How Molly Ringwald Became John Hughes’ Unlikely Muse
In an industry where landing roles often requires grueling auditions and cut-throat competition, Molly Ringwald found herself the unwitting muse of iconic director John Hughes in an improbable twist of fate. As the actress recently revealed during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she never had to audition for the career-making lead in Hughes’ 1984 film Sixteen Candles. As legend has it, the director simply plucked Ringwald’s headshot off a stack from her agency, ICM, and finding inspiration in the flame-haired ingénue, penned the script for what would become one of the most enduring coming-of-age films over a single weekend.
“He had gotten my picture from a stack of headshots from ICM, and he just had it up on his wall, and he wrote Sixteen Candles over a weekend, looking at my picture,” Ringwald told Fallon. “So, when it was time to cast it, he cast the girl in the picture.”
The chance encounter and subsequent collaboration sparked a creative partnership between the teenage starlet and director that would shape the films defining Generation X. Riding high on the success of Sixteen Candles, Hughes immediately tapped Ringwald, along with co-star Anthony Michael Hall, for his next project – the 1985 high school drama The Breakfast Club.
Recalling the experience, Ringwald said Hughes made the offer on-set while filming their first project together. “When we finished filming Sixteen Candles, he said, ‘I wrote another movie I want you guys to do.’” Eager to work with the director again, Ringwald signed on to the film that would become one of Hughes’ most renowned.
But the script she would actually film looked far different from the first draft she read. Trying to please studio executives, Hughes packed the screenplay with gratuitous moments like a nude swimming teacher. “He was trying to please everyone, trying to please the studio and just kind of adding stuff,” said Ringwald. “There was a naked teacher in there at one point, swimming. And he said, ‘Are you excited about doing this?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m excited, but it’s really different than it was, you know, when I agreed to do it.’”
Responding to his young star’s feedback, Hughes demonstrated the same collaborative spirit that made his teen stories so authentic. The day after their conversation, the director came to set with reams of script revisions. Together, they combed through the screenplay, with Ringwald and the rest of the cast giving notes on what moments from the first draft should stay or go.
“He was really collaborative,” said the actress of the late writer-director. “The scenes were so well-written that we would always just kind of do it as written, and then he would say, ‘Now just do what you want.’”
Through this creative synergy, Ringwald helped shape the most pivotal films of Hughes’ storied career – from girl-next-door Samantha Baker in the ever-relatable Sixteen Candles to angsty basket case Claire Standish in the enduring The Breakfast Club. Their fruitful partnership rendered Ringwald the quintessential 1980s Hollywood teen queen and Hughes the era’s voice of adolescent angst. And it all stemmed from a serendipitous discovery of a promising starlet in a stack of headshots. Through that fateful first glimpse, a beloved cinematic world was born.
