And sometimes when there's very little dialogue in many of these sequences, but you still try to make it into a real scene, some kind of shape, even though you're not talking. And that takes some effort. And I don't know if I learned anything to take anywhere else. I mean you're brought up thinking you should react to what the other actor is giving you. Like all those rules, it doesn't fly at all when you get something like this, when you have to work a different way.

And the genre itself almost invites coasting. So how do you strike that balance?
Well, that's a very good point. I think you get the vibe of the film from the script, and the director and the other people in it and you just .... I distinctively felt that it was not a campy movie; We didn't want to reference the fact that we're in a Godzilla movie, or anything like that. However, as seriously as you take it.... it would be ridiculous to do a movie with a big lizard tramping through New York and be serious. You have to have some laughs or it's just dumb.

You've always been known as a little press-shy, but there's no hiding on a movie this big. How do you handle it?
Well, you know, you have an overdose or you kind of separate them. I mean, I can try to be open and vulnerable or whatever when I'm working, but this is not part of the acting stuff. This is the press stuff. What's hard is you get so sort of defensive that it's easy to have nothing to talk about. So you have to be open enough to respond to questions and then also not get your feelings destroyed when people say bad things about you, which they inevitably do.

Has this become easier for you over the years?
I think it's become a little less personal. It's always easy when people are liking things. One thing I do is I don't really read reviews, so that's helped a lot.

Never?
Pretty much. You know, you can't avoid some of them, and then if I'm told definitely that it's a good review and good for me I will glance at it. But even then I'm like, I have to know when to divert my eyes, because I know even when people say, "It's great, it's great," then they're like, "It was a great movie, so what if this character doesn't quite work or whatever." So you have to be careful. When I started it was all good. "Oh look, New Yorker came out, I'll buy it." And I was always happy.

Do you miss that idea that you're connected somehow to reaction to what you're doing?
I connect when I'm doing a play. I can sort of feel it with an audience. I can watch this movie with an audience. I can listen to the director, the crew. To read a detailed assessment of my work over and over again by lots of people who I don't know is probably not helpful. Although that said, there are occasionally times when I've read a review and it's kind of been interesting, or stimulating, or helped me, even when they're not positive in a way. So maybe it would be great to be so thick-skinned that you could sort of listen to everything, take it all in, but it's too much.

Any similarities to the pressure of having to be the star of the major Broadway revival How to Succeed in Business... Without Really Trying and the pressures of having to be the point person in this Hollywood extravaganza?
Well, the pressure in the musical, that was really pressure. That was very frightening. I always liked that play and I always wanted to do a musical, so it was great to do it. But at some point when you're really doing it you start to realize that you're about to be put before everybody and they'll decide how you did. And it's terrifying. This movie I never felt responsible for at all. I felt like, I hope, I don't bring it down, but it was like trying to jump on a moving train and slowing down. I never felt like this was up to me.

How did you get hooked up with it in the first place?
Roland and Dean called my agent and said they'd always wanted to work with me, and now they had something they wanted me to do, and would I have dinner with them? And they said it's Godzilla, and I said, I love Godzilla, and they set it up. "We'll get you a script in a few weeks. We wanted to tell the story." And they told me the story and I was like, why not? And then we ate. That was it. I barely thought about it.

Was it surprising that they thought of you as the lead of an action movie?
No, it's not a machine-gun toting guy or anything. That would be surprising, I guess, but the character is fairly similar to lots that I've done. It's not like a huge reach for me.

So the role was kind of there and you did it as opposed to them adjusting it to you a little bit?
No, they wrote it, I think, with me in mind. That's what Dean says.

Do you get any approvals of merchandising image?
Yes, my action figure will be huge. I made a lot of changes in it and it came out terrible. And then I said, "Well, I had already said OK." Whatever. Because I couldn't stand it anymore and then, at the toy fair I was like, "This doesn't look like me at all." And they were all like, "I know." So thank God, they started to make a new one. They made it with no notes from me or anybody, just sent the sculpture and it came out perfect. I mean not perfect, but I think you would know it was me.

Are you wearing glasses?
No. Five o'clock shadow though.

Speaking of action figures, how did you end up deciding to do Inspector Gadget? It seems like a very non-Matthew Broderick kind of role, off hand.
I think it seemed very much like a Matthew Broderick role, but I just read the script and got to know the director a little bit, and Rupert Everett is in it and it just seemed like an exciting project.

You like the screenplay though?
Yeah, and it's actually still being written. It's kind of one of those that you have to trust everybody and work on it. It's a nice story. I guess it's sort of a kids movie, but it's kind of romantic and hopefully funny.

Are the people around the project always as important to you as the screenplay and everything else?
Yeah, they are. There's a lot of luck that goes into this stuff, you know? Like the director, it's his first movie, but he seems really bright and nice and he directed the commercials, those American Express Jerry Seinfeld commercials. I think they were really good. You know he's a good writer and it just seems like a good idea.

So is that what you're doing next?
Yes, I did a little movie after Godzilla, too, called, Election, by Alexander Payne who wrote Citizen Ruth, so it's nice to do small things, too, because Gadget's a pretty big movie again.

Have you seen Godzilla with an audience?
I haven't really seen the finished thing. I saw a tape like six weeks ago at Dean Devlin's house. I watched it, and not all the effects were done. So I haven't seen it. I'm looking forward to it.

Were there surprises for you in even that?
Oh, yeah, it was all a surprise, and it was very impressive. I was amazed. It was exciting. I was on a big couch. He's got a screening room with great sound and all that stuff so... Very overwhelming.