Molly Ringwald Says She Now Feels 'Something Peculiar' About Being Called John Hughes' 'Muse' for '80s Teenage Movies

Mar. 15, 2025

Molly Ringwald (left) and John Hughs on the set of ‘Sixteen Candles’ in 1984.Photo:Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Molly Ringwald’s 1980s collaborations with director John Hughes are legendary, but now she’s looking at them in a new light.Ringwald, 57, opened up about her experiences during the March 11 episode of theReclaiming with Monica Lewinskypodcast. Lewinsky, 51, asked the actress about the story that Hughes —who died in 2009 at age 59— wrote 1984’sSixteen Candlesthanks to inspiration from Ringwald’s headshot.“Yeah, he wrote that just based on a headshot,” the actress said. He had just moved agencies, and they gave him headshots of many of their clients, and he was drawn to Ringwald’s. “He put that up on his bulletin board above his computer station and he wrote this movie,” she said. “And so when it came time to cast it, and they said ‘Who do you want?’ he said, ‘The girl I wrote this about.’ So we met and the rest is history.”Molly Ringwald (left) and Michael Schoeffling in 1984’s ‘Sixteen Candles’.Universal/Kobal/ShutterstockLewinsky asked theRiverdaleactress about the impact of knowing she was his “muse." “He did tell me the story when we first met,” she said, but noted that at the time, she was just 15 herself. “I had nothing to compare it to,” she added. Though she had already done more movies than Hughes (who made his directorial debut withSixteen Candles), she noted, “I was still only 15 years old so I didn’t have a lot of life experience. It didn’t seem that strange to me.”“Now it does,” she said. Lewinsky asked if it felt more strange but “still complimentary” or strange in a “creepy” way.“It’s peculiar,” Ringwald said. “It always felt incredibly complimentary, but looking back on it there was something a little peculiar.” Lewinsky said that when you look at some of the plots ofSixteen Candlesthrough an “adult prism of someone staring at your photo,” it does feel different.From left: Andrew McCarthy, Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer in 1986’s ‘Pretty in Pink’.Paramount/Kobal/ShutterstockRingwald said, “It’s something that I turn over in my head a lot and try to figure out how that all affected me and I’m still processing all of that and I probably will until the day I die.”AfterSixteen Candles, Ringwald also starred in Hughes’ 1985 classicThe Breakfast Club(though she noted that he had written that script before he ever saw her photo). In 1986, she starred in another Hughes teen movie,Pretty in Pink. Ringwald and other teen movie stars from the era became known asThe Brat Pack.Molly Ringwald in 2024.Dia Dipasupil/GettySpeaking to Lewinsky, Ringwald acknowledged the teen movies made her “really, really famous.” “Even though I was happy with the movies I was doing, all the fame and the notoriety, I found it really overwhelming and scary,” she said.“It changed me a bit,” the star explained. “I became very closed and very self-protective in a way that a lot of people sort of misinterpreted. People thought that I was aloof or stuck up. And it wasn’t, it was fear.”

Molly Ringwald’s 1980s collaborations with director John Hughes are legendary, but now she’s looking at them in a new light.

Ringwald, 57, opened up about her experiences during the March 11 episode of theReclaiming with Monica Lewinskypodcast. Lewinsky, 51, asked the actress about the story that Hughes —who died in 2009 at age 59— wrote 1984’sSixteen Candlesthanks to inspiration from Ringwald’s headshot.

“Yeah, he wrote that just based on a headshot,” the actress said. He had just moved agencies, and they gave him headshots of many of their clients, and he was drawn to Ringwald’s. “He put that up on his bulletin board above his computer station and he wrote this movie,” she said. “And so when it came time to cast it, and they said ‘Who do you want?’ he said, ‘The girl I wrote this about.’ So we met and the rest is history.”

Molly Ringwald (left) and Michael Schoeffling in 1984’s ‘Sixteen Candles’.Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock

Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock

Lewinsky asked theRiverdaleactress about the impact of knowing she was his “muse." “He did tell me the story when we first met,” she said, but noted that at the time, she was just 15 herself. “I had nothing to compare it to,” she added. Though she had already done more movies than Hughes (who made his directorial debut withSixteen Candles), she noted, “I was still only 15 years old so I didn’t have a lot of life experience. It didn’t seem that strange to me.”

“Now it does,” she said. Lewinsky asked if it felt more strange but “still complimentary” or strange in a “creepy” way.

“It’s peculiar,” Ringwald said. “It always felt incredibly complimentary, but looking back on it there was something a little peculiar.” Lewinsky said that when you look at some of the plots ofSixteen Candlesthrough an “adult prism of someone staring at your photo,” it does feel different.

From left: Andrew McCarthy, Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer in 1986’s ‘Pretty in Pink’.Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Ringwald said, “It’s something that I turn over in my head a lot and try to figure out how that all affected me and I’m still processing all of that and I probably will until the day I die.”

AfterSixteen Candles, Ringwald also starred in Hughes’ 1985 classicThe Breakfast Club(though she noted that he had written that script before he ever saw her photo). In 1986, she starred in another Hughes teen movie,Pretty in Pink. Ringwald and other teen movie stars from the era became known asThe Brat Pack.

Molly Ringwald in 2024.Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Speaking to Lewinsky, Ringwald acknowledged the teen movies made her “really, really famous.” “Even though I was happy with the movies I was doing, all the fame and the notoriety, I found it really overwhelming and scary,” she said.

“It changed me a bit,” the star explained. “I became very closed and very self-protective in a way that a lot of people sort of misinterpreted. People thought that I was aloof or stuck up. And it wasn’t, it was fear.”

source: people.com