No pain, no gain
Broderick undergoes ‘torture’ to work with Hopkins in
‘Welville’
By Michael Horowitz
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Matthew Broderick’s character Will Lightbody in The Road to
Wellville is akin to James Caan’s author in Misery. Sure, there are
a lot of people around and they’re all being tortured as well, and
the inflicter of pain is a doctor not a fan, and he’s supposed to
get better not write another book, and it’s a comedy not a horror
film. But otherwise, it’s the same story.
He gets hoards of enemas and intestines ripped out for unknown
reasons. He’s strapped to beds and other appliances, cross-trained
and electrocuted. All this while he’s separated from his wife and
tempted by a nurse and another patient under the sheets while under
sanitarium orders not to have sex. Was there any hesitation in
signing up for this crash-course in suffering?
"There was," admits Broderick, "But I think in order to take the
part at some point you have to say ‘I’m not going to think about
that,’ that’s what (Wellville) is."
"Either say no and don’t do the film, or if you’re going to do
the film, jump in fully," he figures, realizing in retrospect some
of the rigors he endured. Some of it was acting, some of the props
were gimmicks, but some of the stretching and suffering was too
real. Says Broderick, who cited working with Anthony Hopkins as a
major reason for getting involved: "I thought the mistake would be
to do it half-assed or to be shy in it."
With three films coming out soon and a play which he’s in
rehearsal for, Broderick is going to saturate the viewing public at
levels near his heyday in the mid-’80s. At the Columbia lot in
Culver City he touches on his upcoming projects and tosses in his
opinion to issues raised in The Road to Wellville. Prone to
speaking in generalizations, and often extremely private, he’s not
the most forthcoming actor alive, but his boyish charm makes him
impossible not to like.
Broderick certainly has had the great fortune to work with some
of Hollywood’s finest. He’s starred with Dustin Hoffman, Marlon
Brando, and in this recent film he shares the screen with Anthony
Hopkins. These screen greats are exciting to perform with and
mesmerizing to view, but Broderick hasn’t been as eager a student
as one might expect.
"None of them have ever sat me down and given me a lesson," he
shrugs, but he insists that he’s picked up a lot from just
observing.
On Brando, with whom he co-starred in The Freshman: "He’s from
another planet or something. He’s very mysterious. It’s hard to say
why he’s so good."
On Hopkins, from their experience in Wellville: "He doesn’t
really like to talk about how he acts. He did a little bit though.
His thing is learning his lines incredibly well. He reads it some
number, 482 times. He literally has a number, so that he can say
the words without having to think at all."
Broderick is in the process of reading and rereading the script
for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the San Diego
play he will soon star and sing in. He also directed and starred in
Infinity, filmed here at UCLA, about a 1920s physicist and his
romantic life. As for Broderick’s romantic life, he’s not saying
much despite partner Sarah Jessica Parker’s constant media tipoffs
and running commentary on their relationship.
It is certainly more monogamous than Broderick’s marriage in the
movie. Will Lightbody hops from bed to bed almost because of orders
to the contrary. "I guess jamming everybody into tight corners and
telling them how evil sex is is bound to make a lot of hanky
panky," he smiles. "There’s probably no better way than to put
people all together at night, in diapers, and tell them that if
they have sex they’ll die."
But that’s really all the observations Broderick cares to make
on his character’s sex life, sex in America, or his own sex life
for that matter. But it’s relatively unimportant to make profound
statements on society for an actor who’s too busy to look back. He
smiles that Ferris Bueller grin and he’s forgiven.