The boyishly charming Matthew Broderick has come a long way since his film debut in “Max Dugan Returns.” He’s had hits (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Glory”) misses (“Godzilla”), and considerable scrutiny of his personal life — from relationships with actresses Jennifer Grey and Helen Hunt, to his marriage of “Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker. Broderick’s latest film, the dark comedy “The Stepford Wives,” pairs him with another stunner, Nicole Kidman. The 42-year-old actor spoke recently with a group of reporters in New York City about the film and his famous significant other.
QUESTION: There are several New York specific jokes in “The Stepford Wives.” Will people who aren’t overly familiar with the city get them?
MATTHEW BRODERICK: I think there’s a version of New York, whether it’s real or fictionalized, that everyone has in their head. Audiences know how hard it is to find an apartment here — that people read obituaries to find out where to get a good deal. People know about New York. If the jokes were about a small town in Ohio, well … Q: Your character, Walter, gets indoctrinated into a very sinister boys club in Stepford. Do you think groups like that actually exist?
MB: It’s scary what happens when a bunch of nerdy white guys with a bunch of money get together. The results are terrifying. It’s all comic, but you’re reminded of groups of guys who got together with cognac and cigars and came up with fascism. Those scenes were easy and fun, because it’s great to have the permission to tap into your desire to watch big color TVs and smash robots and play cards … and, you know, do all the awful things that men like to do.
Q: The satire in this film seems particularly relevant in this age of extreme makeovers.
MB: Yeah, I’ve been watching “The Swan” on TV, which I love watching but am very ashamed of. It’s hard not to see the parallels between what’s really happening — these women getting cut up to all look the same way — and what happens in this movie. But I have no profound thoughts about that.
Q: Are there any similarities between you and Nicole Kidman as a couple in “The Stepford Wives,” and the way you and your real-life spouse, Sarah Jessica Parker, have been portrayed in the press?
MB: Maybe there is with the way we’ve been portrayed in the media, but in reality I don’t think Joanna and my wife are alike at all. She’s extremely successful and mega-powerful. She could destroy this whole hotel just by looking at it … my wife, I meant. But so far, I feel perfectly safe around her.
Q: Does Sarah have any Stepford-like qualities?
MB: She’s old-fashioned in some ways. She likes cooking and homemaking when she has time for it.
Q: Ever since you two had a baby, you’re all over the tabloids. Is that bothersome?
MB: They do. They follow us, and that’s sort of a new thing. I’m hoping that will become dull.
Q: Is Kidman going to play Ulla in the film version of “The Producers?”
MB: Uh, yeah. I don’t want to speak for her. It’s a year away. But that’s what I keep reading.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 11, 2004. Read the original PDF.