{"id":558491,"date":"2026-07-20T05:11:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558491\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T05:11:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:11:38","slug":"matthew-broderick-i-hate-critics-but-sometimes-i-respect-them-particularly-when-they-like-me-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558491\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Broderick: I hate critics \u2013 but sometimes I respect them, particularly when they like me \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the consternation of movie fans of a certain age, Matthew Broderick\u2019s<\/a> most famous film, Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off, turned 40 this year. Life moves pretty fast, to quote the eminently quotable Ferris, who thrilled audiences by bunking off high school for the day in the cult-classic John Hughes movie. <\/p>\n

Talking on a video call from the Hamptons beach cottage<\/a> that is a holiday home for the actor and his wife, Sarah Jessica Parker<\/a>, Broderick, in spectacles and a grey T-shirt, says fans of the film are sometimes disappointed when they meet him that he\u2019s not \u201cmore Ferris\u201d. Then he flashes a grin that I\u2019m happy to report is Ferris enough to satisfy even the most ardent superfan.<\/p>\n

Conscious there are pillows in my video background, I tell Broderick that I\u2019m escaping my noisy family by doing the interview in my bedroom. In turn he confides that he\u2019s also \u201chiding\u201d in the bedroom of one of his twin 17-year-old daughters, Marion and Tabitha. (The couple have a son as well, the actor James Wilkie, who is 23.)<\/p>\n

We\u2019re speaking as Broderick prepares to make his Irish stage debut, at the Abbey Theatre<\/a> later this summer, in Ulster American<\/a>, a farce by the Belfast playwright David Ireland<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Broderick first performed the play in New York, with the Irish Repertory Theatre, which is also producing this show. It\u2019s no small event for Broderick to be making his debut on the Abbey stage. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re an actor and you\u2019ve done Broadway, the one you want to do is the West End, and I did my first play there a few years ago. The Abbey is one of those, too, one of the definite markers to show you\u2019re legit,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s very exciting, and I am honoured.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directed by Ciaran O\u2019Reilly, Ulster American explores power, identity and artistic ego through the tense relationship between an Oscar-winning actor, Jay Conway (Broderick), a sycophantic director, Lee Carver (Max Baker), and a spirited Belfast playwright, Ruth Davenport (Geraldine Hughes). The premise is that the three of them have gathered in London on the eve of rehearsals for a new play set in Belfast.<\/p>\n

It is, in essence, a riotous send-up of show business. Nobody escapes ridicule or censure. Actors are described as \u201cgifted, precious, special children\u201d. The play skewers the privilege, sexism, racism and misogyny that are rife in Hollywood. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s an industry Broderick has been involved with for five decades. How does the play\u2019s unbridled mockery sit with him?<\/p>\n

\"FerrisFerris Bueller\u2019s Day Off: Alan Ruck, Mia Sara and Matthew Broderick. Photograph: Paramount <\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy it,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it\u2019s a very good satire of the entertainment world and probably of other businesses, too. It covers everything. I mean, it\u2019s got these two men basically overpowering a female writer. So you\u2019ve got the sexism, and then you\u2019ve got this other thing in show business, which is people just pummelling writers until there is a bloody mess. So I like that about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they have this creepy thing of being very aware and very sensitive about sexism, and bullying, and everything … These two guys endlessly whine about how much they know about it and how much they object to it, but then they do it … So it\u2019s very fun, hopefully, to watch that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broderick\u2019s character is \u201cparticularly awful and probably not too bright, which is also fun to do. It means I don\u2019t have to use my whole enormous brain to play him,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Ulster American also goes to town on critics. At one point Broderick\u2019s character says, \u201cThe only thing I want to see a critic write is a suicide note.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having received both raves and stinkers in his time, how does Broderick feel about reviewers? \u201cI can get very angry about it. I get hurt … but I also am aware that it\u2019s an important role. Anything that increases interest in theatre is good, from my point of view … But, yeah, I hate critics \u2013 but I also sometimes respect them, particularly when they like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UlsterUlster American: Matthew Broderick with Geraldine Hughes and Max Baker in David Ireland’s play. Photograph: Rachel Papo\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

Broderick\u2019s character is under the misapprehension that he is playing an Irish Catholic when in fact he\u2019s portraying a British Protestant. As a regular visitor to Ireland \u2013 he and Parker have a holiday home<\/a> in Kilcar, in Co Donegal<\/a> \u2013 does Broderick have a greater understanding of the nuances of Irish identity than perhaps many Americans do?<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing this play in New York, I lost count of how many people said, \u2018I didn\u2019t understand any of it.\u2019 As soon as the characters start talking about Northern Ireland and Protestants they are totally lost,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s this hugely complicated subject, but the basics of it aren\u2019t that hard. Maybe it\u2019s because the play has a Protestant point of view in it and we don\u2019t hear much of that in America.\u201d <\/p>\n

