Molly Ringwald, star of 1980s hit The Breakfast Club, has revealed she only rewatched the movie recently, and was jarred by some of the themes that were glossed over at the time.
Ringwald played Claire Standish, nicknamed “Princess,” one of five disparate school students grouped together during a weekend detention period, in the movie, written and directed by John Hughes, which debuted in 1985. Her co-stars included Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall, with Paul Gleason as the school’s authoritarian vice-principal.
Ringwald told The Times of London she sat down to watch the movie with her 21-year-old daughter, actress Mathilda Gianopoulos:
“I only rewatched The Breakfast Club, which came out in 1985, because Mathilda wanted to see it with me. There is a lot that I really love about the movie but there are elements that haven’t aged well — like Judd Nelson’s character, John Bender, who essentially sexually harasses my character. I’m glad we’re able to look at that and say things are truly different now.”
The Breakfast Club was one of the biggest movies of the era, making $51million at the box office from a production budget of $1million, and contributed to the hype of the “Brat Pack”, referring to the actors who regularly appeared in movies made by John Hughes and others. Ringwald also appeared in Hughes’ titles Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink. She told The Times:
“They were all really fun movies to make. Sixteen Candles, the first movie I made with the director John Hughes, in 1984, was filmed during the summer. He would just let the camera roll and we would improvise. It was a very free, creative experience.”
