September 5, 2023 • 39 mins
Though Matthew Broderick enjoyed watching his father, an actor, perform on stage, he had little desire to pursue the profession himself. That is, until he scored a small part in a high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The laughter and applause of the audience relieved some of his pre-performance jitters and simultaneously kickstarted his career. And though the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Producers star has since established himself as one of his generation’s great actors, he can still fondly reminisce about his “early days” spent auditioning for Bubble Yum radio advertisements and headlining in flooding (and empty) theaters. On this week’s episode of Table for Two, Broderick joins host Bruce Bozzi to delve further into his personal history, recounting stories of co-starring alongside Marlon Brando, the New York Times article that altered the course of his professional life, and much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today's episode was recorded before the SAG after strike began
on July fourteenth. Table for two Thanks you, as always
for tuning in and supporting entertainers. Hello everyone, and thank
you for joining us for another episode of Table for two.
We're back in my hometown, New York City at the
(00:22):
unrivaled Via Cororota, and I'm thrilled to be having lunch
with another hometown boy today.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you for joining me today. Pleasure you look good.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
No, I'm hanging in there.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
He's a Broadway actor, a movie star, and he's married
to one of the most famous actresses in the world,
Sarah Jessica Parker. He and Sarah Jessica are taking Plaza
Suite the Neil Simon Play to London's West End next year,
following what was a sold out Broadway run. He was
just in No Hard Feelings, one of the biggest comedies
of twenty twenty three, and he's also playing the infamous
(00:58):
farmer exact Richard Sackler in the Netflix limited series Painkiller.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
What do you want to eat?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Do you need a menu?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
What do you eat?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm gonna do that. Catch your to pethag because I
have to. That's good that's good. That's right. Today we're
having lunch with Matthew Broderick.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Sorry listeners at home that you can't have just a
little of.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That, So pull up a chair, pour yourself a glass
of rose, and enjoy the show. I'm Bruce Bosi and
this is my podcast Table for two. I kind of
(01:43):
want to start Matthew. I have such an affinity for you.
I think you're just one of the nicest people, most
talented people.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
If you're a New York boy. I grew up in
the village. I was a huge fan of your dad
as well.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
He's an actor who's in a TV show called Family
for those of you who don't know, uh, James Broderick.
Kind of show that was so special and so embodied
such like warmth. What was it like growing up in
New York City your kid New York? Yeah, which was different,
you know than it is now for your kids.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Yeah, it sure was. Let's see, I grew up on
Washington Square North.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I know, I can't believe them. I always think of
you when I passed by that streets.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
A series of Brownstone, Yeah, yeah, we were in the
one not Brownstone, the one like apartment shabby apartment filting
on that block.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It was us.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
But I was born on Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue
in a very small apartment with my two We were
all in one room, me and my two sisters.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Wow, you were born in No, I was born.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
In the hospital, I could say.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
But I was taken in my blanket to Ninth Street
until I was four, and then I moved. The big
move was to Washington was two blocks down Fifth, okay,
and then we had our own bedroom.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Right, So that's where I really grew up. The village
was the park was there.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Was bongos and drums all day. We had some windows
facing the park. Yeah, there's a lot of music all
the time.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
There was less like rules. It was open all night.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Stuff was going down. Yeah, it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And because you faced the park when it got dark,
it was dark on the other side. It's like normally
there's two sides of the street that have lights, so
it could.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Get a little dicey.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Did you get mugged.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I got mugged often all through the village. I mugged
all over the village really, end Times Square area. Come
on upper west side.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Explain to the listener.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Because I got mugged once on Third Avenue and they
were like, we're going to shove your head through this
like window, give us When I had like five bucks.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It was like nineteen.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I never had any money, and people will constantly wanted it.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yea, what was the target over you that you think
that you were constantly getting mugged?
Speaker 5 (03:53):
I think a young guy, you know, this is like
I'm talking like twelve, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, that's when an abuts a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
You too.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And it was mostly other boys.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
You know, just being bullies and you know, getting money,
you know, lunch money or something like that.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But sometimes somewhat scary. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
You know, me and my friend Garo were skateboarding in
Central Park once and a massive gang came flying out
and took our skateboards and I got whacked in the
head with some sort of stick. That's the only time
I got kind of worked. So you know, it was
no not a joke, and thank god, you know, we
all survived it. But but and most of them were
(04:33):
not like that. They were more intimidating. I'm going to
put your head through the glass and you know, give
me what you got, or you get on the subway
and somebody would sit next to you and put their
arm around you rather aggressively and say, you know, what's
in your pocket?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
What's your name?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Where?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
You know, just be like asking a lot of questions. Yeah,
just waiting praying for the train to come out of
the tunnel on the platform. You know, I still remember that.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I mean, don't you think the skill set is born
from being a kid in New York? Your parents are not.
They're doing their thing, They trust the world, and you're surviving.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
It's true.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Yeah, back then they weren't as at least it didn't
feel like it. They weren't as watchful as we are
to our kids.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It wasn't no, they were not watchful at all.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Just yeah, they were kind of like they'd.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Love to go to the park and come back from
time for dinner, and that was it.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Would you even come back and say I was mugged
today on a subway or just.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Once or twice.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Yeah, sometimes, like a police officer would come to our
school and give us a talk, you know, how to
react properly when you're being mug right, And he said,
always bring money with you. Don't go out with no
money and immediately give it up and try to make
the experience as fast as possible. More time you're haggling
(05:48):
or discussing, more time you're in the.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Situation the worst. I always remembered that, So try to
have it. That's a good conclusion, even if the conclusion
is your own. To do it as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So you have like your band of brothers, and you
would just like kind of I mean, so I think
New York City growing up in New York City is
one of the best places to grow up.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, well it was great for me. I mean it's
you know, it's I don't have anything to compare it to,
you know, but my best friend then and still you know,
one of my very best friends is getting named Garrow.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
And he lived a block from me, so we would
walk to school together and walk home school together. He
lived in Washington News and uh, as we grew up,
you know, we used the park for softball, skateboarding him Frisbee. Uh,
you know, it was like a like a more like
a playground back then. I guess it still is, you know,
(06:51):
around the fountain.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
And all that.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
But but it used to be even those fields were
improvised ball fields, you know, and now they're kind of
like glowing on the grass and whenever.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Right, there's chains and stuff that you can't.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Yeah, and I knew some neighborhood kids that way too,
so you know, through through softball and baseball, I knew
those kids. And and some of them I still see,
and I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
We don't remember each other's names. But there's always a way.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
You know, thing about New York to me. Don't you
kind of feel like it's Maybury?
Speaker 5 (07:19):
And yeah, yeah, it's it's little Mayberry is all over
the place, Like we recently moved two blocks and I
feel like I'm in another I.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Know, it's crazy, right, Yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Like I go to a different place to get the water.
Everything's different, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And like you to establish new relationships.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yes, and which train station do I go to?
Speaker 5 (07:40):
And it's just it's a new world and it's only
it's only two blocks away?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Crazy. Yeah, So you are like one with the subway.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Like I'm a subway man.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, because some people of your nage, of your stature.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Of your celebrity would not be so comfy on Yeah,
the number one and nine.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
And number one is beautiful train. The exist it used
to be the one nine.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, I mean traffic is so horrendous in New York.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
It's just I love to get under that traffic, and
I'm not so I don't get bothered on the train,
not really.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
No, are you like baseball hat dark glasses?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I might try to wear a hat. Yeah, you don't
wear dark glasses.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
And uh, I think I even like reading about how
they built the subway right, kind of like subways.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I like, did you want to go to another country?
Speaker 5 (08:26):
I like to take the tube or you know, the
metro or I was curious about cities how they get around.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I've always liked that.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I think that's the best way to learn. Yeah, and
if you're in New York, it's it's really the most efficient.
Otherwise you're just absolutely it's horrible. So I'm a little
bit about your parents or your mom's an artist, was
(08:53):
an artist, great artist, and her shows the show and
your dad incredible actor.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Were they the influence for you to get into the arts?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Was that?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
How did that happen from?
