Matthew Broderick on the Popularity of “The Producers:” “'The Producers' just from the minute we started doing it, the audience was like, ‘Yeah, more. That's what we want.’ Just the second we started in Chicago, audiences loved it. They loved even jokes that weren't very good. They were like, ‘Fine, that doesn't matter. It's okay.’
It was longer in Chicago and we shortened it. But even when it was too long, they were like, ‘I don't care.’ They didn't care. And then it was just one of those jobs. I got the job and so did Nathan [Lane] because we weren't quite as washed up as you might think before 'The Producers.' I was working pretty steadily right up to 'The Producers.'”
Matthew Broderick on the Challenge of Making This Role His Own: “I was always worried about that because I love Gene Wilder so much. I like him in everything, but I can't get his performance [in The Producers] out of my head. There's no way.
I remember when we started I told Susan Stroman, I was like, ‘I don't even know how to do this because I can close my eyes and basically watch the whole movie.’ She said, ‘Well once you do it over and over again, it'll just drift toward you, hopefully.’ And that's kind of hopefully what did happen. It just piece by piece…you get your own ideas.
Basically I started just with his stuff and a lot of it is really just lifted right from him. But I think that's like the script, I didn't write the script either, so I'm basing it on words somebody wrote. A lot of the performance is based on him, too, and I hope that is okay. But then I just over time started to get more of my own ideas, and get more of myself into the part, and hopefully that stayed when we went into the movie.”
Matthew Broderick on Mel Brooks: Broderick says Brooks gave him plenty of advice on playing the role. “He was very specific sometimes about jokes. You know, ‘Don't take that pause,’ or ‘Do take a pause here.’ But at the same time, he's very interested in you doing whatever you feel like. But if he has an idea, he'll tell you and be very straightforward about it.
He said once, ‘If I give you advice about comedy, or anybody, I'm one of the few people in the world who it's true.’ He's like, ‘I'm Mel Brooks, so I do know about that stuff.’ And it's true. So I always want to hear what he says. That was one of the great things about this job, was just getting to know him and work with him.
I remember early on in rehearsal, we were working on a bit where Nathan and I walk through a door. We're off to go raise the money to go meet Will Ferrell in the movie, Brad Oscar in the play, but we go through our office door and we do that whole gag where you both go at the same time. ‘After you.’ ‘After you,’ like a cartoon. We were working on different versions of that, and then Mel was very specific. ‘Try doing it…you take a little hesitation and he opens the door and you go.’ So we did it and they were like, ‘Yeah, that seems better.’ And everybody was like, ‘That seems better.’ Then I caught his eye, he was on the other side of the table at rehearsal, and all of a sudden, ‘Matthew, Matthew, and I looked up at him and he said, ‘It stinks,’ which I guess won't translate to the newspapers, or the radio. I put my thumbs in an upward – ‘yeah’.”
Matthew Broderick on Saying Good-Bye to “The Producers:” “You know, it's bittersweet. I guess with Leo Bloom, because I did do it twice, and I think this probably does mean that's it. But you have to do that at some point with roles anyway.
It was a very nice – 'Biloxi Blues' is the other one I did [on stage and on screen] and that was… I played that part twice, in 'Brighton Beach Memoirs' and 'Biloxi Blues' and it was great for me to get an opportunity to do it on film, because I didn't get to do the movie of 'Brighton Beach.’ I was so happy to get that chance. Mike Nichols directed it, which was great. The film is very different from the play. In this case, it's a little more like, this is very much like the play. The script is almost exactly the same. So with this, it was hard to not feel like you were sort of documenting the play. I tried to look at it as a new thing, because I just think a movie should stand on its own.”
Matthew Broderick on the Rehearsal Process and Being a Song and Dance Man
