Pardon My French: Alan Ruck Is Excited to Return to Milwaukee and Celebrate Ferris Bueller

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Actor Alan Ruck hasn’t visited Milwaukee since he had an audition in 1979 when he was in his early 20s. However, that will be rectified when he returns May 5 to the Pabst Theatre for a screening of John Hughes’ hit 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—in which he plays best friend Cameron Frye—and to participate in Q&A and meet and greet.

“I’m excited,” says Ruck during a recent Zoom interview. “I'm going to talk about what anybody wants to talk about. This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. I’m looking forward to it. I think it’ll just be fun to get out and meet some people. And by the time I’m done with this tour, I will have watched the movie nine times again. So, I think at the end of this, I think I’ll be good for a long time with Ferris Bueller.”

A trip back to the Midwest is extra special for Ruck because it’s where he spent much of his early life and got his start, and Chicago is where Ferris Bueller was filmed. He grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, and later went to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana for college. He later moved to Chicago to start acting. 

“I love Chicago. It’s a beautiful city. It’s one of the prettiest cities in the United States, I think,” he says. “And then I got a Broadway show with [co-star] Matthew Broderick called Biloxi Blues. And then right after that show I got Ferris Bueller's Day Off, so I got to come back to Chicago.

“I lived in Chicago for about five years, and I got to come back and shoot a movie there. So, I kind of felt like I was coming home, even though Chicago was not my boyhood home. I felt like an adopted son. I have a great fondness for Chicago because that's where everything started for me.”

The Shepherd Express caught up with Ruck recently to discuss why he feels Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and his character of Cameron is still relatable almost 40 years later, how his friendship with Broderick made the experience not feel like a job, and how he was able to sink to the bottom of the swimming pool.

Since you’re from the Midwest, was it easy acting with those surroundings in Ferris Bueller?

Oh, yeah. I mean, Wrigley Field at that point still didn’t have lights. It was still strictly a day game stadium, and I'd spent many afternoons in Wrigley Field in the bleachers when I lived there. So, it felt like home. 

The film and your character of Cameron are still very relatable all these years later. Why do you think so? What does it mean to see people continue to connect with the character and film?

Well, I’ve said before, I’ve quoted Ben Stein who played the teacher at the beginning of the movie. Wonderful guy. He said, “there's not a mean bone in the movie’s body.” And it’s all about friendship. And if there is any message to the movie, it’s “life moves pretty fast and if you don’t slow down, you could miss it.” And it’s joyous. It’s John Hughes’ love letter to Chicago, a city that he truly adored. And there's this guy, Ferris Bueller, who has this amazingly beautiful, wonderful girlfriend and he’s cutting school, and he could do anything, anything with his day off. And what he chooses to do is to try to cheer up his mopey friend. So, it really is a bighearted movie just about sort of seizing the day and stopping to smell the roses every now and then, because as far as we know, we only get one shot. And you might as well take some pleasure in your life while you can. And it’s a grateful movie too. I mean, he really takes in many of the wonderful things that Chicago has to offer, obviously Wrigley Field, but the art museum, the lakeshore. So, it’s really a celebration of Chicago as well as a celebration of life.

You mentioned before about acting with Matthew on Broadway. You were good friends already before making the film. How did that connection and friendship help you prepare for this role?

Well, lots of times when you’re cast in a movie or a television show, sometimes you film everything out of order. You might have a scene that’s a very dramatic scene between you and your girlfriend or your wife, or your brother or your father or some person with whom you have a very complicated or rich relationship. 

And there’s a famous story about a movie called Swing Shift, and Goldie Hawn in that movie, her character was married to a character played by Ed Harris. So, when Ed Harris comes home on leave after being in the Pacific during World War II and being in battle and everything, he finds out that Goldie Hawn’s character has found a boyfriend, Kurt Russell, and they hired Ed to do that part. And his very first day before he ever met Goldie Hawn, his very first day was that scene where he finds out, he has this big sad argument with her that she has a new boyfriend and he's heartbroken. And he met her that morning just like, “Hi. OK, we’re going to do this.” 

Matthew and I didn’t have that problem. We were already pals. We’ve been working together for over six months, and we shared a similar sense of humor. We made each other laugh, so it was like falling off a log. It couldn’t have been more ideal. There was no work involved. It's just what was true. So, we were very lucky that way.

How did you prepare to film the swimming pool scene?

