Hollywood.com: Nathan Lane says the secret to your success as a comedy team is that you never go to bed angry.
Matthew Broderick: “Yeah, well, you know, we made that joke a lot yesterday. We don’t go to bed angry, I mean, we don’t let fights fester if we have disagreements. And we don’t have very many. Which isn’t to say we’re just like totally placid all the time. We’ve worked for a long time together now, suddenly. Not as long as it is in people’s minds. We’ve done two plays. People think it’s been a whole career in Vaudeville or something, but it’s not, it actually didn’t happen.”
HW: Why has The Producers, especially in its musical incarnations, been such a phenomenon? It’s been such a boost for both Nathan and your careers.
Broderick: “I don’t really know why. The Producers, just from the minute we started doing it, the audience was like ‘Yeah, more! That’s what we want.’ Just the second we started in Chicago, audiences loved it, they loved even jokes that weren’t very good. They were like ‘Fine, that doesn’t matter, it’s okay.’ It was longer in Chicago, and we shortened it, but even when it was too long, they were like ‘I don’t care!’ And then it was just one of those jobs – I got the job, and so did Nathan, because we weren’t quite as washed up as you might think before The Producers. I was working pretty steadily right up to The Producers.”
HW: What’s your take on Mel Brooks’ unique humor? And did he ever give you advice on playing this role?
Broderick: “He gave a lot of advice. He was very specific sometimes about jokes. ‘Don’t take that pause,’ or ‘Do take a pause here.’ At the same time he’s very interested in you doing whatever you feel like, but if he has an idea he’ll tell you and be very straightforward about it. And he said once, ‘If I give you advice about comedy, I’m one of the few people in the world who, it’s true, I’m Mel Brooks, so I do know about that stuff.’ And it’s true. So I always want to hear what he says, and that was one of the great things about this job, just getting to know him and work with him. I remember early on in rehearsal we were working on a bit where Nathan and I walk through a door, we’re off to go raise the money to go meet Will Ferrell in the movie. And we were working on different versions of that, and then Mel was very specific, try doing it, you take a little hesitation, and he opens the door, you go. So we did it and they were like ‘Yeah, that seems better.’ Everybody was like ‘That seems better.’ And then I caught his eye, he was on the other side of the table at rehearsal, and all of a sudden: ‘Matthew, Matthew!’ And I looked up at him and he said [with his thumb up] ‘Stinks.’”
HW: How did you feel about Uma Thurman coming in from the non-stage world to play Ulla?
Broderick: “I did it with Cady Huffman for a year on Broadway, and loved her, she was like a huge part of the show, so it was an adjustment to even think that it was gonna be somebody else. But then for a while it was Nicole [Kidman], who I had just worked with and who’s lovely and would’ve been great, so I was very happy with that. And then they just said now we’re gonna – I think they just went then right to Uma [Thurman] and she said yes, like instantly. I love Uma Thurmanand I think she’s terrific in the movie. It was a real pleasure to learn those dances with her – we spent weeks together. She’s a joy. She’s so original, a unique person.”
HW: You’ve taken stage roles to film before, is this a bittersweet thing to say goodbye to?
Broderick: “It’s bittersweet, I guess, with Leo Bloom, because I did do it twice, and I think this probably does mean that’s it. But you have to do that at some point with roles anyway. And it was a very nice. Biloxi Blues is the other one I did, and I played that part twice, in Brighton Beach Memoirs and Biloxi Blues, and it was great for me to get an opportunity to do it on film, because I didn’t get to do the movie of Brighton Beach, so I was so happy to get that chance. And Mike Nichols directed it, which was great. And the film is very different from the play. In this case, it’s a little more like this is very much like the play. The script is almost exactly the same, so it was hard to not feel like you were sort of documenting the play. But I tried to look at it as a new thing, because I just think a movie should stand on its own. I remember when we were first doing the play, the musical, and the jokes that worked in the original movie didn’t work sometimes. And Mel said ‘You know, even though we love some of these old jokes, all that matters is does it work in this version of the play? Doesn’t really matter what worked before.’”
HW: You and your wife Sarah Jessica Parker will both have big films in theaters at the same time. Are betting on whether The Producers or The Family Stone will do better?
Broderick: “[Laughs] I’m Rope-a-Dope, you know – gonna tire her out and then pummel her in the seventh round. I don’t know. I hope they both do well. It would certainly make things easier around the home. Be good for [our son] James.”
HW: Is Sarah Jessica is jealous of your special relationship with Nathan?
