The stars of The Breakfast Club came together for the first time in 40 years over the weekend. Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall reminisced at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo on Saturday.
While some of the group had previously reunited, it’s the first time the whole team was together, in particular Emilio Estevez who had not joined the team the last time they reunited. “I feel really very emotional and moved to have us all together,” Molly Ringwald told the crowd “We don’t have to use the cardboard cutout anymore because he’s here (referring to Estevez). I feel really moved that we’re all together.”
Emilio expressed his desire for appearing at the event, stating it “was something that finally I felt I needed to do just for myself. This one felt special, it’s here in Chicago where we made the film. It’s obviously the 40th anniversary, and it just felt like it was time. Somebody told me that Molly said, ‘Well, does Emilio just not like us?’ And that broke my heart. And I went, ‘No of course I love all of them.’ And that just made sense, so here I am.”
The team also reminisced about their experience working with filmmaker John Hughes. “…he’s the first writer who could ever write someone who was young without them being less — except less old” Judd Nelson told the crowd, and Anthony Hall admitting over his 49-year acting career, “no one matches that. No one’s come close”, speaking to his experience with Hughes.
“I always felt in a weird way that the work was half done, that at some point we would all get back together — because there were too many questions by everyone, ‘What happens on Monday?’ The film is about the fact that everyone has to make that decision for themselves [about] what happens on Monday. But I felt, personally, that it was one shoe and I needed the second shoe, and that could only come from John,” Nelson added. “So his passing was profound for me, because it’s like the work will always be in a circle leaning one direction. What we needed was the one to counterbalance it, because Hughes explained to us the differences between the young and old. So now is the time for him to show us where we meet in the end, because we’re all older now, but we’re not going to get that, which is sad. But in a way Hughes has been telling us, ‘Think for yourself.”
Estevez spoke about the filmmakers unique style, stating “Movies today are concept-driven, they’re not character-driven, and the beauty of John is that he focused on characters first. And when you think about trying to pitch this movie today — it’s about five kids sitting in a library all day in detention — the studio executives would march you right out the door and say where are the monsters? Where’s the car chases? Where are the big effects?”
Do we have any hope of a remake?? Molly Ringwald answers that, stating “I personally don’t believe in remaking that movie, because I think this movie is very much of its time. It resonates with people today but I believe in making movies that are inspired by other movies, but build on it and represent what’s going on today. You know it’s very white, this movie. You don’t see a lot of different ethnicities; we don’t talk about gender, none of that, and I feel like that really doesn’t represent our world today. So I would like to see movies that are inspired by The Breakfast Club but take it in a different direction.”
If you’re interested in rewatching the reunion, it’s all here!
