Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1986: Alan Ruck in Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Alan Ruck did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. 

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off follows a young man named Cameron as he suffers split personality disorder envisioning his “best friend” Ferris (Matthew Broderick)’s outlandish day off. 

I begin with the oft made joke about Ferris Bueller as a Fight Club scenario, but honestly it works a little too well by just how much Ferris is able to do, get away with and sort of represents a potential idealized version of the “Cool guy” someone like Cameron might imagine for his own day off compared to his actual day off, and if you examine the film from a certain point of view it does all make sense. Ruck is very much the balance of the film, ostensibly as the “uncool” lanky best friend to Ferris but in reality it is Cameron who is anything in the film that doesn’t represent more so that day off fantasy from, for the lack of a better word, more juvenile fantasy. Cameron is the contrast, the reality and the depth of the piece and Ruck’s own performance is key to all of it. Something evident from the opening scenes where you see Ferris, in the fantasy, easily fool his parents by pretending he’s sick to his extremely gullible parents as though we’d be all so lucky to have parents buy everything at such face value. Contrasting that is the more realistic situation when Ferris calls Cameron, who we too see lying in bed though in a genuine stupor. Something that Ferris insists is all in his head, and Ferris is correct, however it isn’t all that simple given it is clear from Ruck’s performance that it is of a psychological pain which Cameron is suffering from. What Ruck does so well particularly given that he was nearly 30 at the time, is embody a specific teenage ennui within his performance from this outset, as what he successfully plays is very much the boy in the man and vice versa a certain constant. Something found in his first scene of explaining to Ferris that he’s at death door with his own self-diagnosis with genuine exasperation of a man fed up with life, however followed by a song about his own doom, which honestly would not work if not Ruck’s performance of it being so pitch perfect that it creates also the sense of the child aspect of Cameron’s approach to the situation. 

The next time we see Cameron it is in a more overtly comedic situation when Ferris is calling the school principal (Jeffrey Jones) in order to get his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) out of school for the day as well, where Cameron is called upon for the ruse by pretending to be Sloan’s father over the phone. Something that is realized through a Gene Saks impression and again you have great work from Ruck in specifically the way he is able to maneuver a more insightful tone in his performance. As in part he certainly does make the joke of the overly haughty sounding father being outraged by the principal, but when he breaks for a moment in the plan, Ruck genuinely is great in being suddenly so honest in revealing much more a teenager’s anxieties over potentially getting caught in this lie. The switch by Ruck feels so authentic from the two sides as he finds his confidence again and gives a very much juvenile grin to Ferris as he proceeds with the impression once more. Where there is a great bit of chemistry shared between the two as you see in that moment 10 year old Cameron and Ferris playing a prank together. Again what Ruck excels with is creating this certain personal limbo that defines who Cameron is during the day off. Before going to get Sloane however Ferris proceeds to want to use Cameron’s father's prized Ferrari for their day’s hijinks. Something that Cameron outright rejects, where Ruck instantly gives you a sense of where Cameron’s state of mind comes from. As he speaks with an understated, but very potent fear, that is part of the idea of taking the car, but Ruck internalizes in his eyes to something deeper alluding to very real terror at the idea of dealing with his father. Ruck in a moment of setting up later events grants us insight into where Cameron is coming from and this isolating quality of his existence. 