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
They probably were. You know.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I grew up loving to draw, for instance, you know,
and I went to a school that was very called
City and Country, very progressive back then, particularly and really
good art studio and Clay, and I always liked art and.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
But I didn't know.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
I had never thought about being an actor really, but
our house was always talking about paintings or plays or
my you know, my parents' friends were mostly in theater
or some kind of show business, but also.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Artists coming and going.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
But you know, my father was from New Hampshire and
he didn't get to New York, so he was in
his twenties, and so he wasn't exactly a bohemian.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
He was. He seemed like somebody from New Hampshire, right,
and he did.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I mean, I didn't know your dad, but yeah, even
in the role he played on Family.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah he was.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
He was a little like that, but much funnier. And
his you know, his dad was a letter carrier.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Like.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
He did not come from the villagey arty rule, but
my mom came kind of. She was wealthy when she
was a kid, you know, on Park.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Avenue where she grew upright, but always wanted to get
to the village. Now she went to like that. So
that's the combination that I grew up in.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
How did they meet?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
They met at acting school.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
My father, when he got out of the navy, went
to a place called the Neighborhood Playhouse, a very famous
acting school. My mom was there as a playwright actually
because she somebody had said, you know, if you want
to write plays, you should take.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
An acting class. So and there's even a picture of
them in the same class. Yeah. So I grew up
like that. I grew up in a lot in backstage
at theaters with my father.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
We would have our summers were often he'd get a
job at a summer theater and the family would get
to go to you know, Stockbridge, Massachusetts or wherever it
was and the little house.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So that's how I got out of the city.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
And I liked to be at the theater, like I
would go with him at night because I just liked
to be backstage. It wasn't that I wanted to be
an actor particularly or whatever, but I wanted.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
To be in that something about it.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I liked the room. I don't know what it is.
I liked. I liked the atmosphere backstage.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
I liked the quiet, you know, and seriousness of it,
the important to pretend importance of it.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, so that that was a big part of Probably why.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Do you remember specific shows that you saw that really
affected you?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Yeah, My father did a House of Blue Leaves, which
was very good. He did it in Chicago and maybe
someplace else too, and he was great in that one,
and I loved that.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I watched that a million times and he did it.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
O'Neill play Desire under the Elms that had Eva Marie
Saint in it, Wow, and John Ritter, just Ivan Maris
Saint was in it.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
My father was in it, okay, and it went.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
It was like it was successful. You know, what's three
different cities, I believe. And I watched that play a
billion times. Okay, whether it was good or not, I
think it was good, but I just like to I
just like to watch it.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Life is so fascinating to me because you say, Evan
Marie Saint who stars in a movie with Marlon Brando
on the Waterfront, and then later on in your life
you star in a movie with Marlon Brando called.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
The Freshman, Like, there's just something.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
About yeah that it's incredible, And sometimes I don't a
lot of I have memories like that where I don't
realize how incredible it is until like now I'm watching
even Saint and I'll be like, what the hell, why
didn't I just sweeze her and say, I can't believe
I'm with you, right, you know, No, you don't.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
No.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
I just saw the documentary about Mary Tyler Moore that's
on right, so good.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
How emotional.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
And I met her a couple of times, you know,
over the years, and we did some like thing for
the SPCA together, and I wish I had just told
her I madly in love with you since I was little.
I can't believe what you've done for the world. And
you know, but you don't do those things, you know.
I met add Asner, and I never said, you're the
greatest freaking.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Actor, the funniest person.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
I love ed Asner, but I never really told him that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Thanks for joining us on Table for two. Matthew grew
up in the theater, watching his father perform countless times,
so it seems natural that he would end up acting
as well. I'm curious when he made the transition to
Center State.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
What was the.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
First sort of lean into the theater world where I'm
going to actually be in front?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Now, yeah, did that happen in high school?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Probably?
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Yeah, I mean a little bit in you know, little
plays in grammar school, which I enjoyed, but then also
I should mention. When I was five, I wrote on
my library card actor as professional he did.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
That's what. That's so, I'm told, But I didn't do
anything about it. That is so.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
But then in high school, I liked sports, you know,
and I really liked acting, but I was afraid to
even tell anybody that.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Oh to be made fun of.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I don't know, I think I was very I was
actually pretty shy.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
I was kind of didn't want to audition, and a
lot of actors are not very outgoing. It seems like,
at least at first, you know, reguarded or something. But
you know, I hurt my knee really badly when I
was about fifteen with sports. Yeah, were you a baseball player?
And I was playing soccer at that time. Not very seriously,
but I loved I worked hard, and I you know,
(15:11):
I had surgery quite serious.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Oh wow, they're any and like a meniscus.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
Torn, yeah, and like dislocated knee cap and the whole
thing had to be And it was just back when
they had to.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Write like it was a big surgery. Yeah, it wasn't
like a little surgery.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Right, So I had no excuse.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
So I auditioned for the play because I couldn't play sports, right,
And I did a Midsummer Night's Dream in high school.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Okay, little teeny part. You got a couple of laughs,
you did.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Yeah, And I thought I was like Michael Corleoni when
you know, when the people are going.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
To kill his father at the hospital.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Yeah, and the car goes by and the florist's hands
are shaking, right, and Michael Corleoni's hands are studies a rock.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Right. When I was on.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Stage, nervous as I had been all month getting ready,
I was like, I'm not that nervous. I'm kind of
I'm nervous, but I feel somewhat in control up here.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
You're supposed to be there.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Yeah, I had some little inkling that this is something
I could maybe do.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
So you enjoyed that little piece.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I enjoyed my little part, and and that led to
another high school part, a bigger part.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
When did you start to flip into auditioning professional stuff?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Well, somebody, what year are we at now?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
So, like you graduated, we're talking early eighties late.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I think I graduated in eighty eighty. Okay, so I
graduate high school in eighty right, it's a.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Big decade now for you.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
What was the first, like, Oh, okay, we're gonna You're
gonna go out for this role.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
There was a student at my school whose mother was
a casting director, Barbara Kleman, and I think she called
like the director of the theater stuff at the school
and said, you know, you have any anybody fifteen or
whatever who's good, and a couple of us went in an
(17:05):
audition for her. That's my memory of it or what.
I don't remember that it was for anything. It must
have been. I didn't get whatever part it was, but
she took an interest in me. You know, when other
things came up, I would I read a few times.
And then somebody said, there's an agent and this name
is going to sound like I'm making it up, but
named Fifi Oscard.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
What. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
It was a big agency, I believe, mostly for kids
and maybe poodles.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Fifi Oscard, Fifi Oscard, that was her name. But she
wasn't my agent. I was somebody below her.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
She was a top dog.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
You were Josha Silberstein and Steve Carlson. So I suddenly
had an agent.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
And then I started getting a lot of auditions really,
and I didn't get any parts, but I uh, right, away,
but I guess I got enough, you know, where somebody called.
They said we don't want him, but he was good
or whatever they kept.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
It was like affirm enough to go in there. Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
I got a part in a huge movie, a movie
it was called No Small Affair, and I was opposite
Sally Field and it didn't get made.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Well, it did get.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Made later, but I was the lead, you know, and
it was directed by Marty Writt and they had all
just won Oscars for Norma Ray, right, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
It was a top, top of the line Columbia picture.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Your first job, yeah, going to be that was.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
My first paying job.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
And I auditioned, you know, a dozen times, and then
with Sally Field and a hotel room and Mary written
and we shot. I worked for months trying to, you know,
because I was so young and naive, trying to. I
was playing a photographer, so I had a camera run.
I tried to learn photography. I tried to pull on
DeNiro myself.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You know, wait a minute. So this was made later,
yea years later, with.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
John Cryer and exactly, oh my god, okay, and.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
We shot for about two weeks and it went okay
for a while, but then I started to feel like
they didn't really like me that much. Marty Ritt or something.
