There are a thousand people sitting awkwardly in Pick-Staiger Auditorium Monday night, unsure of whether or not to laugh as David Downs ponders whether the star of the show is sexy or not (“He has the drive of a hustler” was just one phrase of the night). With a final request to ask challenging questions, Downs looks over to the side door, and the cheers start.
In strolls Zach Braff, and suddenly the place goes wild. A few girls get up out of their seats to give standing ovations. The 32-year-old star waves a bit and grabs some water off the stool in the center of the stage, a little stunned by the crowd in front of him.
“I’ve never spoken to this many people in my life. It’s pretty exciting,” he says slowly, glancing around the audience and smiling. Girls – and some guys (we do go to Northwestern) – swoon.
Braff should be used to it by now. He’s come to NU a few times before to speak, and each time he’s been a hit. The darling of the RTVF department, Braff is probably best known for his work as Dr. John Dorian (J.D.) on the NBC comedy Scrubs and his feature film Garden State, which he starred in, directed and wrote. So it’s no wonder that he sold out Pick-Staiger to an adoring crowd of Northwestern students – and a few prospies too.
I wasn’t too excited to go see Braff speak. I got a ticket only because, as a PLAY writer, we try to cover everyone we can who’s in the entertainment world, and I could swallow my apathy for an evening for the sake of The Daily. I even sent an email requesting an interview – a standard thing to do, although rarely is it ever granted.
So I was surprised when I got an email saying Braff would be calling me on Friday to talk about his upcoming speech. With no time to plan and already busy with work, I ended up on the phone with him in a stairwell in an office building downtown, finally getting some answers to some of the questions I had for him.
By now he’s spoken to The Daily enough that he has his stock Northwestern answers ready for any interview. Favorite thing about NU? The RTVF program, especially Professor David Downs (the same one who introduced him on Monday night). Least favorite thing? Living in Bobb freshman year (no urinal was safe from the football team). Thing he misses most from Chicago? Jimmy John’s (“I’m trying to open one up in L.A.”).
What about, I ask, those people who come up to you on set and introduce themselves as fellow Wildcats? What do you do?
“I definitely meet a lot of people who introduce themselves from that angle, like we should have a special hug or something. I don’t know what to do – I just end up giving them the Wildcat growl.”
His excitement grows when we started in on one of his passions: directing.
“You know, that old expression of a guy who goes over to a fence, and there’s no way to get over the fence, so he takes his hat off and throws it over the fence, so now he has to get over the fence to get his hat?” he tells me. “I feel that way about directing. It’s insurmountable, but what are you gonna do? It’s the ultimate challenge. It asks so much of you.”
He’s directed both Garden State and a few episode of Scrubs, as well as some music videos (Gavin DeGraw’s Chariot was all Braff). “I really like working with creative people, and when you’re a director you hire the most creative people you can find and bring out the best in them. For me that’s the ultimate creative outlet.”
Braff grew up in New Jersey with three siblings and three step-siblings. “I love New Jersey,” he says, “and that’s where Garden State is set and that’s where the next movie I make will be set.”
He decided on Northwestern for a very simple reason: “I got in.” He graduated from the School of Communication in 1997 after receiving a Studio 22 grant his senior year, one of the highlights of his academic career.
Moving to Hollywood after graduation introduced Braff to the “Northwestern Mafia,” the group of Northwestern grads in Hollywood and New York who wield a lot of power. “It is astounding how many Northwestern people are out here. It’s like the campus annex. I definitely recommend if you’re going into entertainment to have that on your resume out here because there are a lot of people in power who went to Northwestern and are very loyal to the school.”
He finally landed the Scrubs role in 2001. As for the rumors that Scrubs will be canceled after this season, it’s completely untrue. The show will have a seventh season, it’s just a question of what channel it would be on. As for whether he deserves the $350,000 per episode he would receive in the seventh season, he says salary is “all relative.”
Outside of Scrubs, he has a comedy coming out May 11 called The Ex, starring Braff, Jason Bateman and Amanda Peet. “I wanted to do something that was pretty funny. It’s totally in the spirit of Scrubs kind of comedy.”
His next project, though, is the much darker film Open Hearts, an adaptation of the 2002 Danish film Elsker dig for evigt. Braff has already written the script but hasn’t found time to start directing. “I’m trying to shoot it this summer,” he says, following quickly with it depends on the shooting schedule for the next season of Scrubs. He plans to write and direct but not star in, although there may be a supporting role he would take in it.
As for the film’s music, this soundtrack may be just as Grammy-worthy as Garden State. He sent a copy of the script to his growing number of music friends and asked them each to write a song from the perspective of the main character. As he told the crowd at Pick-Staiger, Imogen Heap contributed one of the most beautiful songs he’s ever heard.
Now onto music, he rattles off his current favorites – Regina Spektor, William Fitzsimmons, Jump Little Children for those interested – and then plugs friend and fellow alum Josh Radin (Communication ’96). “He’s blowing up right now,” Braff says. That may be in part because Braff is helping him along. Radin’s music was featured on both Scrubs and The Last Kiss. Braff also directed the music video for Radin’s song “Closer.”
The success of the Garden State soundtrack, he says, was a bit unexpected. “I don’t know too much about music, I know what I like. My friends tease me that I just made a mix tape and won a Grammy. And that’s really kind of true. I just made a mix of music I was listening to.”
The song featured on his MySpace page right now is by Shuyler Fisk – you know, that girl from Orange County? And as for MySpace, Braff is completely into it. He even started his own blog to talk to his fans. His most recent post was on how obnoxious ringtones are and why people should always put their phones on vibrate. “I should blog more. I like it. MySpace is really cool, because if you’re someone who wants to build a fan base, that’s a really great thing to be able to use and just have a dialogue with your fans.”
His MySpace profile – and yes, that is actually him posting there – shows about 236,000 friends. Not bad for the Phi Kappa Psi alum, who admitted in a previous Daily interview that he joined the fraternity because he had trouble finding friends at Northwestern.
And as for advice for all those filmmakers out there?
“You can only learn so much in a classroom, you just gotta go out and do it. And that’s what I did at Northwestern. I just went out and made movies.”4
Medill junior Emmet Sullivan is a PLAY assistant editor. He can be reached at [email protected].