Cameron’s reaction then to the day of various activities in and around Chicago with Ferris and Sloane is the dramatic meat of the film, which is mostly designed as lighter fun, but within Cameron and Ruck’s performance is where you get more. Much more honestly as he punctuates moments throughout the sequences to grant them a far greater depth than you would perhaps even expect, and a big reason why is just how much Ruck brings to the role. Take the moment they’re overlooking the stock exchange and he says he sees his father. Ruck brings so much in just his look and in that statement that is filled with dread and a fundamental disgust that speaks to his existence. Something we are given more bluntly when he attacks Ferris’s idea about suggesting an impromptu marriage to Sloane, which Cameron objects to based on the principle of the misery of his parents. Ruck attacks this existence more directly, and effectively so in placing just his exasperation and anger that again creates the years of dealing with that misery. Or you have the moment with Sloane talking about their potential futures, where Ruck is incredible, and in a weird way the chemistry he has with Sara always seems to cut deeper than her moments with Broderick. But anyway, it’s a beautifully realized moment where both admit they’re not interested in anything for their future, and Ruck is incredible because his face manages to convey both this joy of in a way holding onto an aimlessness of youth yet there is still a striking somberness in that exuberance who knows such aimlessness can’t last. However there is no greater moment in this sense than when they go to the art museum and it is a purely silent moment of examining the La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat. Ruck is outstanding because the moment is made by his performance where you see this young man going through all the existential pain of his existence yet with this strange calm as he focuses on just this painting and makes a moment purely out of the silence where he reveals more of Cameron in that silence.

Of course Ruck is also good in playing into just the fun of the moments in being the more straitlaced sidekick reacting with concern to Ferris’s recklessness, particularly over his dad’s Ferrari, and Ruck balances that with the moments of getting caught up into the fun himself. Making it all very natural and balances nicely against Broderick’s far broader fourth wall breaking performance. However eventually due to miles gained on the Ferrari due to some less than trustworthy parking garage attendants we return to a broader stroke for Ruck himself, and a particularly broad stroke given first he has to let out a destroyed wail then pretend to be in a state of comatose. Two scripted beats that honestly could’ve fallen flat yet Ruck impressively makes work, by honestly going big but not too big. Even his face in comatose, as silly as the idea could be, the fact that he chose the slightly pained expression as the frozen one makes it work and still feel like the same Cameron we saw staring pensively at the painting earlier. Leading however to a particularly stellar moment where Cameron falls into a pool to be rescued by Ferris, leading Cameron to reveal his coma as a joke and to tell Ferris that he’s his hero. A magnificent moment due to Ruck’s delivery where there is the joke aspect of it that works, where Ruck’s delivery basically is “fangirling” for the lack of a better description but even in the joking moment, Ruck still makes it all part of this certain personal exasperation with life that makes it still feel absolutely real to the character. Leading to the scene of the film where Ferris’s dumb plan to reduce the mileage on Cameron’s dad’s Ferrari naturally doesn’t work. Ruck is absolutely outstanding as he finally verbalizes every bit of his life that we had been alluding to the whole time. Ruck’s slow breakdown in revealing his heartbreak towards his dad openly but also his rage that is both at his dad and himself with his repeated vicious delivery of “I have to take a stand”. Ruck honestly begins to sound so much older, so effectively so, in stating he will take a stand and build from the heartbreak to his rage of conviction now no longer between himself and his father, now just his father. As he kicks the car, denting it, Ruck brings years of pent up hate towards his father’s cruelty into the moment and there is such catharsis as he notes that he “dented the shit of it”. Ruck doesn’t simplify the moment, showing fear underlining certain words, coming across his face, but in a way only empowers his defiance all the more. That is until he accidentally sends the car out of the window, and Ruck’s surprised “oh shit” reaction is hilarious. But after a moment of silence, Ruck brings back the conviction, but a different conviction than before, less rage induced and with a calmer realization and even strength in every word, even as Ferris insists he take the fall for it instead. Ruck not only that he suddenly even dominates Ferris in a way he never has before in his insistence and saying one can say no to Ferris. Ruck portraying in Cameron this calm even happiness now in taking this stand. Ruck is the heart of the film through this realization of this arc through every step up of the way. A genuinely emotional portrayal of the aimless depressed youth finding joy and his strength, which is all the more impressive by just how easy he makes it all look. Where he goes from so young, to mature in moments, finding the intricacies of this life that is complicated and brings us from the sad teen with no hope, to the young man with a chance in life in through such an honest and powerful journey.