Matthew Broderick says he and Plaza Suite Costant Sarah Jessica Parker avoided contracting COVID-19 for so long — and despite other cases in his family — that he began to believe he “was one of those people who didn’t get it.”
The actor appeared on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show To talk about his experience with his wife Parker in a tournament Broadway Produce. During the conversation, he opened up about missing several of Neil Simon’s stage performances after he had to quarantine due to testing positive for COVID-19.
“It was really disappointing. We were so anxious and we never got it. Our daughter got it and somehow we didn’t get it,” Broderick said, pointing to the appearance of the omicron variable. The thing is, but I was totally wrong.”
He and Parker both tested positive for COVID-19 days later while they were starring in the Broadway show for Limited Engagement. Several shows were canceled as a result.
While speaking to Cagle and his host Julia Cunningham, Broderick went on to explain that he first noticed symptoms the day he got a booster shot. “I got a booster dose — a second booster dose — and that day I thought I had to get sick because of a booster, but then I was coughing and every time I looked up the side effects of the booster injection, there was nothing to do with the cough,” he said. “Anyway, I got a booster shot and COVID on the same day.”
“So conspiracy theorists can find out for me and send me a note,” he added with a laugh.
Before detailing his experience with COVID-19, Broderick also recalled the night Broadway closed at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The star said Plaza Suite It was at the last rehearsal when the producers came and announced that then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was turning out the lights.
“We were wearing a full costume and wig and everything, but everyone felt like something was going on because basketball and hockey stopped, and here we are pretending the show was going,” he recounted.
The producers gathered the actors in the audience and told the company that it was 5 p.m. and that Broadway had officially closed. “They said, ‘It’ll take two to four weeks,’ and then the producer said to me, ‘Between you and me, it might take six to eight weeks, but don’t tell anyone. Broderick remembers, but we say two to four. “Two years went by and I woke up with a very long beard and came back to the same place. Same fashion, maybe half an inch.”
The Plaza Suite The star went on to joke that “not everyone” has to undergo wardrobe alterations, but eventually returned to his original measurements. “They fit just about everything except my pants. They said, ‘We’ll have to build you some new pants,'” Broderick told Cagle. “But I’m happy to say once I’m back at work again and all I have has shrunk back to my normal, slightly plump self a couple of years ago.”