Molly Ringwald criticises “pejorative” Brat Pack label: “It minimised the work”

The Breakfast Club star Molly Ringwald has talked about how she dislikes The Brat Pack, a label used to describe a group of actors including herself who were successful in the ‘80s.

Ringwald appeared in a number of films by the late director John Hughes in the middle of that decade, including The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, and Pretty In Pink. While the films are considered teen classics, the ensemble that appeared in those films, including Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, and Rob Lowe, were characterised by the media for their partying lifestyle.

In 1985, David Blum wrote an article for New York Magazine about a new group of up-and-coming actors, describing them as “Hollywood’s Brat Pack”. The name stuck, and actors connected with the term have described their unease with the label as they grew older, including Ringwald.

Speaking at a Breakfast Club reunion panel at MegaCon Orlando on February 7, the actor said she found the term “a pejorative”, adding:  “It was a play on the Rat Pack, which was a group of, you know — Sinatra and Sammy Junior, those guys — and it was a term that was coined after this New York Magazine piece, and then we all sort of fell under this, this banner”.

She explained that, as an actor, the term felt pejorative: “I think it kind of in a way sort of minimized the work that we were doing. I mean that’s the way that I felt”. In 2024, Blum wrote a reflective piece for Vulture that explained: “Nothing prepared me for the firestorm of attention that resulted”, with the term being used on TV, in the press, and reviews at the time. He concluded, however, by saying: “I Called Them Brats, and I Stand by It”.

Last April, Ringwald looked back on The Breakfast Club’s legacy and said the film hasn’t “aged well”, remarking: “I’m glad we’re able to look at that and say things are truly different now”.

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