‘The Breakfast Club’ Cast Reunites for the First Time in 40 Years

The cast of “The Breakfast Club” just reunited for the first time in decades!

Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy attended a panel at the C2E2 pop culture convention in Chicago, marking 40 years since their last public meetup.

The 1985 classic centered on five high school kids from different walks of life stuck in detention together. Molly played “It” girl Claire Standish, Judd was bad boy John Bender, Anthony was brainiac Brian Johnson, Emilio was athlete Andrew Clark, and Ally was misfit Allison Reynolds. 

During the panel, which was a live taping of Josh Horowitz’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, they spoke about the reunion and more.

Ringwald shared, “I feel really very emotional and moved to have us all together.”

The actress joked of Estevez, who has never attended a reunion, “We don’t have to use the cardboard cutout anymore because he’s here.”

Emilio explained, “I skipped all my high school reunions, so this was something that finally felt like I needed to do, just for myself. But this one felt special because it’s here in Chicago where we made the film, it’s the 40th anniversary, and I just love all of them, so it just made sense.”

He also noted that the original film “is one of those movies that stands the test of time.”

Nelson spoke of late director John Hughes and how he “meant it when he said to us to participate in the process of making this movie.”

Judd explained, “He liked us. I didn’t know how rare it was going to be for a director to like actors.”

Hall agreed, saying, “No one matches that. No one comes close.”  

Hughes died suddenly in 2009 of a heart attack while taking a walk in NYC. He was 59.

Judd went on, “His passing was profound for me, because it’s like the work will always be in a circle leaning one direction. What we needed was the one to counterbalance it, because Hughes explained to us the differences between the young and old. So now is 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 that, which is sad. But in a way Hughes has been telling us, ‘Think for yourself.’” 

Hall, who also starred in “Sixteen Candles” with Ringwald, recalled finding out about “The Breakfast Club” when it was a new project on the horizon.

He said, "John just called up and said, 'I want you to come in.' He didn't have a script. He didn't give me a script.” Hughes asked him, "What do you think about this? What do you think about that?"

Molly revealed, "Originally, [Hughes] was gonna do ‘The Breakfast Club’ before he did ‘Sixteen Candles.’ And then he wrote ‘Sixteen Candles’... and turned it in to the studio and they said, 'Oh, we wanna do that one first.'"

She went on, "So they put ‘The Breakfast Club’ on hold and then, from my understanding, John Cusack was gonna play Bender and Joan Cusack was going to play Allison. I don't know who was gonna play the other parts. And then, after ‘Sixteen Candles,’ he gave me the script."

Sheedy said of the cast’s bond during filming, “I was really happy when we were making this movie… I don’t know if you can tell, but we all really do love each other. It was a dream. A joyful experience.”

Estevez said he doesn’t believe “The Breakfast Club” would be made today, explaining, “Movies today are concept-driven, they’re not character-driven, and the beauty of John is that he focused on characters first. And when you think about trying to pitch this movie today — it’s about five kids sitting in a library all day in detention — the studio executives would march you right out the door and say, ‘Where are the monsters? Where’s the car chases? Where are the big effects?’”

He said at the time, it was not considered a “big, giant, tentpole film as they make today,” adding, “So there was a lot of risk involved, but by today’s standards, this movie, I don’t think, would ever get made.”