There were a couple of scenes where he was kind
of on me. I guess he was having health issues
and there was doctors coming to the set. His blood
pressure was super high. And then they called and said,
don't come to work, you know, or no. I came
(19:20):
to work and they said, just don't change.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Just stay in.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Your street clothes. Yeah, in your camper, you know, your
honeywagon or whatever. I played Catcher in Central Park with
some of the crew, was there all day and then
they said, go home.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
We'll call you tomorrow. We're still delayed. We're delayed. And
then a few days later my agent called and said
it's over. Wow, he said, sit down.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
But lots of drag.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
But the position I was ruined. I thought I was ruined.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
But yeah, you're right, it positioned you.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
I mean, you got that.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
But I also felt like I had failed, you know,
which I don't really think is true.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I Sally Field wrote me a really nice letter, yeah,
you know, saying hang in there and not.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I think it's the nature of the business.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
It was, and I didn't know that though. For your
first job to dis very few movies to integrate.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Two weeks in, I think it could kill the spirit.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
I was, I think, mate looking back on it, and
I became depressed. I spent the summer in New York
basically lying around my parents' house and uh, whining and
just being quiet.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I kind of yeah, I bet, I mean here you.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Are in yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
And now I'm auditioning for a radio spot about Bubble
Young literally and not getting it right, you know, or
a summerstock small part, and they're and they're not letting
me finish the auditionary. Like I've gone from having my
Academy Award speech working on that in the tub at
night to uh.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
You know, bubble Yum's now super young.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
There's never been a YOUM like this, And they're like, no,
you're not good enough.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
You're not good enough for that. So the career was over,
I thought, wrapped up, done, and it.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Was always a looming if I really fail, I'll have
to go to college. And my grades were such that
colleges that I had been instructed to apply to work
you know names, I had never heard of her.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
So I was maybe I didn't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
You've talked a lot about first Bueller, but you beat
out a significant amount of people for this role, very
famous people who have gone on she when did that pivot?
So like the bottle yum ends and then you're like.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Okay, I'm back in the room. I'm not You're still
with the sage.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
And she's still going away. You know, they were really
trying and I love FEFE.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
What happened was I then read for a four hour
play about gay people in a Broadway theater, which seemed
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You're talking about tor song.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Yeah, nobody knew was Torch song.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
It was just this incredibly long you know, But I
read for it with this very strange you know man
that I met with Harvey Harvey Fire, yes, and but
he was really nice and actually when I read it,
I was like, this is so funny.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I loved it.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
And then you know, the producer came out and said
we want to hire They said we want to hire you,
and my agent was like, well, I'm not sure your
first job should be you know this or so long
and outside of the norm, I guess, meaning don't play
a gay guy. Actually he was gay, you know, it
wasn't no but bot and I was like, I'm not
(22:39):
going to go back to play bubble.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Um.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
No, I'm doing this part right, thank you very much.
And uh so, uh you know, the play opened, nobody
came at first, the roof leaked in. Water literally poured
into the apartment, our fake apartment.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
It was over four hours long. I think I saw it.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I don't, but good, it was very good. Did it
get cut down eventually? Okay, because I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
This was the full version. I was also assistant stage manager. No. Yeah,
I was supposed to run the slide show for Act two.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Beauty of sitting backstage with your dad all those years, yes,
prap that piece.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I was fired from that because all I did was complain.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
I was like, I can't get ready for the third
act if I'm making the slides go.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And they're like, okay, don't we'll do that part.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
All all you have to do is replug the lightboard
between act two and three. And I was like, well
then I have to go out through the audience and
plug in my costume you know I want. They're like, already,
don't do anything. So I got myself out of that
fuck from the back.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
One hundred and seven dollars a week that job but.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Then, you know, the times came to that show Yep
and melt Goos, Soewen was like, this is fantastic, and
suddenly it was packed.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Nobody could get in.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
So now casting.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
Directors and stuff, when I go to audition, I say
you want to see me, I'm in, and they're.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Like, oh, I hear that play is great, can you
get me in?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Right?
Speaker 5 (24:05):
So now it's a very different perspective. When you're at
a meeting and the director says, can I get a ticket?
Or I just saw you Tuesday, You're in a whole
different league.
Speaker 6 (24:15):
You know.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
So that was it, and that led to you know,
probably Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway and War Games. You know,
I was auditioning for War Games at the same time
(24:37):
as Brighton Beach Memoirs. Basically got those two parts at
the same time, doing Torch Song at Night and auditioning
for and I got cast.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
In a lead of a movie and a lead of
a Broadway but I got cast in Brighton Beach.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
And while I'm auditioning for Brighton Beach, They're like, by
the way, we're doing a movie this summer. Neil Simon
Max Dugan returns with Marsha Mason and and they say,
you read these scenes out loud.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
This is at the audition for Brighton Beach.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
So I read those scenes with the director sitting next
to him, Urba Ross, and I left there and they're like, okay, both,
do we want you to do the movie? And so
suddenly I had a leading the Broadably Show and then
my first movie, which I was so I didn't have
any feelings about until I called with this point twenty
nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I called my dad, who is.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
By the way, dying of cancer, just found out and
he goes crazy with excitement. And that was when I
was like, oh, this is kind of a big deal,
you know, and does not happen. Yeah, it really doesn't happen.
But when you're that age, it's sort of like, you know,
I don't know, and I think. I leave Torch Song
(25:49):
to go shoot.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Max stugen returns.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
And while I'm shooting Max Stugan returns, Wargames is still
having callbacks.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
That's what happens.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
So my dad says, they said they want me to
read it again for war Games, and I've read so
many times, and my dad said, ask them to see
if they could see some dailies from Max Dugan what
you're shooting now, which was really smart. And I told
Herbert Ross and he was like, oh, absolutely, i'll run.
I know just what to show them, and he showed
a good scene of me and Jason Lobard's for Marty Brest,
(26:20):
who was directing war Games.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And that's how I got that.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
You know, I had a lot of help from people
like Herbert Ross or my dad or all these people
making very smart decisions for me.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
You know, you need that, and even fifisk so hard
as soon as I got.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Up, did you when did you drop fefee?
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Well that's what's so tragic about show business. As soon
as I got a few real jobs, I was like,
see a fief. Yeah, I have to get somebody with
a more serious name, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And it wasn't fun. I mean it was awful.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
No, they weren't quite equipped to you know. I was
trying to rush the war Games to decide. That's what
happened because I had another little play and I was like,
they have to decide or I'm not going to be
a ballimore, I said. And then Herbert Ross heard that,
the director, and he said, I'd like you to meet
somebody from William Morris. I think you should talk to
(27:12):
Arnold Steve will And I talked to him and he said,
you cannot tell MGM. They have to decide now because
you have an off brought. You have a summerstock play
coming up, so don't stop that.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Zip it.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
You can't do that.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
So I was like, okay, I was at a restaurant,
you know, on a phone booth, and he said, don't
do that, and he said, and I'll And I was like,
and you can represent me now for and he.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Said, yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
So I had to call. Did I call? I probably didn't.
I probably had somebody else call.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Why because you were shy.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I'm probably scared to call.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
My agents would oh kill themselves to get me to
this point to say, now that I'm doing better, you're
on your own.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I know, you know it's going. I mean, it's the
curse of small agency. They build and then you go.
But that's the reality of life.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Welcome back to Table for two.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Matthew has been in countless amazing films, but Ferris Bueller's
Day Off holds a soft spot.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
In many viewers' hearts. Being a huge fan of John
Hughes movies.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I wonder what was it like to get the role
and to work with them? So war Games comes first?
Is Bueller is just the ultimate game changer? Is that
when you realize, Okay.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Well I did it. You know, I guess so, but
not just I. Already I thought I was doing pretty well.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
I had war Games and yeah, and it was being
sent a lot, and one of those was was Ferris Bueller.
