Molly Ringwald says ‘The Breakfast Club’ hasn’t “aged well”

The Breakfast Club actor Molly Ringwald has said the film hasn’t “aged well” in a new interview.

The cult classic from director John Hughs turns 40 next year and in a new interview with The Times, Ringwald, who appeared in the film as character Claire alongside Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy, said some elements of the film “haven’t aged well”.

“I don’t enjoy watching myself on screen. I only rewatched The Breakfast Club, which came out in 1985, because [my daughter] Mathilda wanted to see it with me,” she said in the interview.

“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.”

Bender and Claire share a kiss towards the end of the film, but Bender repeatedly asks Claire about her virginity as well as looking up her skirt at another moment.

“I’m glad we’re able to look at that and say things are truly different now,” she added, talking about the scene in a post #MeToo context.

Cast member Ally Sheedy has also spoken out about elements in the film before, saying that she “never liked” the scene where her character gets a makeover to make her more attractive.

Speaking to The Independent in 2020, Sheedy said: “Listen, it was Hollywood in the Eighties. They wanted to take the ugly duckling and make her into a swan. As far as I was concerned, that wasn’t what I was doing with that character, but that was what they wanted.”

Sheedy also responded to an essay Ringwald wrote in 2018 that interrogated the film in a modern light. 

“I think it’s a good thing to interrogate this stuff,” Sheedy said. “It’s a very good thing. And seeing which parts of it are still relevant or dated and how it speaks to some young people and not to others.”

In 2021, Anthony Michael Hall spoke about director John Hughes’ plans for a sequel to The Breakfast Club.

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