A veteran of Broadway, television and motion pictures since childhood, Matthew Broderick relished the opportunity of playing opposite one of the screen's most unpredictable comic whirlwinds. "I was curious to see if his style of performance and mine would blend easily," says Broderick. "But it was a natural pairing, at least from my end. He's very inventive and he brought me out a bit. I think we had really good chemistry. I've worked with Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman and other powerful actors, and they all do one thing: they all make you better, which makes acting easier."

The combination of Carrey and Broderick was a dream for the filmmakers. Once Carrey was signed aboard, Broderick was seen as the perfect foil as well as the first choice by the producers and director to play Steven Kovacs. Producer Judd Apatow notes, "Every day in dailies we would find ourselves laughing really hard at very subtle choices Matthew made in his scenes, many of which we didn't recognize until we had a chance to see them on the big screen."

Stiller adds: "Matthew was really the only choice for the part and I think we were really, really lucky that he did it because he elevates the movie to another level. Matthew has incredible comic timing and and it's great to see Jim and Matthew play off each other."

The extremely physical scenes at Medieval Times demanded that Carrey and Matthew Broderick fight hand to hand with sword, battle axe and mace, plus a full-speed joust on horseback. Filming had to be precise as the movie company was allotted a finite number of days in which to finish the sequence. The Medieval Times Restaurant had never closed its doors before. Stunt Coordinator Freddie Hice planned the fight and riding sequences so that each actor would do the majority of his stunts to insure realism. "We rehearsed the hand-to-hand stuff for two days," says Hice. "Jim is so wild you can't double him. No one can mimic his moves, so he had to do most of the fight himself. But it was exhausting for Matthew and Jim. The real swordsmen and riders do five shows a day, but if we did that we'd drop in our tracks. As it was, we still kept some very long hours."

Aside from the rigorous ride, Broderick had an additional challenge to overcome: "I'm allergic to horses," he says. "So I had to really concentrate not to sneeze all the time. I like fight scenes and physical comedy. But we were doing it in a string of sixteen hour days and that can be quite draining."

Costume Designer Erica Edell Phillips was faced with the problem of replacing potentially immobile and heavy metal jousting costumes for Steven's ongoing fight with the Cable Guy in the sawdust of Medieval Times' main ring. Not only must the new costumes be lightweight and flexible, but also reflect light to resemble metal for the camera. "The way we solved it was almost too easy," says Phillips, who most recently designed costumes for Outbreak. "I found that if we made the jousting costumes out of leather, we could paint them to act and look like metal. Plus it was easier for Matthew's headdress to swivel around, which it must do to obscure his vision during the fight. It worked wonderfully."

The biggest concern for each location used in the "tower/satellite dish" sequence was that rain was called for in much of the footage. This would not only make things difficult for the camera, but the actors' comfort as well. The scenes had to be played out, sometimes at great heights, with water and wind swirling around the performers. One invention helped Matthew Broderick through the interior scenes: a cozy portable hot tub. "I was very cold in those scenes. There is no getting around that," recalls Broderick. "But Jim and I would retire to our little hot tub in Long Beach. We had our wet suits on, so it became very comfortable in a hurry."