Matthew Broderick talks about how he and John Hughes didn’t get along on the set of FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF

Actor Matthew Broderick he’s been in several movies over the years, and even Broadway shows have seen him take center stage, but he will forever be best known for playing the title character in the classic 80’s teen comedy, Ferris Bueller’s day off. Broderick’s witty Bueller is a character that has been replicated, referenced and revised generation after generation. He’s close to the hearts of fans, but it turns out the experience of making the film wasn’t as pleasant as it sounds.

In a recent interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s “It Happened in Hollywood” podcast, Broderick recalled his interactions with the director John Hugheswho directed many of the hit teen films of the 80s, including Sixteen candles, Weird science, The breakfast clubAND Pretty in pink. Broderick said that early in filming the film, Hughes was despondent after some early costume test footage came back with the star and her co-stars. Alan Ruck, Jennifer Gray AND My Sarah.

“It was great drama. When the footage came back, it said none of us were ‘fun to watch.’ We were ‘boring’ in our tests. Actually, some of us liked it, but some of us didn’t, and I I was one he didn’t like.”

Broderick wasn’t new to acting, having already made several successful films, so he explained the confusion he faced when he was met with Hughes’ disappointment:

“I had already worked a bit. I had done War Games and all that. I was not a total newcomer. So to make him say, “I’m not used to seeing someone this dead” or whatever he said to me. I wasn’t really “in” or anything like that. It happened and I said, ‘So get someone you like.'”

Broderick admits Hughes wasn’t the only director to confront him on set.

“I’ve heard it from other directors as well. Sometimes I drive people crazy because sometimes it seems like I’m doing nothing, it seems. But, hopefully, I eventually do. He’s not the first director who at some point takes me and says, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”

While that initial confrontation only lasted “half a day,” the two found themselves at odds again at other points in the shoot.

“He was someone who could get mad at you. He is not outwardly angry, but he understood himself. He would become dead. Dead in the face. I’d say, ‘What do you think?’ And he was like, “I don’t know.” Just nothing. ‘OK. John doesn’t like it.’

He said, “I like it when your eyes widen, and then narrow, and then wide again.” I said, “If you tell me exactly what my face is doing, I get a little uncomfortable.” Now I’m thinking about my face.’ And he said to me, ‘Well, then I’m not going to direct you at all.’ … And for some days he didn’t give me anything. Until finally I had to say, “John, you have to direct me, come on.” This was our worst.

However, Broderick points out that disagreements with Hughes were short-lived.

“He took the job very seriously, that’s what I mean. [John] he was not a loose person. But he didn’t hold a grudge and knew how to get out of it ”.

It wasn’t that bad, making this great movie. Broderick fondly recalls hours spent by Hughes’ Brentwood pool during filming, “smoking cigarettes and eating potato chips” as they discussed the role that would propel the then 23-year-old actor to superstardom.

Ferris Bueller’s day off is currently streaming on Paramount+ and is available to rent on Amazon.