Matthew Broderick, played Ferris Bueller<\/p>\n
I\u2019d done WarGames and Ladyhawke and was getting sent a lot of \u201cyoung guy\u201d parts. I was a little concerned at first because Ferris talks to the audience \u2013 I\u2019d done that in two plays and didn\u2019t want to it to seem like that\u2019s all I could do. Meanwhile, my agent said: \u201cYou\u2019ve been asked to do a John Hughes<\/a> movie. You\u2019re doing it.\u201d I didn\u2019t know much about John at the time but I kept hearing him being referred to as the \u201cSpielberg of teen films\u201d.<\/p>\n I thought Ferris shouldn\u2019t seem to be trying too hard, that things came easy to him. I wanted to be a little cool and aloof. We didn\u2019t want him to be somebody you wanted to punch in the face. That\u2019s always the danger with guys who get away with everything.<\/p>\n After a test screening, one young woman\u2019s feedback was that she didn\u2019t like Ferris because \u201che\u2019d make me do things I don\u2019t want to do\u201d so they got rid of a scene where I try to get Sloane [Mia Sara] not to go back home and keep hanging out having fun.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Alan [Ruck, played Cameron] and I have timeless hair-dos because we\u2019d both just been in a military play, Biloxi Blues. Given the date the film was made, had we been able to, we might\u2019ve both had crazy mullets, in which case, it would not have become a timeless classic.<\/p>\n John could be a very exacting director. Often, I\u2019d be doing his ideas as carefully as I could but the scenes where I\u2019m alone in the house talking to the camera? We\u2019d just make stuff up. I picked up the clarinet and started playing just because it was there and I pretended I was playing great. The plan was to replace the sound and make it really good but John saw the footage and said: \u201cI\u2019m not doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n Marilyn Vance [costume designer] and John came up with my outfit. There\u2019s details you don\u2019t even see. My socks had flags of all the nations on them. The rabbit\u2019s foot in my pocket was just there. John thought Ferris\u2019s leather coat should be simple, like James Dean\u2019s red jacket but we went very much the other way. The beret was my idea.<\/p>\n double quotation markThey had a radio contest inviting people to be in a John Hughes movie and 10,000 people showed up. The window washers dancing? The camera guys just noticed them<\/p>\n The parade scene was huge. We shot at an actual parade one weekend, then did closeups the next. They had a radio contest inviting people to be in a John Hughes movie and 10,000 people showed up. It felt real. The window washers dancing? The camera guys just noticed them. They were catching whatever they could.<\/p>\n I spent weeks with choreographer Kenny Ortega but blew my knee out doing those back yard running scenes<\/a>. It made the dancing very spontaneous. John would be far away with a megaphone shouting: \u201cMake something up!\u201d I was scared but once everybody\u2019s cheering you on, I felt like I was the king of the world.<\/p>\n When John was alive, I always thought, \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll do it again?\u201d but too much time passed. What happened to Ferris? He\u2019s pretty charming and creative but he probably turned into his dad. That\u2019s what most of us do.<\/p>\n Alan Ruck, played Cameron Frye<\/p>\n John Hughes originally thought of Anthony Michael Hall or Emilio Estevez for Ferris but they wanted to move on to different things so he wisely cast Matthew. We were doing this play together, Biloxi Blues. In one scene, he\u2019s writing in his journal and we\u2019re supposed to be asleep. One night, he nudges me. I open my eyes and he shows me his journal. It said: \u201cThey offered me Ferris Bueller.\u201d<\/p>\n The casting directors didn\u2019t want to see me because I was 28 and thought I was too old. My agent said: \u201cHe plays opposite Broderick every night. They look the same age.\u201d I auditioned and they thought, \u201cThis\u2019ll work,\u201d but they didn\u2019t offer it to me right away. Matthew\u2019s manager kept laying the idea in John\u2019s ear, saying: \u201cMatthew would like to work with Alan.\u201d That went a long way to getting me the part. Matthew and I were already friends. We didn\u2019t have to make that up.<\/p>\n I always felt on the outside of life. Besides having Ferris for his best friend, Cameron\u2019s definitely on the outside too, I figured because of his repressive home life. He wasn\u2019t free and easy. That was also easy to tap into.<\/p>\n \u2018When we sent the car flying out the window, the whole crew erupted into an enormous cheer\u2019 \u2026 Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara and Alan Ruck. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy<\/p>\n