And and everybody was like, John Hughes is the thank
you listeners at home on having another day.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
We didn't have to sure that, No, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
He was called the Steven Spielberg of teen movies.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
But I didn't immediately even I remember I was like, well,
I'm talking to the audience and just doing that in
the play. I keep talking to the audience. Maybe I
should I should look for something else. And afore mentioned
Arnold Seafall that time I flew to New York like
I hadn't even hung up the phone, discussing with him
whether I should do Forst. Fueler, and he was basically
(29:30):
standing behind me saying let's talk about it, and breaking
the fourth wall is yeah, I thought, I mean, you
do it like no other Well he was like, yeah,
you're doing it.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
And even my mom, I remember, was like, oh, yeah,
you better do that. So I did it.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Not to say I didn't think it was great when
I read it. And you know, John was a very
he was rather chilly character when you would first meet.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Oh really, it wasn't like instantly, oh this is you know, neat.
But I grew to adore him.
Speaker 5 (30:02):
Too, actually, and it was an amazing experience, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
And then The Freshman, and The Freshman's a really fun
movie and it's a really interesting plot line, and you
work with Brando, which sort of get him still in
the good Brando before he kind of lost the plot. Yeah,
you know, I feel what was that as an actor?
What was that like to step onto a set and
know that you're working with the man who changed the acting.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I couldn't believe it was happening, you know.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
When I first got sent the script and I was like,
wait a minute, I'm gonna we're gonna be all signed
up to do this movie.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
And then he's gonna quit, right And they're like no, no,
And I.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Was like, you're pretending that he's doing the movie so
that you know, I'll play a team. One last time,
and that's how badly you want me, or pretending that
Marlon Brando was gonna be like no, we went and
met Marlon Brando on his island and he's doing it.
I swear to God, Bergman wonderful as a screenwriter and
director and okay, and I still never really thought he chose,
(31:07):
you know, not really. And then but I go to
Toronto and we rehearsed, me and Bruno Kirby, Penelope and Miller,
and uh, the day that Marlon is coming, I remember
Bruno Kirby sat in the lobby of the hotel like with.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
A newspaper with with the holes cuff of the eyes.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I mean, he really did have like a book with
him because he wanted to see him walk into the right,
which I believe he did.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Finally he was like, yeah, he's here. We saw him.
He walked in.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
And then the next day's rehearsal and we're all rehearsing,
and now Marlon is a little bit late, okay, So
I was like, ah, literally it it's a little longer,
and I'm like, right now, it happens now, Mark.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
It turns out to be back in Tahiti.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
He's back on the Island.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
Yeah, so, but sure enough, maybe an hour or whatever
it is. He and uh and and we all go
to the you know, the apartment door and open it,
and Marlon Brando is on his hands and knees because
he's apologizing for being late.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
You're kidding, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you know, whatever happened.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
And so he was on his knees, I think, like
in a praying thing, you know, jokingly apologizing. And my
memory is he had a sort of a cowboy hat on,
somewhat feminine sunglasses, and a valure sweatsuit of some kind.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I've never been sure if that's really what I saw.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
But that's my Stanley.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
He did not look like Stanley Kulowski.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
But and then he got up and you know, hugged
everybody and sat down, and we all rehearsed together at
the at the dining table, told a few stories. He
didn't really want to rehearse very much. He said, I
don't really liked hers very much. And he's sure enough.
There he was, and he was very friendly to me
(33:06):
and particularly to Bruno Kirby. He took a shine to
Bruno Kirber really and he was hard on production. Okay,
you know, he's somebody who always thought they were out
to get him and they needed to be struck down,
you know. Yeah, so he was hard for people who
had to schedule him or pay years of yeah something. Yeah,
(33:29):
and that's where his difficultness. It wasn't for others. If
you're acting with him, I don't they're playing. Very few
actors who would have said, I don't know, but who
would say Marlon was difficult or I didn't like working
with him. I think people who would say he was
difficult are people who are in a position of saying,
you have to be here an extra two hours or
(33:50):
we're going to lose this location.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Did you walk away from that experience not only in disbelief,
but like well with film, get like a added something
new to your craft, your art by working with him.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I hope it did. I wanted it to.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
I mean I knew that it was a huge opportunity
to watch him work up close.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
I mean, he's basically my favorite actor ever, so every
moment I had with him was precious and heightened.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
You almost have to get over that a little bit
so that you.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Can right, you know, be a live in the scene
and not just real a crazy person staring at him,
you know, not speaking like actually yeah, yeah. It had
a surreal feeling. I bet it was very hard to
be like just doing a scene.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
But then again, he's so good and was so entertaining
to watch that.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
It was really funny and made me want to, you know,
get the ball back in some way.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
So I adored working with him.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
It was like it was it was like hitting a
ball back and forth with the you know, agacy or
something or you know, it just was like top level.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
This is just great.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Matthew has shared so many great stories with us today,
and if he ever wrote a book, I'm sure it
would be as fascinating as our launch. But would he
ever consider putting his life on the page after living
so much.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Of it on the screen.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
So there's some fun questions as we come to her close,
And I really hope everyone enjoyed this because I was
so forward.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Did you, Matthew?
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I think you're an incredibly good interviewer.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Would you ever write a book about your life or memoir,
you know, kind of focusing it on it's so your
your life is very fascinating.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I have thought about it a little bit.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
I mean once in a while people bring it up,
or but maybe if I could do, if I had
some good.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Idea about it.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
I I don't just want to, like, I don't want
to betray people, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
It's hard.
Speaker 5 (36:05):
I don't want to What does Marlon Brando want me
to say about I'm not that concerned everything's written about him.
But but I get it. There's like that sensitivity.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
People are alive of being.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, does a title come to mind?
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (36:22):
I used to have a few titles, Okay, just a
joke with my friends. The first one was called they
Called Me Pal, and it's just a picture of me
with pictures of different movie stars. Who have you know
that you Marlon Brando or Ta Bards or Morgan Freemen.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
They called me Pal. What was the title?
Speaker 5 (36:42):
The second installment was called Preserving the Island, which was
about hair loss and trying to keep the hair that's
in the middle in the front of your head connected
to the back of your head.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
So those are the mill.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Years, Okay, those are familiars.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
And the final was called Maybe I'm a Monster, and
it was just this is something me and Kenny Lonergan
came up. But it was a you know, a trilogy
about my life, and the third book, I was just
sort of in a you know, pants and a sweater
looking off into a sunset.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
You know, maybe I'm a monster. Maybe maybe I did
a lot of bad things. And uh so those are
the three books.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Zach cracks me up. Do you have when you sit down?
Is there like a decade of music that you just
sink into.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
I always kind of.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Look at you and I feel like the sort of jazz,
sort of yeah, old.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
School, I know, what do you what kind of music
does mb You.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
Realize how predictable you are now the computers because they're like, oh,
you're just that type. We know exactly what you want.
You know, you thought you're so unique, Like nothing at
all is unique about you.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
You know everything I like.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Right, everything? Yeah, they know it before you know it.
Now you think it and it shows up on your phone.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Know something. I haven't even said it out loud.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
No, you know it scares the hell out of mean.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Yeah, I like, you know, jazz.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
I mean, I like very eclectic music, but I definitely
like from the time I was in my teens or twenties,
I started liking old you know, Louis Armstrong and I
like twenties, thirties, forties.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
I love that kind of music I like. And then
I like, you know Marvin.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Gay or that Yeah, Ara, you know, and then I
kind of dropped out after that.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Ask me too. Then it's like enough, I don't even know.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
I like but when when the kids play the tunes
for me, I like them, but I don't really know
what any of it is.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Well, Matthew Brodock, I have to say this, having lunch
with you with a microphone or without, and dinner is
a pure joy for me. Your family, I think, is incredible.
I love Sarah Jessica Is. I can't say enough about
the family you created. Your children are lovely. You're well
raised or polite and yours too. Thank you for joining
(38:53):
me on Table for two. Thank you absolutely, door you
and love you.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
I love you too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Thanks everyone, have a great day, enjoy the rest of
your day.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Great day.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Table for two with Bruce Bozi is produced by iHeart
Radio seven three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers
are Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Table for two is
researched and written by Bridget arsenalt. Our sound engineers are
Paul Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf Table for two's la production
team is Danielle.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Romo and Lorraine Verrez.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Our music supervisor is Randall poster Our talent booking is
by James Harkin. Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Cher,
Kevin Yvane, Bobby Bauer, Alison Kant Graber, Jody Williams, Rita Sodi,
and the team at Via Cororoda in Manhattan's West Village.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(39:50):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Today's episode was recorded before the SAG after strike began
on July fourteenth. Table for two Thanks you, as always
for tuning in and supporting entertainers. Hello everyone, and thank
you for joining us for another episode of Table for two.
