Molly Ringwald Watched This John Hughes Movie With Her Daughter, Says It Hasn't 'Aged Well'

John Hughes made impactful, coming-of-age comedies throughout the ’80s. His films appealed to young (mostly white) people in a way that made his name part of the zeitgeist. To this day, people reference or try to emulate his films. There’s even a sequel to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off about the car garage guys in production. Hughes’s legacy is longstanding, even if aspects of it haven’t aged well.

As I mentioned earlier, Hughes’s films weren’t exactly diverse. Not only did they not feature many characters of color, but if they did, the portrayals weren’t the most sensitive. I’m looking at you, Long Duk Dong. Hughes’s characters were often in high school, so relationships were naturally large parts of his narratives. As one of his star actresses, Molly Ringwald, realized recently, some of those narratives haven’t aged well.

Ringwald sat down with The Times Of London and during the interview, she mentioned watching The Breakfast Club for the first time in years. Ringwald has had children since the film’s release, which can change anyone’s view of things, especially if you experience said thing through your child’s eyes.

Ringwald said, about seeing the film with her daughter, “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.” She’s not wrong, and this is a healthy attitude to have.

Not everything is going to age well. Some things have to be watched with a healthy dose of context. Still, just because things don’t age well doesn’t mean we throw them out entirely (most of the time). For instance, Ringwald may think parts of The Breakfast Club haven’t aged well, but she still had a good time making it. “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,” she told the outlet. “He would just let the camera roll and we would improvise. It was a very free, creative experience.”