I don’t know that I prepared too much for it. The problem was that I couldn’t sink for some reason. The special effects man with the film, I believe his name is John Frazier, wonderful guy. And I couldn’t sink. So, what are we going to do? And so, John said, “I’ve got my diving equipment on the truck.” He went to his truck, and he got his dive belt, which is just a belt with a bunch of weights on it, and they hid it under my T-shirt that I was wearing. And the pool wasn't that deep, but there were guys at the end of every take, they'd say, “cut.” And these guys would jump in the pool, and they would lift me up just to make sure that I’d be able to, because I couldn’t hold my breath that long either. I don’t know that I prepared in any way for it other than thinking, I hope I can do it. And then I couldn't sink, so they weighed me down.

How has being a parent influenced the way you look at Cameron?

Well, I think he had a less than ideal relationship with his father in the film. We never meet him, but he’s painted as being a cold and unloving individual who's more concerned about his prize sports car than he is with his own son. So, I mean, I didn’t have that problem. My mom and dad couldn’t have loved me more. They were very supportive. They couldn’t have loved me more. And I think I followed their example. Of course, you never want to be that person that is cold and neglectful and unavailable, so hopefully you’d have to ask my kids. I have two adult kids, and then I got remarried and I have two young kids now. You'd have to ask them if I've been available to them, if I've been supportive, but that’s what I’ve tried to do.

There’s a spinoff film in the works based on the valets from Ferris Bueller. What do you think about them revisiting that world?

Well, I mean, Richard Edson is still alive, but Larry Jenkins unfortunately passed away. I think it would be fun if it was still those two guys from 40 years ago and they’re just now old guys who happened to still be valets at the parking garage. That would be pretty funny. I’m sure it’ll be a funny movie and they're going to do what they’re going to do. I don’t know what the plan is, if it's a plan to have young guys play those parts and if they do, I hope that they give Richard Edson a cameo. That’d be nice.

You’ve had many movie and TV roles since Ferris Bueller including the TV series Succession. How do you think your strategy for preparing for roles now compares with when you first started?

I think there’s a number of things that I still do the same. What I’ve come to learn is that no matter what you have planned, it’s the things that you don’t plan out that really make the movie or the television show work. It’s what you capture in the moment. So, more than ever, my hope or my desire when I’m doing a scene is just to be completely open and in the moment. 

And whatever ideas I have about the scene or where the character is supposed to be emotionally or how the scene is supposed to turn out or who's supposed to win or anything like that within the context of the scene, what matters most is that you just stay alive and open. Because sometimes people, your co-actors will do the craziest stuff unexpectedly, and if you just hang with them, if you just stay in it, you might get something really wonderful. 

So, the key always is spontaneity. And just to do that, you just have to really relax. And that’s something I knew sort of intellectually at the beginning. And just over time I’ve realized that there are a few things that are more important for an actor than to be relaxed and to stay open to whatever might happen.

While there hasn't been a sequel to the film, you and Matthew have appeared in various commercials over the years paying homage to the film. What do you like about getting to scratch that itch from time to time like that?

Well, I mean, I’m happy that the movie still resonates with people to such a degree that if you do a commercial or anything like that, people say, “oh yeah.” And it makes them remember the movie and maybe makes them remember their lives during that period and hopefully brings back some good memories for them. So that's satisfying.

Yeah, definitely. What's it been like seeing series like Stranger Things pay homage to the ‘80s?

It’s really fun. I mean, it is an awful long time ago now, the ‘80s. So even though it was a decade when I was still youthful and the decade when things really started to happen, for me as an actor, it’s funny about life. You’re still a young guy. Time does speed up. It truly is relative. And you look at it on paper and you go, “my God, that’s Ferris Bueller. We did that almost 39 years ago, but it doesn't seem like it was that long.” 

So, I’m happy that people my age can look back and say, “yeah, we really had some good times.” There were a lot of wonderful things about the ‘80s. And it is fun now that we’ve become, the times of my life have become a period piece. I’ve only seen the first season of Stranger Things. I have so many television shows to catch up on. There’s so much good stuff out there now. But anyway, I enjoyed it just like everybody else. 

Do you have any places in Milwaukee you hope to get to while you're here?

I was only in Milwaukee one time, and that was in 1979. And I was there for an audition, so I don't know. So, if you have any recommendations, yeah, send me an email and tell me where to go. 

There's always the Bronze Fonz on the Riverwalk that’s not too far from the theater.

Okay. The Bronze Fonz. That’s a good idea.