We're back in my hometown, New York City at the
(00:22):
unrivaled Via Cororota, and I'm thrilled to be having lunch
with another hometown boy today.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you for joining me today. Pleasure you look good.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
No, I'm hanging in there.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
He's a Broadway actor, a movie star, and he's married
to one of the most famous actresses in the world,
Sarah Jessica Parker. He and Sarah Jessica are taking Plaza
Suite the Neil Simon Play to London's West End next year,
following what was a sold out Broadway run. He was
just in No Hard Feelings, one of the biggest comedies
of twenty twenty three, and he's also playing the infamous
(00:58):
farmer exact Richard Sackler in the Netflix limited series Painkiller.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
What do you want to eat?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Do you need a menu?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
What do you eat?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm gonna do that. Catch your to pethag because I
have to. That's good that's good. That's right. Today we're
having lunch with Matthew Broderick.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Sorry listeners at home that you can't have just a
little of.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That, So pull up a chair, pour yourself a glass
of rose, and enjoy the show. I'm Bruce Bosi and
this is my podcast Table for two. I kind of
(01:43):
want to start Matthew. I have such an affinity for you.
I think you're just one of the nicest people, most
talented people.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
If you're a New York boy. I grew up in
the village. I was a huge fan of your dad
as well.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
He's an actor who's in a TV show called Family
for those of you who don't know, uh, James Broderick.
Kind of show that was so special and so embodied
such like warmth. What was it like growing up in
New York City your kid New York? Yeah, which was different,
you know than it is now for your kids.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Yeah, it sure was. Let's see, I grew up on
Washington Square North.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I know, I can't believe them. I always think of
you when I passed by that streets.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
A series of Brownstone, Yeah, yeah, we were in the
one not Brownstone, the one like apartment shabby apartment filting
on that block.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It was us.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
But I was born on Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue
in a very small apartment with my two We were
all in one room, me and my two sisters.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Wow, you were born in No, I was born.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
In the hospital, I could say.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
But I was taken in my blanket to Ninth Street
until I was four, and then I moved. The big
move was to Washington was two blocks down Fifth, okay,
and then we had our own bedroom.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Right, So that's where I really grew up. The village
was the park was there.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
Was bongos and drums all day. We had some windows
facing the park. Yeah, there's a lot of music all
the time.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
There was less like rules. It was open all night.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Stuff was going down. Yeah, it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And because you faced the park when it got dark,
it was dark on the other side. It's like normally
there's two sides of the street that have lights, so
it could.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Get a little dicey.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Did you get mugged.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I got mugged often all through the village. I mugged
all over the village really, end Times Square area. Come
on upper west side.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Explain to the listener.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Because I got mugged once on Third Avenue and they
were like, we're going to shove your head through this
like window, give us When I had like five bucks.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It was like nineteen.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I never had any money, and people will constantly wanted it.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yea, what was the target over you that you think
that you were constantly getting mugged?
Speaker 5 (03:53):
I think a young guy, you know, this is like
I'm talking like twelve, you know.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, that's when an abuts a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
You too.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And it was mostly other boys.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
You know, just being bullies and you know, getting money,
you know, lunch money or something like that.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But sometimes somewhat scary. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
You know, me and my friend Garo were skateboarding in
Central Park once and a massive gang came flying out
and took our skateboards and I got whacked in the
head with some sort of stick. That's the only time
I got kind of worked. So you know, it was
no not a joke, and thank god, you know, we
all survived it. But but and most of them were
(04:33):
not like that. They were more intimidating. I'm going to
put your head through the glass and you know, give
me what you got, or you get on the subway
and somebody would sit next to you and put their
arm around you rather aggressively and say, you know, what's
in your pocket?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
What's your name?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Where?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
You know, just be like asking a lot of questions. Yeah,
just waiting praying for the train to come out of
the tunnel on the platform. You know, I still remember that.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I mean, don't you think the skill set is born
from being a kid in New York? Your parents are not.
They're doing their thing, They trust the world, and you're surviving.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
It's true.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Yeah, back then they weren't as at least it didn't
feel like it. They weren't as watchful as we are
to our kids.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
It wasn't no, they were not watchful at all.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Just yeah, they were kind of like they'd.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Love to go to the park and come back from
time for dinner, and that was it.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Would you even come back and say I was mugged
today on a subway or just.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Once or twice.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Yeah, sometimes, like a police officer would come to our
school and give us a talk, you know, how to
react properly when you're being mug right, And he said,
always bring money with you. Don't go out with no
money and immediately give it up and try to make
the experience as fast as possible. More time you're haggling
(05:48):
or discussing, more time you're in the.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Situation the worst. I always remembered that, So try to
have it. That's a good conclusion, even if the conclusion
is your own. To do it as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So you have like your band of brothers, and you
would just like kind of I mean, so I think
New York City growing up in New York City is
one of the best places to grow up.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, well it was great for me. I mean it's
you know, it's I don't have anything to compare it to,
you know, but my best friend then and still you know,
one of my very best friends is getting named Garrow.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
And he lived a block from me, so we would
walk to school together and walk home school together. He
lived in Washington News and uh, as we grew up,
you know, we used the park for softball, skateboarding him Frisbee. Uh,
you know, it was like a like a more like
a playground back then. I guess it still is, you know,
(06:51):
around the fountain.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
And all that.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
But but it used to be even those fields were
improvised ball fields, you know, and now they're kind of
like glowing on the grass and whenever.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Right, there's chains and stuff that you can't.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Yeah, and I knew some neighborhood kids that way too,
so you know, through through softball and baseball, I knew
those kids. And and some of them I still see,
and I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
We don't remember each other's names. But there's always a way.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
You know, thing about New York to me. Don't you
kind of feel like it's Maybury?
Speaker 5 (07:19):
And yeah, yeah, it's it's little Mayberry is all over
the place, Like we recently moved two blocks and I
feel like I'm in another I.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Know, it's crazy, right, Yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Like I go to a different place to get the water.
Everything's different, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And like you to establish new relationships.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yes, and which train station do I go to?
Speaker 5 (07:40):
And it's just it's a new world and it's only
it's only two blocks away?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Crazy. Yeah, So you are like one with the subway.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Like I'm a subway man.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Yeah, because some people of your nage, of your stature.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Of your celebrity would not be so comfy on Yeah,
the number one and nine.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
And number one is beautiful train. The exist it used
to be the one nine.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, I mean traffic is so horrendous in New York.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
It's just I love to get under that traffic, and
I'm not so I don't get bothered on the train,
not really.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
No, are you like baseball hat dark glasses?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I might try to wear a hat. Yeah, you don't
wear dark glasses.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
And uh, I think I even like reading about how
they built the subway right, kind of like subways.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I like, did you want to go to another country?
Speaker 5 (08:26):
I like to take the tube or you know, the
metro or I was curious about cities how they get around.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
I've always liked that.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I think that's the best way to learn. Yeah, and
if you're in New York, it's it's really the most efficient.
Otherwise you're just absolutely it's horrible. So I'm a little
bit about your parents or your mom's an artist, was
(08:53):
an artist, great artist, and her shows the show and
your dad incredible actor.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Were they the influence for you to get into the arts?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Was that?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
How did that happen from?