Broderick: “[Laughs] No. She likes me to have my other life. My dark gay showbiz life. No, she’s not jealous of Nathan. I don’t think.”
HW: How is your rehearsal process? How do you build your character?
Broderick: “Nathan does a lot of his work before he starts rehearsal, and I don’t. I read it a lot, and I think a lot, but I don’t really like to set things very early. And I like to just kind of go as slow as possible. With Leo Bloom, I found it grew a lot actually in front of an audience and also in Chicago, it developed a lot. Because I think with all the dancing to learn and all the singing, just to get all the groundwork took me quite a while. And then you have to relax, and then you start getting the ideas, better ideas come after that, for me.”
HW: Stage and film are such different types of acting. How have you been able to accomplish both?
Broderick: “It just happened because I did a play and then a movie, and I got jobs in both at once. I had big success on Broadway, and War Games and Brighton Beach were out at the same time, so I was all of the sudden both. And I just kept doing both. The process is different. There’s almost no rehearsal in film, you don’t really rehearse at all. So maybe that’s why I like it – I like a looseness, which is very good in film. I think it’s best to not prepare too much. Film seems to work best when you’re sort of being surprised, when it’s not too worked on…What’s most fun about a play is you really have a feeling of living the whole guy, every night. And that’s great fun. And there’s nobody editing, it’s just you communicating with the audience. And the other actors. And it’s a great feeling of achievement at the end. Whereas a film most days, you say ‘Oh God, I hope I got something. I hope one of those takes was good. This is depressing and there’s so much traffic and I’m in the car again. What time is tomorrow? Can’t I come a little later, please?’ You never get the big ‘Well, let’s go to Joe Allen’s and have a martini and celebrate!’ You don’t get that much in films. But I like doing both, and I don’t know exactly what the difference is, or why I can – I’m just glad I can.”
HW: Did you gain any insights on its popularity from seeing it as an audience member?
Broderick: “I’m telling you, it was the strangest experience sitting there watching the movie, I don’t feel like I was able to really see it. I don’t know why it’s so popular, some people said it’s the silliness of it, and that it was politically incorrect at that time, was a joy for people, to see a musical that was just entertaining, wasn’t really meant to–you know, it wasn’t Les Miz or anything fake–not fake, excuse me, it wasn’t operatic, it was an old fashioned musical comedy. And there’s just something great about the story of these two guys, I don’t know what it is, but it worked great in the original movie, and then people ate it up, and I wish I had a better answer, I don’t know why, but they really did.”
HW: Doing singing and dancing and comedy is a big act. This is a real turn for you, how hard or easy was it for you? You didn’t mean to end up as a song and dance man originally.
Broderick: “No, I sure didn’t. I don’t know how it happened [laughs]. I did How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. And I learned to sing for that, I went to a really wonderful teacher, an old teacher, and I just worked really hard. It doesn’t come all that easily to me, and I didn’t grow up with it. But I can sing, like I can keep a tune very well, which is sort of all you need in a way, and then the rest you can learn. And dancing, since I didn’t start as a kid, I can’t really like tap properly, and there’s a lot I can’t do. And dancing I just really love, not to give myself a pat on the back, but I worked very hard, like I tired out the people teaching me, because I’m very slow to get steps, but I am relentless. So I keep at it, and I love watching dancers, I’ve always loved them, I like being around them, I love dance. I’m ashamed to say for some reason [laughs], but I do. And it was just great to have a chance to be in the middle of these big old fashioned – it’s so rare, and to be in the center of one of them or two of them is great.
HW: How did you approach making this role your own? Any changes you brought, different from Gene Wilder’s?
Broderick: “I was always worried about that, because I love Gene Wilder so much, and particularly in that. I shouldn’t say that, I like him in everything, but I can’t get his performance out of my head, there’s no way. And I remember when we started, I told Susan Stroman, I was like I don’t even know how to do this, because I can close my eyes and basically watch the whole movie. And she said, ‘Once you do it over and over again, it’ll just drift toward you, hopefully.’ And that’s kind of hopefully what did happen – just piece by piece, you get your own ideas. Basically I started just with his stuff. And a lot of it is really just lifted right from him. But I think that’s like the script – I didn’t write the script either, so I’m basing it on words somebody wrote, and a lot of the performance is based on him, too, and I hope that is okay. But then I just over time started to get more of my own ideas, and get more of myself into the part, and hopefully that stayed when we went into the movie.”
