Since his impressive initial run in the 1980s, Matthew Broderick has always been the kind of actor who never fully goes away but comes back big every few years. 1999's "Election," for instance, helped him bounce back from the disappointing "Godzilla" the previous year, with his then-most-recent role of note being 1996's "The Cable Guy" — though that wasn't especially well-received in its day and took a while to be recognized as an underrated comedy classic.
In the new millennium, however, it had been some time since Broderick tackled a non-cameo part in a movie that got any sort of significant attention or acclaim. That said, he carved out a character actor niche for himself on television in the 2010s with roles on series like "30 Rock," "Louie," and "The Connors," and continued to enjoy success as a Broadway superstar in plays and musicals. Still, years seemed to pass Broderick assumed any major presence on either the big or small screen. It all changed in 2023 with the double-whammy of an appearance in the well-received Jennifer Lawrence comedy "No Hard Feelings" and a starring role in Netflix's limited series "Painkiller" as the real-life man who ran the company that first developed OxyContin and was said to play a pivotal role in America's opioid crisis. Playing such opposing characters — and one each for film and television — served as a great showcase for Broderick and a reminder of why he's still around nearly 40 years after breathing life into his most famous character.