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
They probably were. You know.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
I grew up loving to draw, for instance, you know,
and I went to a school that was very called
City and Country, very progressive back then, particularly and really
good art studio and Clay, and I always liked art and.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
But I didn't know.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
I had never thought about being an actor really, but
our house was always talking about paintings or plays or
my you know, my parents' friends were mostly in theater
or some kind of show business, but also.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Artists coming and going.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
But you know, my father was from New Hampshire and
he didn't get to New York, so he was in
his twenties, and so he wasn't exactly a bohemian.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
He was. He seemed like somebody from New Hampshire, right,
and he did.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I mean, I didn't know your dad, but yeah, even
in the role he played on Family.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah he was.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
He was a little like that, but much funnier. And
his you know, his dad was a letter carrier.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Like.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
He did not come from the villagey arty rule, but
my mom came kind of. She was wealthy when she
was a kid, you know, on Park.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Avenue where she grew upright, but always wanted to get
to the village. Now she went to like that. So
that's the combination that I grew up in.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
How did they meet?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
They met at acting school.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
My father, when he got out of the navy, went
to a place called the Neighborhood Playhouse, a very famous
acting school. My mom was there as a playwright actually
because she somebody had said, you know, if you want
to write plays, you should take.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
An acting class. So and there's even a picture of
them in the same class. Yeah. So I grew up
like that. I grew up in a lot in backstage
at theaters with my father.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
We would have our summers were often he'd get a
job at a summer theater and the family would get
to go to you know, Stockbridge, Massachusetts or wherever it
was and the little house.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So that's how I got out of the city.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
And I liked to be at the theater, like I
would go with him at night because I just liked
to be backstage. It wasn't that I wanted to be
an actor particularly or whatever, but I wanted.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
To be in that something about it.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I liked the room. I don't know what it is.
I liked. I liked the atmosphere backstage.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
I liked the quiet, you know, and seriousness of it,
the important to pretend importance of it.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, so that that was a big part of Probably why.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Do you remember specific shows that you saw that really
affected you?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
Yeah, My father did a House of Blue Leaves, which
was very good. He did it in Chicago and maybe
someplace else too, and he was great in that one,
and I loved that.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I watched that a million times and he did it.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
O'Neill play Desire under the Elms that had Eva Marie
Saint in it, Wow, and John Ritter, just Ivan Maris
Saint was in it.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
My father was in it, okay, and it went.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
It was like it was successful. You know, what's three
different cities, I believe. And I watched that play a
billion times. Okay, whether it was good or not, I
think it was good, but I just like to I
just like to watch it.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Life is so fascinating to me because you say, Evan
Marie Saint who stars in a movie with Marlon Brando
on the Waterfront, and then later on in your life
you star in a movie with Marlon Brando called.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
The Freshman, Like, there's just something.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
About yeah that it's incredible, And sometimes I don't a
lot of I have memories like that where I don't
realize how incredible it is until like now I'm watching
even Saint and I'll be like, what the hell, why
didn't I just sweeze her and say, I can't believe
I'm with you, right, you know, No, you don't.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
No.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
I just saw the documentary about Mary Tyler Moore that's
on right, so good.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
How emotional.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
And I met her a couple of times, you know,
over the years, and we did some like thing for
the SPCA together, and I wish I had just told
her I madly in love with you since I was little.
I can't believe what you've done for the world. And
you know, but you don't do those things, you know.
I met add Asner, and I never said, you're the
greatest freaking.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Actor, the funniest person.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
I love ed Asner, but I never really told him that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Thanks for joining us on Table for two. Matthew grew
up in the theater, watching his father perform countless times,
so it seems natural that he would end up acting
as well. I'm curious when he made the transition to
Center State.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
What was the.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
First sort of lean into the theater world where I'm
going to actually be in front?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Now, yeah, did that happen in high school?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Probably?
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Yeah, I mean a little bit in you know, little
plays in grammar school, which I enjoyed, but then also
I should mention. When I was five, I wrote on
my library card actor as professional he did.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
That's what. That's so, I'm told, But I didn't do
anything about it. That is so.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
But then in high school, I liked sports, you know,
and I really liked acting, but I was afraid to
even tell anybody that.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Oh to be made fun of.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I don't know, I think I was very I was
actually pretty shy.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
I was kind of didn't want to audition, and a
lot of actors are not very outgoing. It seems like,
at least at first, you know, reguarded or something. But
you know, I hurt my knee really badly when I
was about fifteen with sports. Yeah, were you a baseball player?
And I was playing soccer at that time. Not very seriously,
but I loved I worked hard, and I you know,
(15:11):
I had surgery quite serious.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Oh wow, they're any and like a meniscus.
Speaker 5 (15:16):
Torn, yeah, and like dislocated knee cap and the whole
thing had to be And it was just back when
they had to.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Write like it was a big surgery. Yeah, it wasn't
like a little surgery.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Right, So I had no excuse.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
So I auditioned for the play because I couldn't play sports, right,
And I did a Midsummer Night's Dream in high school.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Okay, little teeny part. You got a couple of laughs,
you did.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Yeah, And I thought I was like Michael Corleoni when
you know, when the people are going.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
To kill his father at the hospital.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Yeah, and the car goes by and the florist's hands
are shaking, right, and Michael Corleoni's hands are studies a rock.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Right. When I was on.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Stage, nervous as I had been all month getting ready,
I was like, I'm not that nervous. I'm kind of
I'm nervous, but I feel somewhat in control up here.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
You're supposed to be there.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Yeah, I had some little inkling that this is something
I could maybe do.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
So you enjoyed that little piece.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I enjoyed my little part, and and that led to
another high school part, a bigger part.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
When did you start to flip into auditioning professional stuff?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Well, somebody, what year are we at now?
Speaker 1 (16:29):
So, like you graduated, we're talking early eighties late.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I think I graduated in eighty eighty. Okay, so I
graduate high school in eighty right, it's a.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Big decade now for you.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
What was the first, like, Oh, okay, we're gonna You're
gonna go out for this role.
Speaker 5 (16:44):
There was a student at my school whose mother was
a casting director, Barbara Kleman, and I think she called
like the director of the theater stuff at the school
and said, you know, you have any anybody fifteen or
whatever who's good, and a couple of us went in an
(17:05):
audition for her. That's my memory of it or what.
I don't remember that it was for anything. It must
have been. I didn't get whatever part it was, but
she took an interest in me. You know, when other
things came up, I would I read a few times.
And then somebody said, there's an agent and this name
is going to sound like I'm making it up, but
named Fifi Oscard.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
What. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
It was a big agency, I believe, mostly for kids
and maybe poodles.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Fifi Oscard, Fifi Oscard, that was her name. But she
wasn't my agent. I was somebody below her.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
She was a top dog.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
You were Josha Silberstein and Steve Carlson. So I suddenly
had an agent.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
And then I started getting a lot of auditions really,
and I didn't get any parts, but I uh, right, away,
but I guess I got enough, you know, where somebody called.
They said we don't want him, but he was good
or whatever they kept.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
It was like affirm enough to go in there. Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
I got a part in a huge movie, a movie
it was called No Small Affair, and I was opposite
Sally Field and it didn't get made.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Well, it did get.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Made later, but I was the lead, you know, and
it was directed by Marty Writt and they had all
just won Oscars for Norma Ray, right, you know.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
It was a top, top of the line Columbia picture.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Your first job, yeah, going to be that was.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
My first paying job.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
And I auditioned, you know, a dozen times, and then
with Sally Field and a hotel room and Mary written
and we shot. I worked for months trying to, you know,
because I was so young and naive, trying to. I
was playing a photographer, so I had a camera run.
I tried to learn photography. I tried to pull on
DeNiro myself.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
You know, wait a minute. So this was made later,
yea years later, with.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
John Cryer and exactly, oh my god, okay, and.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
We shot for about two weeks and it went okay
for a while, but then I started to feel like
they didn't really like me that much. Marty Ritt or something.
