Matthew Broderick discusses ‘Ferris Bueller’ difficulties with John Hughes
Actor Matthew Broderick has opened up about the on-set difficulties he faced with John Hughes during the production of the beloved 1986 comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, claiming that the director was “not easygoing in some ways”.
Broderick recently appeared on the It Happened in Hollywood podcast with The Hollywood Reporter. The 61-year-old actor claimed that tensions arose with Hughes because “he was nervous it wouldn’t come out right.”
“I remember we did a costume test early on. We walked around the streets of Chicago in our costumes, and they filmed us — me, Alan [Ruck], Jennifer Grey and Mia [Sara],” he went on. “That was a big drama. When the footage came back, he said none of us were ‘fun to watch.’ We were ‘boring’ in our tests. Actually, some of us he did like, but some he did not, and I was one he did not.”
Broderick had already starred in some films with big directors, but he was surprised by how harsh Hughes could be. “I had already done some work,” the actor added. “I had done War Games and all that. I was not a total newcomer. So to have him say, ‘I’m not used to having somebody be so dead,’ or whatever he said to me. I wasn’t really ‘in it’ or something. That happened, and I said, ‘So get somebody you like.’”
Hughes was not the only filmmaker to have had a word with young Broderick on set. He continued: “I’ve heard that from other directors, too. I do drive people crazy sometimes because I don’t appear to be doing anything sometimes, it seems. But, hopefully, eventually, I do. He’s not the first director to grab me at some point and say, ‘What is wrong with you?’”
However, Hughes was certainly angry with Broderick at points. “He was somebody who could get angry at you,” Broderick said. “Not outwardly angry, but you could tell. He would turn dead. Dead-faced, I would say, ‘What did you think of that?’ And he’d say, ‘I don’t know.’ Just nothing. ‘OK. John doesn’t like that.’”
Still, the spats only lasted as long as they needed to, with Broderick concluding, “He took the work very seriously, is what I mean. [John] wasn’t a loosey-goosey person. But he also didn’t hold a grudge and knew how to get himself out of it.”
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