Empire Australasia – July 2019

ILLUSTRATION: MATT HERRING

MATTHEW

BRODERICK

What one thing do you do better
than anyone else you know?
How do you answer that and not seem
like an asshole? Well... I’m good at
avoiding confrontation. I don’t know
if I’m better than everybody else, but
it’s one of my more skilful skills.

Have you ever knowingly broken
the law?
I have a couple of times. Laws that
nobody really bothers with. I’ve broken
a lot of bicycle laws in New York,
certainly, and when I was a teenager
I hopped onto the Subway without
paying a few times. I got caught, too.
There was a fine, and it wasn’t
insignificant for a young man.

What’s your favourite smell?
When your kids are very small, I like the
way their hair smells. There’s a kind of
baby smell that is very nice, I must say.
It’s a little bit of throw-up mixed with
baby shampoo, which is a perfect
bouquet [laughs]. Or maybe a good
Bourbon. I like that smell. Babies
and Bourbon.

What was the first prize you ever won?
The first I ever remember is ‘Mr
Sunshine’, which I won at summer camp.
At the end of the season, they awarded
people with plaques. You know: ‘Mr
Athlete’, or ‘Miss Congeniality’ [laughs].

I was the one that means you’re not good

at anything, which was ‘Mr Sunshine’.

It meant I was friendly, but I don’t think

I spoke that entire summer.

How much is a carton of milk?

I would say it’s about $1.60. I have no

idea. Usually my butler buys it, so it’s

hard for me to remember [laughs]. In my

defence, since we started using phones or

cards to pay for everything these days,

I’ve started to lose track of how much

things cost.

Which movie have you seen more than

any other?

I’ve watched The Poseidon Adventure a

lot. It’s my boyhood. I love Gene

Hackman in that. “God doesn’t want us

on our knees!”

Do you have a signature dish?

I make very simple pasta that my kids

like, which is a tin of tomatoes, an

enormous chunk of butter, and an onion

that you don’t even chop up. You cook it

for half an hour then throw the onion

out, but it flavours the sauce. I think it’s

a Marcella Hazan famous recipe. I don’t

know if that should be a signature dish

— a cat could make it, it’s so simple —

but it’s really good and they love it.

When were you most starstruck?

When I met Al Pacino as a kid. I think

I was about 12 or 13, and my father [James

Broderick] was in Dog Day Afternoon, so

I went to visit him on set in Brooklyn and

he introduced me to Al Pacino. I was

stunned, I could barely talk. But he was

very friendly, quite shy and soft-spoken.

I remember he was kind of littler than

I would have thought from his movies.

What movie scared you most as a kid?

Night Of The Living Dead. I was pretty

young. Definitely too young to be seeing

that. My sister took me and it was shown

in the basement of a church, naturally,

to add to the terror. I never got over that.

When were you last naked outdoors?

Oh, man. Maybe I never have been.

I mean, I’ve taken outdoor showers, so

I’ve been naked behind lots of layers of

metal... No, I’m never naked outdoors.

The idea of, like, lying nude on a beach

is absolutely unappealing to me. I don’t

want to do that. I don’t want to be there.

I don’t want to do it.

Where do you go when you die?

That is a really big question and I am

very unsure about it. I guess the answer

is simply: I don’t know. I hope that you

go somewhere, but I suspect you don’t,

which I find so upsetting that I try not to

think about it. I’m just going to ignore it,

and then hopefully a safe will fall on me

and that’s that [laughs]. DAN JOLIN

COMING

SOON

DAYBREAK

(2019)

Broderick

plays Principal

Burr in this

post-

apocalyptic

high school

comedy drama

series, adapted

from the

graphic novel

for Netflix.

THE

GETTSYBURG

ADDRESS

(2019)

An epic,

embellished

documentary

— narrated by

Broderick

— about

Lincoln’s

famous Civil

War speech.

HOW

MUCH

IS A

CARTON

OF MILK?