- Molly Ringwald said she’s hesitant to share her beloved ’80s films with her younger children.
- The actor said her “woke” 12-year-old daughter might view them as “troubling” or problematic.
- “I just don’t know how I’m going to go through that,” she told Andy Cohen on SiriusXM.
Molly Ringwald starred in some of the most iconic teen dramedies of all time, but she’s worried her children will find them “troubling.”
The actor is best known for a trio of films directed by John Hughes: 1984’s “Sixteen Candles,” 1985’s “The Breakfast Club,” and 1986’s “Pretty in Pink.”
Now a mother of three, Ringwald told Andy Cohen on SiriusXM that she hadn’t “found the strength” to share her famous roles with her two youngest children, the twins Roman and Adele.
“My 12-year-old daughter, Adele, is the most woke individual that you’ve ever met,” Ringwald said. “I just don’t know how I’m going to go through that, you know, watching it with her and saying: ‘How could you do that? How could you be part of something that?'”
Ringwald said there were “elements” in those films that she had come to view as homophobic, but she also described their moral value as “complicated.”
“On the other hand, they’re also about people that felt like outsiders. So they speak to a lot of people,” she said. “I feel like that’s what makes the movies really wonderful.”
“It’s also something I wanted to go on record talking about — the elements that I find troubling and want to change for the future — but that doesn’t mean at all that I want them to be erased,” she continued. “I’m proud of those movies and I have a lot of affection for them.”
Ringwald previously watched “The Breakfast Club” with her elder daughter, Mathilda, 17, who was 10 at the time. She wrote about the “surreal” experience in an essay for The New Yorker, which also acknowledged how the film might be seen as sexist or problematic in the midst of the #MeToo movement.
“It was such an emotional experience that I haven’t found that strength to watch it with my two other kids,” Ringwald told Cohen.
Last month, she described the experience with Mathilda as “draining” in an interview with Newsweek.
However, she also said Roman and Adele “keep asking” to watch the films.
“I really do think that I need to do it, otherwise I’m going to miss my window,” Ringwald said.
The next day, she posted a photo on Instagram of Adele watching “Pretty in Pink,” writing in the caption: “First time. She’s #teamduckie.”
https://www.insider.com/molly-ringwald-wont-watch-own-movies-with-woke-daughter-2021-10