Chances are that if you fell in love with a dance sequence in a major movie over the past four decades, it was because of Kenny Ortega. The choreographer/director has worked on some of the best '80s classics, like Dirty Dancing and, of course, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. John Hughes’ classic high school hooky comedy was actually Ortega’s first “directing assignment” in his early career.
Part of those duties included calming a nervous Matthew Broderick before filming the big Chicago parade sequence. So clearly the pressure was coming from a pretty relatable place. When Kenny Ortega sat down with ET to discuss some of the his most notable achievements, he described those concerns, and how they were eventually settled, as follows:
Matthew, the first day I laid eyes on him was in a rehearsal. He was in a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, and he was a nervous wreck. He was like, 'I've never danced before,' and I was like, 'Don't worry about it. We're gonna figure this out together.' And he was the most charming, wonderful, sweet man to work with.
Of course, we now know Matthew Broderick as a song and dance man thanks to working on projects like the Broadway mega-hit The Producers. However, his duties on Ferris Bueller (which is currently streaming through a Paramount+ subscription) were fairly early in this still burgeoning career. Keep in mind, by that point his major claims to fame were the films WarGames and Ladyhawke.
Those movies, while being absolute classics, didn’t exactly work out the musical muscles required. That is, unless I missed a scene where Mr. Broderick and the WOPR supercomputer sang a stirring duet of “We'll Meet Again.”
Adding even more pressure to this scenario was the fact that this movie moment to feature The Beatles' cover of “Twist and Shout” not only needed Matthew Broderick to lip-sync and dance, he had to do it on an actual parade float in a sequence that needed to be nailed in one take.
Kenny Ortega, who was directing the second unit on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with 12 cameras in an actual Chicago parade, certainly had his work cut out for him on his end too. The results speak for themselves, as you’ll see in the clip below, featuring what’s now regarded as one of the best ‘80s movie music moments:
Ferris Bueller may not be one of the “real heroes in ‘80s movies,” but he sure knew how to cut a rug. Landing the moment that saw Matthew Broderick helping to prove that 1986 was the best year for movies, Mr. Ortega’s skills would go on to land even more dancing feats, with Hocus Pocus and High School Musical awaiting him down the line. For those achievements and more, I think we all have to admit once again that Kenny Ortega is a righteous dude,
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