• October 16, 2006
• Vol. 66
• No. 16

Guess What's 20 Years Old? 'Anyone?... Anyone?...Bueller'

Ferris said it best: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Prime example? The two decades that have flown by since Matthew Broderick played hooky as an ingenious Illinois teen in the 1986 comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Along with educating Gen X on how to fake an illness (make your hands clammy) and scam a table at a fancy restaurant (insist you are Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago), the movie "reflects a more cheerful and naive view of life," says Ben Stein, who played a high school economics teacher. And if his onscreen class was, like, totally worth blowing off, Stein does teach one unforgettable lesson about the film that made him into a cult star: "It's a happy movie about optimism, and a movie that should be a classic."

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Casting Crib Notes

MATTHEW BRODERICK

FERRIS Now 44, the future husband of Sarah Jessica Parker was fresh off his Broadway run in Biloxi Blues when he beat out John Cusack to play Ferris. An added bonus to his breakout performance? He kindled a brief romance with Jennifer Grey.

ALAN RUCK

CAMERON Originally cast in The Breakfast Club, Ruck was 29 when director John Hughes tapped him to play Bueller's hapless pal instead. Now 50, he has since appeared in Cheaper by the Dozen ('03) and TV's Spin City.

MIA SARA

SLOANE The Brooklyn-bred Sara, now 39, had just graduated from high school when she landed the role of Ferris's sweetheart. The mother of two continues to act, guesting on shows such as CSI.

JENNIFER GREY

JEANIE After playing Ferris's jealous sister, Grey starred as Baby in Dirty Dancing. Now 46, she's the proud mother of 4-year-old Stella with actor Clark Gregg.

BEN STEIN

ECONOMICS TEACHER Stein had to improvise his monotone lesson while he was on medication for a toothache. "I was kind of dizzy," admits Stein, now 61. The effects were dizzying too: The former Nixon speechwriter went on to star in other films and hosted the Emmy-winning game show Win Ben Stein's Money. Not that anyone will recall those feats. "I expect," he says, "it will say on my gravestone, 'Bueller, Bueller.'"

The Story Behind the Ferrari

Ever wonder what it felt like to ride in the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California? So do the stars. Due to insurance costs, producers didn't use an actual Ferrari; instead they covered three Mustangs in fiberglass molds modeled after the luxury car.

Also Starring ...

When it came to casting her Bueller bad-boy love interest, Grey (left) suggested newcomer Charlie Sheen, her costar in 1984's Red Dawn. And long before she skated with celebrities, Kristy Swanson, then 15, scored the memorable line, "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night!"

Whatever Happened to John Hughes?

The Northbrook, Ill., native practically invented the '80s, writing Sixteen Candles ('84), The Breakfast Club ('85) and Some Kind of Wonderful ('87). Since his heyday, he's lived on a farm near Chicago, rarely doing interviews. Don't rule out a comeback. "I want to direct one more," Hughes told USA Today in 2000. "And go out in a roaring blaze of embarrassment."