Matthew Broderick recalled tension with the late director of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” John Hughes, and shared points of criticism that Hughes directed at him
Broderick opened up on The Hollywood Reporter’s “It Happened In Hollywood” podcast to discuss the making of the 1986 comedy, and recalled that before Hughes died of a heart attack in 2009 he “was not easygoing in some ways.” Broderick shared a memory of a time on set that he and his fellow cast members “did a costume test early on,” and were quickly reprimanded by Hughes. “Actually, some of us he did like, but some he did not, and I was one he did not,” Broderick said on the podcast.
‘Ferris Bueller’ director called me ‘boring’ on set: Matthew Broderick https://t.co/WwfqikkXQb pic.twitter.com/Blk0qMGJcl
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Broderick remembered the pressure Hughes faced when filming the iconic movie, and said he was “nervous” that the movie “wouldn’t come out right.”
“We were ‘boring’ in our tests,” Broderick noted, as he recalled what Hughes had said about him.
He described what Hughes’ anger was like, saying he was “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,” Broderick said.
The famous actor noted he was “not a total newcomer” to the movie industry at the time.
“So to have him [Hughes] 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,” he said. (RELATED: ‘Such A Dehumanizing Moment’: Famous Actress Alleges A Director Demanded To See Her Underwear)
“That happened and I said, ‘So get somebody you like,’” Broderick said, as he recalled the tension.
Thankfully, Hughes didn’t replace him with someone else, and the criticism he faced paled in comparison to the fact that “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” catapulted him to worldwide fame and effectively launched his career as an actor.