He imagines it will go over differently with Irish audiences. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll probably have a whole different resonance. I\u2019m sure it will anger people. It\u2019s a subject that is delicate, to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broderick is contractually obliged to have a woeful northern Irish accent in Ulster American. In one of the best lines, the playwright tells the insufferable actor that he sounds like a Belfast Dick Van Dyke \u2013 \u201clike you\u2019re Dick Van Morrison\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing is in this play I don\u2019t have to have a good accent, which is a relief,\u201d Broderick says.<\/p>\n

His character also tries to pretend that he doesn\u2019t care about his Oscar<\/a>. Does Broderick hanker after an Academy Award? \u201cI would be very happy to receive an Oscar. So far, no luck. But, yeah, I would love that. I recently saw James Cagney\u2019s Oscar acceptance speech. He said, \u2018I guess I must have had a pretty good part.\u2019 I liked how humble he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Producers: Matthew Broderick with Nathan Lane in the Mel Brooks musical in 2002. Photograph: Sara Krulwich\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

Broderick was in his early 20s when he emerged as one of the defining actors of the 1980s, combining boyish charm with laidback comic timing not only in Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off but also in films such as War Games and Glory.<\/p>\n

He was an award-winning stage actor on Broadway before he became a Hollywood star: his role in the first production of Brighton Beach Memoirs, the Neil Simon play, when he had just turned 21 in 1983, earned him a Tony award. He picked up a second 12 years later, for his role in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and was nominated for a third for playing Leo Bloom in the Mel Brooks musical The Producers, in 2001.<\/p>\n

Broderick has managed to maintain a career that moves easily between stage, film and television. Standout movies include Biloxi Blues, Election and Torch Song Trilogy. More recently, on TV, he played Richard Sackler in the Netflix drama Painkiller<\/a>, about the OxyContin scandal in the United States.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Painkiller: Matthew Broderick goes for broke in queasy take on Purdue Pharma horror showOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

When we speak he\u2019s getting ready for the Fourth of July celebrations. How does he feel about his country as it celebrates 250 years? <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s limping along. It\u2019s so divisive that I try to stay out of it. I don\u2019t love talking to strangers about politics. I mean, I am an entertainer,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I love America. I was saying the other day to somebody that I get a little unhappy when people start badmouthing it too much when I am travelling, you know? I have home-team loyalty. But some of it is very scary. Things are eroding that I took for granted. So it\u2019s a frightening time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrightonBrighton Beach Memoirs: Matthew Broderick in his dressing room in 1983. Photograph: Barton Silverman\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

As a native New Yorker who has lived in and around the same few blocks in Greenwich Village his whole life, he\u2019s on safer ground talking about Zohran Mamdani\u2019s election as the city\u2019s mayor. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, yes, I mean it\u2019s nice to see a new generation coming up. Very exciting. We\u2019ll see how some socialism goes down.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another boost for his home city was the New York Knicks winning the National Basketball Association championship for the first time in more than 50 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a really big deal in New York,\u201d he says. \u201cIt got everybody in such a good mood \u2013 which is unusual in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broderick grew up with two sisters in a culturally rich household. His mother, Patricia, was a playwright and painter, his father, James, an actor. He has fond memories of acting with him as a child and a young adult, but his dad died of cancer when Broderick was filming War Games, his first movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got sick right when all my professional stuff started, so, you know, it coloured everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Painkiller:Painkiller: Matthew Broderick as Richard Sackler in the OxyContin drama. Photograph: Keri Anderson\/Netflix <\/p>\n

Broderick is, like his Ulster American character, proudly Irish American. He says he doesn\u2019t have much information about his Irish background, despite taking part in a television programme that dug through his past. <\/p>\n

His father didn\u2019t talk much about the family\u2019s lineage, but Broderick\u2019s relationship with Ireland is an enduring and fond one. He turns up \u201cwhen I can\u201d to give prizes at a Kilcar GAA tournament named for his parents, who bought a holiday home there when he was a child.<\/p>\n

He has memories of happy, carefree summers in the northwest of the country. He bought his own home near his parents\u2019 property and says his children love their summers and occasional Christmases there too.<\/p>\n

The bond with the country of his ancestors is mired only by the painful memory of a crash in Co Fermanagh on August 5th, 1987, in which two women died. On that sunny afternoon, Broderick\u2019s rented BMW veered into the wrong lane and collided with another car. Its occupants, Margaret Doherty, who was 63, and her daughter Anna Gallagher, who was 28, died instantly.<\/p>\n

The actor, who was convicted of careless driving, and fined, rarely speaks about the incident. He is visibly stricken when I bring it up. \u201cIt was an absolute tragedy,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to put it into words for everybody. I\u2019m not comfortable talking about it, to tell you the truth,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

