MATTHEW BRODERICK GROWS UP AND ACTS HIS OWN AGE
FERRIS IS OFF FOR PROJECT X

“I’m still a young man, you know,” states the boyish thief. “I’ve got 
prospects.”

  Dressed in stolen burlap clothing, Matthew Broderick is Phillipe Gaston, 
a medieval teenager, a pickpocket, and the lead character in 1985’s 
Ladyhawke.  His lines are strangely prophetic.  Matthew Broderick has lots 
of prospects!

  As a criminal or any of his diverse characters, Matthew has been 
stealing hearts in movies and plays with that infectious smile and a charm 
that combine into a style of his own.  You saw it in his first movie, Max 
Dugan Returns.  You recognized it again in WarGames.  This summer, you 
enjoyed it full-blown in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

  Along with the style come Matthew’s acting talents that range from 
playig the awkward youth (as Eugene Morris Jerome in Broadway’s Brighton 
Beach Memoirs, a role that won him the Best Actor Tony Award) or the cool 
high school dud (as loveable Ferris).

  “I’ve played teenagers before, but I’ve never been in a movie about 
teenagers,” says Matthew of the role. Ferris Bueller, the most recent film 
from John Hughes (Pretty in Pink), depicts a day in the life of an expert 
hooky-player.

  “Ferris is trying to get everything in before he graduates,” explains 
Matthew.  “Nobody’s really like Ferris.  He’s taken a step further than 
anyone got to go in high school.”

  Now Matthew is taking a step further.  “I think Ferris Bueller is my 
last high school role.  I want to play characters who are close to my real 
age,” says the 24-year-old son of the late actor James Broderick (star of 
TV’s family).  Thus Matthew opted out of the role of Eugene in the 
upcoming version of Brighton Beach, believing he is too old for the part.  
But as Airman Jimmy Garrett in Project X due out next Spring, Matthew 
takes on the role of a 23 year old, his actual age during filming.

  Matthew may be controlling the course of his acting career, but there 
is, for him an unwelcome by-product: stardom.

  “I used to see billboards of famous actors and think, “Wouldn’t it be 
great to be up there.”  But as soon as it’s me up there, the billboard’s 
not as special anymore.  It’s just me,” he says.

  Meanwhile, Matthew lives a pretty normal life-normal for the offspring 
of theatrical parents (his mom’s a stage director), anyway.  While so many 
other 24- year-old thespians with admirable (if not quite as impressive) 
resumes are doing the LA scene, Matthew lives in New York’s Greenwich 
Village with his mother when he’s not filming.  He like spending time with 
his family (he also has two older sisters), riding his bike around town, 
playing softball in Central Park, and avoiding the Hollywood hobknobbing.

  “I never got into that scene,” he says.  “I always feel I’m not dressed 
right.  I don’t feel like I fit in.”

  But then, it seems Matthew’s never had to worry about fitting in.  It’s 
been five years since he left New York’s private Walden School.  College, 
he says, was barely a consideration (unless, in one year, he didn’t land 
an acting role).  But he didn’t even have to wait until his graduation.  
After starring in 10 plays at Walden, he earned a role in off-Broadway’s 
Valentine’s Day. A part in the play Torch Song Trilogy was followed by 
starring roles in Brighton Beach, Max Dugan, and WarGames.  Later came 
public TV’s Master Harold and the Boys and 1918, an independent movie in 
which he played a rather unpleasant character.

  “It’s boring to play loveable people all the time,” he says now about 
that role, though he was a Prince Charming alongside Jennifer Beals in 
Faerie Tale Theatre’s  Cinderella.

  As Airman Garrett, Matthew takes on a new breed of co-star: chimps.  
With the aid of an ape named Virgil, whose been taught sign language by a 
researcher (played by Helen Hunt, lately of St. Elsewhere), he discovers a 
secret Army mission that spells trouble.

  As for the future, Matthew doesn’t really look that far ahead.  “I want 
to make [the successes] last.  I don’t want to get too much too quickly.  
It’s time for Matthew Broderick’s day off.  I’m just going to hang out and 
watch game shows for a while.”

  After the cooling out period, Matthew hopes to wheel his acting fortunes 
toward other serious, older roles, via Broadway or Hollywood.  Either way, 
and no matter what type of character he portrays, Matthew Broderick is 
bound to succeed.  After all, he’s got prospects!

(c) Splice TM 1986