The entire cast of 1985’s The Breakfast Club reunited on the same stage for the first time in 40 years.
In honor of the film’s 40th anniversary, Breakfast Club stars Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy reunited at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) during a panel moderated by Josh Horowitz for a live taping of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast on Saturday, April 12.
“I skipped all my high school reunions, so this was something that finally felt like I needed to do, just for myself,” Estevez, 62, who played jock Andrew in the film, said during the panel with regards to how long it took for a reunion with all five main cast members to finally take place.
“But this one felt special because it’s here in Chicago where we made the film, it’s the 40th anniversary,” he continued, “and I just love all of them [cast] so it just made sense.”
Directed by John Hughes, The Breakfast Club follows five teenagers from very different backgrounds — Brian Johnson (Hall), Andrew Clark (Estevez), Allison Reynolds (Sheedy), Claire Standish (Ringwald) and John Bender (Nelson) — as they gather in the library of the fictional Shermer High School to serve Saturday detention from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“This is one of those movies that stands the test of time,” Estevez said of The Breakfast Club. “It’s a cross generational film…we were lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time.”
Ringwald, 57, noted during the panel that Saturday marked the first time Estevez had joined the rest of the cast for a reunion, joking, “We don’t have to use the cardboard cutout anymore. I feel really moved that we’re all together.”
During the panel, the cast reminisced with the audience about working with Hughes, who along with The Breakfast Club directed other iconic movies such as Sixteen Candles (1984) and Pretty In Pink (1986). (Hughes died in 2009 at the age of 59.)
“Hughes meant it when he said to us to participate in the process of making this movie,” Nelson, 65, said of the late director on Saturday. “He liked us, I didn’t know how rare it was going to be for a director to like actors… He’s the first writer who could write a character who was young without them being less.”
Ringwald, for her part, reflected on what it was like to rewatch The Breakfast Club with her daughter. (Ringwald shares daughter Mathilda, 20, and twins Adele and Roman, 15, with husband Panio Gianopoulos.)
“It changed my parenting, watching with her…but how it spoke to her, which character she identified with and why, opened up this incredible conversation,” Ringwald shared. “If you would have told me when I was 16 years old, one day I would be watching that movie with my 10-year-old and it changed the way that I parent…it’s just mind blowing.”
