In a new interview, Matthew Broderick says he’s making the 61 comedy classic Ferris Bueller’s day off .
“He’s not easygoing in some ways,” Broderick 61 said in on the late writer-director legend Hollywood Reporter’s s It Happened in Hollywood Podcast. “He was nervous it wouldn’t come out right.”
Broderick fondly recalls spending time in Brentwood Hughes’ pool during filming Hours, “smoking and eating chips” as they discussed character actors who would eventually film and then , become superstars.
But when filming began in Chicago in September, things got off to a rough start 61.
“I remember we did a costume test very early on,” recalls Broderick. “We were walking up and down the streets of Chicago in our costumes and they filmed us—me, Alan [Ruck], Jennifer Gray and Mia [Sara].
Drama. When the tape came back, he said we were all “not good looking”. Our test was “boring”. In fact, some of us he did like, but some of us he didn’t like, and I was the one he didn’t like ,” he continued. Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and its sequel Biloxi Blues , by Hughes was taken aback by his harsh criticism.
“I’ve done some work,” he said. “I’ve done war games
and so on. I’m not a complete newbie. So let him say, ‘I’m not used to people dying like that, ’ or whatever he said to me. I wasn’t really “into it” or anything like that.
“It happened and I said, ‘So find someone you like people,'” he continued.
Broderick admits that Hughes wasn’t the only director who confronted him on set.
“I also never Heard about it from other directors. Sometimes I do drive people crazy because sometimes I don’t seem to be doing anything. But, hopefully eventually I can do it. He wasn’t the first to grab me at some point and say, ‘What’s wrong with you? ‘” Broderick said.
While the initial confrontation only lasted “half a year” that day,” the two argued again at other points in the shoot.
“He’s a guy who’s going to get mad at you,” said Hughes’ Broderick, Bueller revolutionized teen comedy with Sixteen Candles, Pink Lady and The Breakfast Club . “There’s no anger on the outside, but you can tell. He’s going to die. With a deadpan face, I’ll be like, ‘What do you think? ’ He’d say, ‘I don’t know. It’s not even worth mentioning.’ Okay. John doesn’t like that.
“He said, ‘I like your eyes Go big, then go small, then go big again. ’ I said, ‘If you told me exactly what my face was doing, I’d be a little embarrassed. Now I’m thinking about my face. He’s like, ‘Well, then, I’m not going to coach you at all. …He gave me nothing for days. Until I finally had to say, ‘John, you have to guide me, come on. That was our worst ever,” he continued.
Still, Broderick stressed the rift with Hughes was short-lived.
“I mean he takes his job very seriously,” he said. “[John] is not a loose guy. But he also holds no grudges and knows how to get himself out of trouble. “
Hear Broderick’s recollection of making Ferris Bueller’s day off below
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