Molly Ringwald Admits She Was ‘Bothered’ By Some ‘Sixteen Candles’ Scenes During Filming

More than 30 years after Brat Pack hit Sixteen Candles premiered in theaters, the film’s star, Molly Ringwald, admitted there are some scenes in the movie that “bothered” her during shooting. In a candid new interview with NPR, the 50-year-old star opened up about certain plotlines that are especially problematic today in the wake of the #MeToo movement. 

For example, at one part in Sixteen Candles, Molly’s character Samantha Baker’s love interest, Jake Ryan (played by Michael Schoeffling), thinks about “violating” his unconscious girlfriend, Caroline. Later, Caroline also doesn’t remember having sex with Anthony Michael Hall’s character, Ted. 

“Everyone says and I do believe is true, that times were different and what was acceptable then is definitely not acceptable now and nor should it have been then, but that’s sort of the way that it was. I feel very differently about the movies now and it’s a difficult position for me to be in because there’s a lot that I like about them,” Molly said of the 1980s. 

“There were parts of that film that bothered me then. Although everybody likes to say that I had, you know, [late director] John Hughes’ ear and he did listen to me in a lot of ways, I wasn’t the filmmaker,” she continued. “And, you know, sometimes I would tell him, ‘Well, I think this is kind of tacky’ or ‘I think that this is irrelevant’ or ‘this doesn’t ring true,’ and sometimes he would listen to me, but in other cases he didn’t.”

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Though Molly said she does “oppose a lot of what is in those movies,” she doesn’t want to “appear ungrateful” to late director John for including her in so many of his iconic Brat Pack films. 

“Having a teenage daughter myself, I know that it’s not always easy to get teenagers to talk. But these films [were able to] break through that. There’s something that really touches teenagers, especially The Breakfast Club, I feel like sort of gives them permission to talk about their feelings — says that teenagers’ feelings really matter,” she added.