Molly Ringwald is not here for a Breakfast Club remake, and she’s got a solid reason.
The 57-year-old actress, who starred in the iconic 1985 teen drama, recently spoke at the C2E2 fan convention in Chicago and made it clear she doesn’t think a redo would fly in today’s world.
“I don’t believe in remaking that movie,” she said, according to PEOPLE. “It’s very much of its time. It still resonates, but it doesn’t reflect the world we live in now.” Molly pointed out what a lot of people have already thought: the film is super white. “You don’t see different ethnicities. We don’t talk about gender. None of that. It just doesn’t represent today’s reality.”
Instead of rebooting the classic as-is, she’s all for creating new stories that take inspiration from it. “I’d like to see movies that are inspired by The Breakfast Club, but take it in a different direction,” she added.
For anyone who somehow missed the original, The Breakfast Club follows five high school students, played by Molly, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall, as they bond during a Saturday detention. It became a cult favorite for its raw, real portrayal of teen life in the ’80s. But even Molly admits, as timeless as it feels, some things about it just haven’t aged well.
Back in another interview with Variety, she explained why the film still hits after 40 years. “There are no vampires, no zombies, no werewolves,” she said. “That’s why it lasted. Teen movies now feel like they have to add all that. But this one? It was simple, it was honest. And they haven’t really been able to recreate that.”
She also gave credit to director John Hughes, who had full creative freedom back then, something that rarely happens in studio films now.
Should The Breakfast Club stay untouched, or do you think a modern version could work with a fresh cast and updated themes?