Ferris Bueller director wanted Emilio Estevez for lead over Matthew Broderick
The 1986 movie made a household name of Matthew Broderick, who took on the titular role, but co-star Alan Ruck has revealed that director John Hughes had his mind set on someone else before signing Matthew.
Ferris Bueller’s might have had a completely different Day Off, if director John Hughes had stuck to his original casting plan.
The 1986 movie made a household name of Matthew Broderick, who took on the titular role, but co-star Alan Ruck has revealed that Hughes had his mind set on someone else before signing Matthew.
Alan told The Guardian: “John Hughes originally thought of Anthony Michael Hall or Emilio Estevez for Ferris, but they wanted to move on to different things, so he wisely cast Matthew.
“We were doing this play together, Biloxi Blues. In one scene, he’s writing in his journal and we’re supposed to be asleep. One night, he nudges me. I open my eyes and he shows me his journal. It said: ‘They offered me Ferris Bueller.’”
Both Hall and Estevez had starred in Hughes’ 1985 hit The Breakfast Club, while Hall also worked with the director on Sixteen Candles and Weird Science.
Hughes wasn’t the only one who had qualms about casting Matthew though - the actor himself was initially unsure, mainly due to the fact that he was coming off the back of taking on several “young guy” roles in movies such as Ladyhawke and WarGames.
He also was concerned about breaking the fourth wall when Ferris addressed the camera, as the character famously does throughout the film.
Matthew explained: “I’d done that in two plays and didn’t want to it to seem like that’s all I could do. Meanwhile, my agent said: ‘You’ve been asked to do a John Hughes movie. You’re doing it.’
“I didn’t know much about John at the time, but I kept hearing him being referred to as the ‘Spielberg of teen films’.”
In his interview with The Guardian, Alan also said that it took some convincing to get Hughes to cast him as Ferris’ pal Cameron in the film, due to the director’s fears that he’d be too old for the role at 28.
So Matthew’s agent stepped in to try and get him signed on for the movie.
He laughed: “Matthew’s manager kept laying the idea in John’s ear, saying: ‘Matthew would like to work with Alan.’ That went a long way to getting me the part.
“Matthew and I were already friends. We didn’t have to make that up.”
Since Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, both Alan and Matthew have gone on to have successful acting careers - with the former taking on TV roles in shows such as Spin City and Succession.
However, Alan admitted that it took some time for him to appreciate the success of Ferris Bueller, because he struggled so much to get work off the back of the film.
He said: “Everybody kept talking about Ferris Bueller. I thought that’s as good as it’s going to get for me. As soon as I started working again, I really came to appreciate it.”
