The cast of The Breakfast Club have reflected on their memories of shooting the coming-of-age film 40 years on from its release.
The film about five high school students in detention, written and directed by the late John Hughes, became a cult classic after its release in 1985.
Molly Ringwald, who played popular schoolgirl Claire Standish in the film, confirmed it had been around four decades since all five members had reunited.
Ringwald appeared at Chicago Comic And Entertainment Expo (C2E2) on Saturday alongside her castmates Emilio Estevez (who played Andrew Clark), Judd Nelson (John Bender), Anthony Michael Hall (Brian Johnson) and Ally Sheedy (Allison Reynolds).
She said: “I feel really very emotional and moved to have us all together.
“This is the first time that Emilio has joined us. We don’t have to use the cardboard cutout any more, because he’s here.”
Ringwald, 57, revealed that she showed the film to her eldest daughter when she was 10 years old and said “it changed my parenting, watching it with her”.
“A lot of this stuff went over her head, thankfully, but how it spoke to her, which character she identified with and why, it opened up this incredible conversation,” she said.
“And I mean if you would have told me that, when I was 16 years old, one day I would be watching that movie with my 10-year-old and (that would) change the way that I parent. I mean, it’s just mind-blowing.
“And then I watched the movie recently with my 15-year-olds, little more age appropriate, and I have to say that they didn’t pick up their phones once, which to me, was, that was a win.”
Asked about the reunion, Estevez, 62, who played athlete Andrew in the film, said: “This just was something that finally I felt I needed to do just for myself.
“But this one felt special. It’s here in Chicago where we made the film, obviously (it’s) the 40th anniversary, and it just felt like it was time.
“Somebody told me that Molly said, ‘What, does Emilio just not like us?’ And that broke my heart. Of course, no, I love all of them.”
Nelson, 65, said director Hughes “explained to us the differences between the young and old”.
“I always felt in a weird way like that the work was half done, that at some point we would all get back together, because there were too many questions by everyone – ‘What happens on Monday?’,” he said.
The question is asked by Hall’s character Brian in a part of the film where the schoolchildren, all from different social groups, become friends and ponder whether their bond will remain intact when they return to school.
“The film is about the fact that everyone has to make that decision for themselves – what happens on Monday,” Nelson said.
“But I felt, personally, that it was one shoe and I needed the second shoe, and that could only come from John.
“So his passing was profound, for me because … Hughes explained to us the differences between the young and old.
“So now was the time for him to show us where we meet in the end, because we’re all older now, but we’re not going to get there, which is sad.
“But, in a way, Hughes has been telling us ‘Think for yourself, think for yourself, think for yourself’.”
