Matthew Broderick has enjoyed a career lasting 40 years on stage, screen and now TV, but he accepts the headline of his legacy will always be “Ferris Bueller.”
The star of new Netflix drama Painkiller, a six-part series exploring the US opioid crisis in which he plays former president of Purdue Pharma Richard Sackler, told the UK’s Guardian newspaper:
“What’s my legacy? Well, I’m Ferris Bueller, I suppose. I have to accept it. And I like it. I’ve made my peace with it.”
Of his evolving career since the hit 1986 film written and directed by John Hughes about a teenage schoolboy playing truant in Chicago, he said:
“People associated me with younger roles, but I wanted them to come with me and get used to the fact that I’m wrinkly. And it was hard. The 90s were hard. Lots of ups and downs. But I always tried to keep at it, keep my heart in it. Hopefully that keeps you in the game.”
And he added: “I always wanted to have a long career,” he says. “And it’s been 40 years, so I guess I must have done something right.”
As well as his role in Painkiller, Broderick will appear on London’s West End stage alongside his wife Sarah Jessica Parker in an adaptation of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite – something Broderick is looking forward to, following the play’s Broadway debut last year.
He told the Guardian of the delight of co-starring with his wife:
“I admire her so much. Never mind personally – loving her and all that – but I admire her acting, too. Sarah started her career on the stage as well. So she’s great at handling an audience. She’s as sharp as can be. She’s got real chops.”