There were a couple of scenes where he was kind
of on me. I guess he was having health issues
and there was doctors coming to the set. His blood
pressure was super high. And then they called and said,
don't come to work, you know, or no. I came
(19:20):
to work and they said, just don't change.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
Just stay in.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Your street clothes. Yeah, in your camper, you know, your
honeywagon or whatever. I played Catcher in Central Park with
some of the crew, was there all day and then
they said, go home.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
We'll call you tomorrow. We're still delayed. We're delayed. And
then a few days later my agent called and said
it's over. Wow, he said, sit down.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
But lots of drag.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
But the position I was ruined. I thought I was ruined.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
But yeah, you're right, it positioned you.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
I mean, you got that.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
But I also felt like I had failed, you know,
which I don't really think is true.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I Sally Field wrote me a really nice letter, yeah,
you know, saying hang in there and not.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I think it's the nature of the business.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
It was, and I didn't know that though. For your
first job to dis very few movies to integrate.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Two weeks in, I think it could kill the spirit.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
I was, I think, mate looking back on it, and
I became depressed. I spent the summer in New York
basically lying around my parents' house and uh, whining and
just being quiet.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I kind of yeah, I bet, I mean here you.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Are in yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
And now I'm auditioning for a radio spot about Bubble
Young literally and not getting it right, you know, or
a summerstock small part, and they're and they're not letting
me finish the auditionary. Like I've gone from having my
Academy Award speech working on that in the tub at
night to uh.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
You know, bubble Yum's now super young.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
There's never been a YOUM like this, And they're like, no,
you're not good enough.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
You're not good enough for that. So the career was over,
I thought, wrapped up, done, and it.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
Was always a looming if I really fail, I'll have
to go to college. And my grades were such that
colleges that I had been instructed to apply to work
you know names, I had never heard of her.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
So I was maybe I didn't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
You've talked a lot about first Bueller, but you beat
out a significant amount of people for this role, very
famous people who have gone on she when did that pivot?
So like the bottle yum ends and then you're like.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Okay, I'm back in the room. I'm not You're still
with the sage.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
And she's still going away. You know, they were really
trying and I love FEFE.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
What happened was I then read for a four hour
play about gay people in a Broadway theater, which seemed
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You're talking about tor song.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Yeah, nobody knew was Torch song.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
It was just this incredibly long you know, But I
read for it with this very strange you know man
that I met with Harvey Harvey Fire, yes, and but
he was really nice and actually when I read it,
I was like, this is so funny.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I loved it.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
And then you know, the producer came out and said
we want to hire They said we want to hire you,
and my agent was like, well, I'm not sure your
first job should be you know this or so long
and outside of the norm, I guess, meaning don't play
a gay guy. Actually he was gay, you know, it
wasn't no but bot and I was like, I'm not
(22:39):
going to go back to play bubble.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Um.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
No, I'm doing this part right, thank you very much.
And uh so, uh you know, the play opened, nobody
came at first, the roof leaked in. Water literally poured
into the apartment, our fake apartment.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
It was over four hours long. I think I saw it.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I don't, but good, it was very good. Did it
get cut down eventually? Okay, because I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
This was the full version. I was also assistant stage manager. No. Yeah,
I was supposed to run the slide show for Act two.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Beauty of sitting backstage with your dad all those years, yes,
prap that piece.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I was fired from that because all I did was complain.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
I was like, I can't get ready for the third
act if I'm making the slides go.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And they're like, okay, don't we'll do that part.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
All all you have to do is replug the lightboard
between act two and three. And I was like, well
then I have to go out through the audience and
plug in my costume you know I want. They're like, already,
don't do anything. So I got myself out of that
fuck from the back.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
One hundred and seven dollars a week that job but.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Then, you know, the times came to that show Yep
and melt Goos, Soewen was like, this is fantastic, and
suddenly it was packed.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Nobody could get in.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
So now casting.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
Directors and stuff, when I go to audition, I say
you want to see me, I'm in, and they're.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Like, oh, I hear that play is great, can you
get me in?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Right?
Speaker 5 (24:05):
So now it's a very different perspective. When you're at
a meeting and the director says, can I get a ticket?
Or I just saw you Tuesday, You're in a whole
different league.
Speaker 6 (24:15):
You know.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
So that was it, and that led to you know,
probably Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway and War Games. You know,
I was auditioning for War Games at the same time
(24:37):
as Brighton Beach Memoirs. Basically got those two parts at
the same time, doing Torch Song at Night and auditioning
for and I got cast.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
In a lead of a movie and a lead of
a Broadway but I got cast in Brighton Beach.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
And while I'm auditioning for Brighton Beach, They're like, by
the way, we're doing a movie this summer. Neil Simon
Max Dugan returns with Marsha Mason and and they say,
you read these scenes out loud.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
This is at the audition for Brighton Beach.
Speaker 5 (25:03):
So I read those scenes with the director sitting next
to him, Urba Ross, and I left there and they're like, okay, both,
do we want you to do the movie? And so
suddenly I had a leading the Broadably Show and then
my first movie, which I was so I didn't have
any feelings about until I called with this point twenty
nineteen nineteen.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
I called my dad, who is.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
By the way, dying of cancer, just found out and
he goes crazy with excitement. And that was when I
was like, oh, this is kind of a big deal,
you know, and does not happen. Yeah, it really doesn't happen.
But when you're that age, it's sort of like, you know,
I don't know, and I think. I leave Torch Song
(25:49):
to go shoot.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Max stugen returns.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
And while I'm shooting Max Stugan returns, Wargames is still
having callbacks.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
That's what happens.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
So my dad says, they said they want me to
read it again for war Games, and I've read so
many times, and my dad said, ask them to see
if they could see some dailies from Max Dugan what
you're shooting now, which was really smart. And I told
Herbert Ross and he was like, oh, absolutely, i'll run.
I know just what to show them, and he showed
a good scene of me and Jason Lobard's for Marty Brest,
(26:20):
who was directing war Games.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And that's how I got that.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
You know, I had a lot of help from people
like Herbert Ross or my dad or all these people
making very smart decisions for me.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
You know, you need that, and even fifisk so hard
as soon as I got.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Up, did you when did you drop fefee?
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Well that's what's so tragic about show business. As soon
as I got a few real jobs, I was like,
see a fief. Yeah, I have to get somebody with
a more serious name, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And it wasn't fun. I mean it was awful.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
No, they weren't quite equipped to you know. I was
trying to rush the war Games to decide. That's what
happened because I had another little play and I was like,
they have to decide or I'm not going to be
a ballimore, I said. And then Herbert Ross heard that,
the director, and he said, I'd like you to meet
somebody from William Morris. I think you should talk to
(27:12):
Arnold Steve will And I talked to him and he said,
you cannot tell MGM. They have to decide now because
you have an off brought. You have a summerstock play
coming up, so don't stop that.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Zip it.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
You can't do that.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
So I was like, okay, I was at a restaurant,
you know, on a phone booth, and he said, don't
do that, and he said, and I'll And I was like,
and you can represent me now for and he.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Said, yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
So I had to call. Did I call? I probably didn't.
I probably had somebody else call.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Why because you were shy.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I'm probably scared to call.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
My agents would oh kill themselves to get me to
this point to say, now that I'm doing better, you're
on your own.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
I know, you know it's going. I mean, it's the
curse of small agency. They build and then you go.
But that's the reality of life.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Welcome back to Table for two.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Matthew has been in countless amazing films, but Ferris Bueller's
Day Off holds a soft spot.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
In many viewers' hearts. Being a huge fan of John
Hughes movies.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I wonder what was it like to get the role
and to work with them? So war Games comes first?
Is Bueller is just the ultimate game changer? Is that
when you realize, Okay.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Well I did it. You know, I guess so, but
not just I. Already I thought I was doing pretty well.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
I had war Games and yeah, and it was being
sent a lot, and one of those was was Ferris Bueller.
And and everybody was like, John Hughes is the thank
you listeners at home on having another day.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
We didn't have to sure that, No, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
He was called the Steven Spielberg of teen movies.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
But I didn't immediately even I remember I was like, well,
I'm talking to the audience and just doing that in
the play. I keep talking to the audience. Maybe I
should I should look for something else. And afore mentioned
Arnold Seafall that time I flew to New York like
I hadn't even hung up the phone, discussing with him
whether I should do Forst. Fueler, and he was basically
(29:30):
standing behind me saying let's talk about it, and breaking
the fourth wall is yeah, I thought, I mean, you
do it like no other Well he was like, yeah,
you're doing it.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
And even my mom, I remember, was like, oh, yeah,
you better do that. So I did it.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Not to say I didn't think it was great when
I read it. And you know, John was a very
he was rather chilly character when you would first meet.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Oh really, it wasn't like instantly, oh this is you know, neat.