We move on.<\/p>\n

Having, in twin 17-year-old daughters, something in common with Broderick, I steer the conversation to this less fraught topic. He\u2019s enjoying being a father of teenage girls. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hear horror stories. But I feel quite lucky. They sometimes get a little moody, but who doesn\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n

Teenagers like to point out how wrong we are about a lot of things. \u201cThey do, and they sneer at me sometimes, tell me how stupid I am,\u201d he says, grinning. \u201cIt\u2019s fun, though. We\u2019re very close.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broderick is extremely private about his personal life. He has talked proudly about acting with his son, James, in an episode of the TV series Elsbeth. He also has one of Hollywood\u2019s most successful marriages: in 2027 he and Parker, the Sex and the City star, will celebrate their 30th anniversary. He points out that the marriage is long not only by Hollywood standards but \u201cby any standards\u201d.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s their secret? <\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I had a good answer for that. Laughing helps. My friend always makes fun of this idea that it\u2019s backbreaking, incredibly hard work to be married, like the hardest job you\u2019ll ever have. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt does take some effort, but it\u2019s not the worst job ever. You have to weather bad periods \u2013 but if you do, you have all that history together.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he\u2019s extremely proud of Parker\u2019s success. <\/p>\n

A few years ago they appeared together in Plaza Suite \u2013 like Brighton Beach Memoirs, a Neil Simon play \u2013 first on Broadway and then in the West End of London. \u201cShe was great. It was fun to do, to see how good she is \u2013 which I knew anyway \u2013 but it was nice to be reminded of what a sharp comedian she is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker on the red carpet for the opening of Plaza Suite, in which they starred, in 2022. Photograph: OK McCausland\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

Broderick says he\u2019s looking forward to spending more time in Dublin during Ulster American\u2019s run at the Abbey. He\u2019s in Ireland a lot, but it\u2019s mostly in Donegal, where the Rev Janet Broderick, one of his two sisters, oversees the Church of Ireland parishes of Ardara, Glencolumbkille, Glenties, Inniskeel and Lettermacaward. <\/p>\n

She performed the marriage ceremony for Broderick and Parker back in May 1997. \u201cShe can marry you. She can do your funeral. She does everything,\u201d he says, smiling.<\/p>\n

A few years before he got married, in 1994, Broderick made a film with his fellow teen heart-throb Andrew McCarthy called Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle, about the American writer Dorothy Parker. I mention that McCarthy performed in The Crucible<\/a> at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin earlier this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know Andrew, but I did not know that. Well, that sort of steals my thunder, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Are there any roles he\u2019d still like to play? <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of classics I haven\u2019t done \u2013 Chekhov and Shakespeare. I did play the wall in A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream in high school. I was very good,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cI love doing new plays, but I think I\u2019m probably missing some of the stuff you are supposed to do if you are going to be a serious actor. It\u2019s too late for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tell him I think he\u2019s done okay, all things considered. He flashes another Ferris-adjacent grin.<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Broderick. Photograph: Marvin Joseph\/The Washington Post via Getty <\/p>\n

Broderick recently said that he thought his acting legacy would be Ferris Bueller. He says now, \u201cI don\u2019t really know what my legacy will be. I only say things like that because I get asked about my legacy, but it certainly seems to be the one everybody knows about.\u201d <\/p>\n

A third generation are now enjoying it, with very young people regularly approaching Broderick to let him know how much they love the film.<\/p>\n

He has tried hard over the years not to be pigeonholed \u201cas this geek teen\u201d, but he has learned to embrace the movie\u2019s popularity. <\/p>\n

His costar Alan Ruck, who played Ferris\u2019s best friend, Cameron, recently suggested a sequel in which the friends are in their 70s and Cameron is in a nursing home.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I used to drink a lot\u2019: Succession\u2019s Alan Ruck on Ferris Bueller, booze and bouncing backOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The action would centre around Ferris springing his friend from the institution for a day. Instead of zipping about in a red Ferrari, the old friends would get around Chicago on mobility scooters and Zimmer frames. <\/p>\n

I tell him I think it\u2019s a great idea. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be fun to watch?\u201d he asks, dubiously. <\/p>\n

Yes, I tell him confidently. <\/p>\n

Us Ferris fans can only hope.<\/p>\n

Ulster American is at the Abbey Theatre<\/a>, Dublin, from Thursday, August 13th, until Saturday, August 22nd, with a preview on Wednesday, August 12th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the consternation of movie fans of a certain age, Matthew Broderick\u2019s most famous film, Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[71185,123301,173112,204206,1485,93,61,60,156814,3422],"class_list":["post-558491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-abbey-theatre","tag-alan-ruck","tag-andrew-mccarthy","tag-david-ireland","tag-donegal","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-matthew-broderick","tag-sarah-jessica-parker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}