Matthew Broderick

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

 

  1. Judge Reinhold, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, 1981.     The US high school movie..! Researched and written by Cameron Crowe, directed by Amy Heckerling. In the Brad mix with Nicolas Cage, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn – and Matthew, who quit when his actor-father, James Broderick, was dying.  It is not known, of course, if Matthew would have used a dildo (like Reinhold) in his masturbation scene – so realistic it made co-star Phoebe Cates freak out. Her shocked expression was not acting!   

  2. Michael J Fox, Family Ties, TV,  1982-1989.        Ditto.  His father died in 1982. Fox said his  audition  was ”terrible” and he begged creator Gary Goldburg for  another chance.  And  a star was born.  His TV father, Michael Gross, walked into  the NBC mailroom early in the  the first season, “and discovered several Santa-sized sacks of mail for Michael J Fox.”

  3. Jon Cryer, No Small Affair, 1984.      Broderick started his first feature in 1981, shuttered after two weeks following Martin Ritt’s heart attack. Marty died in 1990 after four more movies
  4. Matt Dillon, The Flamingo Kid, 1984.        Offered to Matt One  and totally re-orchestrated for Matt Two.
  5. Michael Keaton, Batman, 1988.
  6. Michael Caine, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, 1989.       The Bedtime Story re-tread for (first) Mick Jagger-David Bowie was being re-prepped when somebody realised that Matthew would look like Steve Martin’s grandson.   Or paedophilia victim!
  7. Christopher Daniel Barnes, The Little Mermaid, 1989.         Jim Carrey and Broderick (who later voiced Simba in The Lion King) were in the Disney frame for Prince Eric. Until an ex-kid star won the day – aka Greg in The Brady Bunch movies.  
  8. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Total Recall, 1989.     After 42 drafts, no third act and one bankruptcy, Total Recall became another word for jinx in Hollywood… Italian cinemogul Dino De Laurentiis’ never-ending Martian thriller was nearly made by Dreyfuss in Italy, Patrick Swayze in Australia… and William Hurt for Canadian director David Cronenberg… Next up for the heroics were Jeff Bridges, Christopher Reeve, Tom Selleck before almost becoming a B-movie with little Broderick (!) or Mark Harmon (cheapest on the list). Then, Dino went belly-up… enabling Arnold to take over (Dino had refused to audition him!) and move Mars to Mexico where everyone got the touristas except him – he had his food, water, B12 shots flown in from home after a rotten Mexperience during Predator, 1986.
  9. James Spader, Bad Influence, 1990.       All set at Universal, when “creative executives” called up producer Steve Tisch.  “Yes, they wanted it lighter. Ferris Bueller Meets The Devil.”
  10. Keanu Reeves, Point Break  1990.   The search for young FBI agent Johnny Utah, infiltrating a gonzo surfer gang of bank robbers in ex-President masks – and falling under the spell of their guru-ish leader – covered  Matthew Broderick, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp, Val Kilmer,  Charlie Sheen and even Patrick Swayze (who played the guru),  But director Kathryn Bigelow  said Reeves had to be Utah or she wouldn’t  make the movie.

  11. Vincent D’Onofrio, The Player, 1992.      When director Sidney Lumet was due to film Michael Toklin’s novel.  Matthew has starred in Lumet’s Family Business, 1989 – as Dustin Hoffman’s son and  Sean Connery’s grandson. Oh, Hollywood!
  12. Michael J Fox,The Frighteners, 1994.   If Fox didnlt fancy  the role  of Frank Bannister, New Zealand director Peter Jackson had two reserves in the wings: Broderick and… Tom Cruise!   (The poster was greater than the flick).
  13. Robert Sean Leonard, Killer: A Journal of Murder, 1995.   Two other youngstars, Broderick and Robert Downey Jr, were also seen for Henry Lesser, the out-of-his-depth prison guard at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, trying to aid and understand (who could?) the serial killer Carl Panzram – confessing to 21 murders and a thousand sodomy attacks.  He was hanged in 1930.
  14. Tim Robbins, The Shawshank Redemption, 1993.  “There’s no way of knowing,” said Jeff Bridges,  “if the film you turn down would have been as big if you’d been it.” Charlie Sheen basically offered to make it for free! But Bridges, Matthew Broderick, Nicolas Cage, Kevin Costner (drowning in Waterworld), Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks (busy Forrest Gumping) were in the loop for clever Andy Dufresne – the jailed banker once handled the finances of Kurt Dussander, according to Apt Pupil, another of the filmed short stories from Stephen King’s 1982 collection, Different Seasons.  The title baffled the public (until smashed DVD records). It had been Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, and director Frank Darabont was swamped by agents touting their glamour pusses to play Rita… in the 43rd of King’s staggering 313 screen credits.
  15. Steven Weber, Jeffrey, 1995.      Evidently, one gay stage role- Torch Song Trilogy – was enough.
  16. Jay Mohr, Picture Perfect, 1997.    Jennifer Aniston’s first post-Friends movie and she was seriously displeased that Mohr was chosen over her then lover, Donovan.  The first day of shooting was one long tirade from her.  “Six guys they screen-test! Six… The one fucking guy I hate, that’s the guy they hire. Him!” The testees escaping her wrath were Broderick, William Baldwin, John Corbett, Tate Donovan and future talk-show host Jon Stewart.  She had cooled down somewhatg when Baldwin made The Object of My Affection with Aniston without any trouble the following year.
  17. Tobey Maguire, The Cider House Rules, 1999.      A few years before Toby, it was set for Matt, 13 years his senior.
  18. Russell Crowe, A Brilliant Mind, 2001.   The choice of the right actor to  portray the schizophrenic Noble Prize-winning mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr was vital.  Which had me wondering  why Keanu Reeves, Charlie Sheen, John Travolta and  Bruce Willis   were on the short-list!    Then again they might have proved as surprising as Crowe. Director Ron Howard’s other candidates included Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Nicolas Cage, Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr, Ralph Fiennes, Mel Gibson,  Jared Leto, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt. Nash  liked the  six-Oscar-winner. “But it wasn’t me.”
  19. Zach Braff, Chicken Little, 2004.    To find the right voice for the hero of the paltry poultry picture, Disney went through Michael J Fox, David Spade – even Holly Hunter when the suits thought of a heroine. Plus Broderick – with his wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, in the frame for Abby Mallard.
  20. Michael C Hall, Dexter, TV, 2006-2013.   The Showtime cable network shortlisted 14 stars, from the impossible to the plausible (Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, James Spader) for the Miammi Metro PD bloodstain pattern analyst moonlighting as a serial killer… of criminals escaping justice.
  21. Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad, TV,  2008-2013.    “Really? Isn’t there anybody else?” said the AMC suits when  creator Vince Gilligan named his #1 choice for his anti-hero Walter White. (They leant more towards Broderick or John Cusack). Trouble was they still saw   Cranston shaving his body in Malcolm in the Middle.  So Gilligan showed them Drive,  a 1988 X-Files episode,  with a desperate  Cranston suffering radiation. The deal was done – for many years,  Emmy awards and stupendous reviews.
  22. Jim Carrey,The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, 2012.      Wonderstone is a jaded magician losing ground to the new young thing – also offered to Sacha Baron Cohen before being grabbed by Carrey… his third movie with Steve Carell.

 

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  22