But I grew to adore him.
Speaker 5 (30:02):
Too, actually, and it was an amazing experience, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
And then The Freshman, and The Freshman's a really fun
movie and it's a really interesting plot line, and you
work with Brando, which sort of get him still in
the good Brando before he kind of lost the plot. Yeah,
you know, I feel what was that as an actor?
What was that like to step onto a set and
know that you're working with the man who changed the acting.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I couldn't believe it was happening, you know.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
When I first got sent the script and I was like,
wait a minute, I'm gonna we're gonna be all signed
up to do this movie.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
And then he's gonna quit, right And they're like no, no,
And I.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Was like, you're pretending that he's doing the movie so
that you know, I'll play a team. One last time,
and that's how badly you want me, or pretending that
Marlon Brando was gonna be like no, we went and
met Marlon Brando on his island and he's doing it.
I swear to God, Bergman wonderful as a screenwriter and
director and okay, and I still never really thought he chose,
(31:07):
you know, not really. And then but I go to
Toronto and we rehearsed, me and Bruno Kirby, Penelope and Miller,
and uh, the day that Marlon is coming, I remember
Bruno Kirby sat in the lobby of the hotel like with.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
A newspaper with with the holes cuff of the eyes.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I mean, he really did have like a book with
him because he wanted to see him walk into the right,
which I believe he did.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Finally he was like, yeah, he's here. We saw him.
He walked in.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
And then the next day's rehearsal and we're all rehearsing,
and now Marlon is a little bit late, okay, So
I was like, ah, literally it it's a little longer,
and I'm like, right now, it happens now, Mark.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
It turns out to be back in Tahiti.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
He's back on the Island.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
Yeah, so, but sure enough, maybe an hour or whatever
it is. He and uh and and we all go
to the you know, the apartment door and open it,
and Marlon Brando is on his hands and knees because
he's apologizing for being late.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
You're kidding, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you know, whatever happened.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
And so he was on his knees, I think, like
in a praying thing, you know, jokingly apologizing. And my
memory is he had a sort of a cowboy hat on,
somewhat feminine sunglasses, and a valure sweatsuit of some kind.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I've never been sure if that's really what I saw.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
But that's my Stanley.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
He did not look like Stanley Kulowski.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
But and then he got up and you know, hugged
everybody and sat down, and we all rehearsed together at
the at the dining table, told a few stories. He
didn't really want to rehearse very much. He said, I
don't really liked hers very much. And he's sure enough.
There he was, and he was very friendly to me
(33:06):
and particularly to Bruno Kirby. He took a shine to
Bruno Kirber really and he was hard on production. Okay,
you know, he's somebody who always thought they were out
to get him and they needed to be struck down,
you know. Yeah, so he was hard for people who
had to schedule him or pay years of yeah something. Yeah,
(33:29):
and that's where his difficultness. It wasn't for others. If
you're acting with him, I don't they're playing. Very few
actors who would have said, I don't know, but who
would say Marlon was difficult or I didn't like working
with him. I think people who would say he was
difficult are people who are in a position of saying,
you have to be here an extra two hours or
(33:50):
we're going to lose this location.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Did you walk away from that experience not only in disbelief,
but like well with film, get like a added something
new to your craft, your art by working with him.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I hope it did. I wanted it to.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
I mean I knew that it was a huge opportunity
to watch him work up close.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
I mean, he's basically my favorite actor ever, so every
moment I had with him was precious and heightened.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
You almost have to get over that a little bit
so that you.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Can right, you know, be a live in the scene
and not just real a crazy person staring at him,
you know, not speaking like actually yeah, yeah. It had
a surreal feeling. I bet it was very hard to
be like just doing a scene.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
But then again, he's so good and was so entertaining
to watch that.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
It was really funny and made me want to, you know,
get the ball back in some way.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
So I adored working with him.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
It was like it was it was like hitting a
ball back and forth with the you know, agacy or
something or you know, it just was like top level.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
This is just great.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Matthew has shared so many great stories with us today,
and if he ever wrote a book, I'm sure it
would be as fascinating as our launch. But would he
ever consider putting his life on the page after living
so much.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Of it on the screen.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
So there's some fun questions as we come to her close,
And I really hope everyone enjoyed this because I was
so forward.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Did you, Matthew?
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I think you're an incredibly good interviewer.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Would you ever write a book about your life or memoir,
you know, kind of focusing it on it's so your
your life is very fascinating.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I have thought about it a little bit.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
I mean once in a while people bring it up,
or but maybe if I could do, if I had
some good.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Idea about it.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
I I don't just want to, like, I don't want
to betray people, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
It's hard.
Speaker 5 (36:05):
I don't want to What does Marlon Brando want me
to say about I'm not that concerned everything's written about him.
But but I get it. There's like that sensitivity.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
People are alive of being.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, does a title come to mind?
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (36:22):
I used to have a few titles, Okay, just a
joke with my friends. The first one was called they
Called Me Pal, and it's just a picture of me
with pictures of different movie stars. Who have you know
that you Marlon Brando or Ta Bards or Morgan Freemen.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
They called me Pal. What was the title?
Speaker 5 (36:42):
The second installment was called Preserving the Island, which was
about hair loss and trying to keep the hair that's
in the middle in the front of your head connected
to the back of your head.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
So those are the mill.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Years, Okay, those are familiars.
Speaker 5 (36:57):
And the final was called Maybe I'm a Monster, and
it was just this is something me and Kenny Lonergan
came up. But it was a you know, a trilogy
about my life, and the third book, I was just
sort of in a you know, pants and a sweater
looking off into a sunset.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
You know, maybe I'm a monster. Maybe maybe I did
a lot of bad things. And uh so those are
the three books.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Zach cracks me up. Do you have when you sit down?
Is there like a decade of music that you just
sink into.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
I always kind of.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Look at you and I feel like the sort of jazz,
sort of yeah, old.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
School, I know, what do you what kind of music
does mb You.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
Realize how predictable you are now the computers because they're like, oh,
you're just that type. We know exactly what you want.
You know, you thought you're so unique, Like nothing at
all is unique about you.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
You know everything I like.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Right, everything? Yeah, they know it before you know it.
Now you think it and it shows up on your phone.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Know something. I haven't even said it out loud.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
No, you know it scares the hell out of mean.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Yeah, I like, you know, jazz.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
I mean, I like very eclectic music, but I definitely
like from the time I was in my teens or twenties,
I started liking old you know, Louis Armstrong and I
like twenties, thirties, forties.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
I love that kind of music I like. And then
I like, you know Marvin.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Gay or that Yeah, Ara, you know, and then I
kind of dropped out after that.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Ask me too. Then it's like enough, I don't even know.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
I like but when when the kids play the tunes
for me, I like them, but I don't really know
what any of it is.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Well, Matthew Brodock, I have to say this, having lunch
with you with a microphone or without, and dinner is
a pure joy for me. Your family, I think, is incredible.
I love Sarah Jessica Is. I can't say enough about
the family you created. Your children are lovely. You're well
raised or polite and yours too. Thank you for joining
(38:53):
me on Table for two. Thank you absolutely, door you
and love you.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
I love you too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Thanks everyone, have a great day, enjoy the rest of
your day.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Great day.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Table for two with Bruce Bozi is produced by iHeart
Radio seven three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers
are Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Table for two is
researched and written by Bridget arsenalt. Our sound engineers are
Paul Bowman and Alyssa Midcalf Table for two's la production
team is Danielle.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Romo and Lorraine Verrez.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Our music supervisor is Randall poster Our talent booking is
by James Harkin. Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Cher,
Kevin Yvane, Bobby Bauer, Alison Kant Graber, Jody Williams, Rita Sodi,
and the team at Via Cororoda in Manhattan's West Village.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(39:50):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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