Matthew Broderick stars as an optometrist whose title as the town’s King of Christmas is in jeopardy when a car salesman named Buddy (Danny DeVito) moves in next door and tries to steal the show in the comedy movie, Deck the Halls. Reflecting on his own holiday memories, Matthew Broderick recalled his first unpaid acting job came one Christmas morning when he was a just a kid. Broderick snuck in and watched his dad set up one of his Christmas gifts - a train set – on Christmas Eve. When he opened that particular present on Christmas morning, he had to act surprised. Apparently he pulled it off as his father was none the wiser...
The Appeal of Deck the Halls: “You know, I think it has a very nice feeling to it. it has a nice sentiment at the end, a very simple message at the end. …It's not about lights and things so much. I don't know how to explain it but there's a Christmas spirit, I guess, that hopefully comes at the end. After all this working, how do you get this feeling? Steve's very controlled method of getting there or Danny's over-the-top lighting everything? In the end it's more of an internal thing about the family's coming together. There's a nice, nice feeling to it, and then there's also a lot of laughs. I think laughter is very nice always and particularly at Christmas because it can be a stressful time. There's a lot of stress any time you're around your whole family.”
Broderick’s own Christmas celebrations aren’t over the top. “They're very average,” said Broderick. “I should make a disclosure: I'm half Jewish, though. I have half a holiday. No…but I've always celebrated Christmas. For some people, in America I guess, mostly, it's wonderful if it's a religious holiday but it's also more our winter family holiday.”
Broderick added, “We definitely have a tradition of getting together with the whole family, eating enormous amounts of food. You know, we have a tree and we've only lived in our house about four years, so it's all a little bit new. And having a four-year-old — our traditions will be about things that he likes. He’s the kid.”
On Playing Steve the Optometrist: “It was fun. You know, I had a lot of physical stuff, which is really enjoyable for me, and it wasn't like a part I wanted to work too hard on - which was nice. You know, it's kind of for children… Well, it's for anybody, really, but I don't think you want to overwork it. So it was nice to do [the] job right, just try to sort of relax and jump in.”
Filming in Vancouver During One of the Hottest Summers in a Decade: “It wasn't very Christmasy, but that's the magic thing movies can do, you know? What feels hot and sticky and uncomfortable can look like a little town in Massachusetts. And it's fun to watch how to do it, you know? To see them pump all that snow out and light those houses and build that huge tent that covered two houses so that we could shoot in the daytime… It would have been a month and a half of nights, and the months in Vancouver are also very short in the summer, which has to do with the latitude. (Laughing) I'll explain that to you after…”
Working with Kristin Davis: Davis plays Broderick’s wife in Deck the Halls and co-starred with Broderick’s real wife (Sarah Jessica Parker) in the long-running series, Sex and the City. “I'd like to tell you I had a lot of deep discussions about New York. She's a great actress and I've liked her so much for years and was very happy she wanted to do it. Sarah, of course, [said], ‘Oh yes, she'd be great,’ because I'd never worked with Kristen. [Sarah] was like, ‘Oh yes, she's great. I love it.’ So we had a very easy time.”
In the Works – Bee Movie: Broderick lends his voice to the character of a bee in the animated comedy, Bee Movie, starring Jerry Seinfeld. Broderick won’t be buzzing his way through the film. “When I played the adult Simba in The Lion King, I just didn't go, ‘Roar, roar.’ It's a conceit that these little animals can talk. I play Jerry Seinfeld's nervous best friend and I keep saying, ‘Don't take so many chances.’ It's good; it's really fun to make.”
