Yahoo News Molly Ringwald Says ‘You Can’t Be a Young Actress in Hollywood and Not Have Predators Around’: ‘I Was Taken Advantage of … It Can Be Harrowing’
Molly Ringwald appeared on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast (via People magazine) and revealed that she’s tried to convince her 20-year-old daughter not to become an actor because of how difficult it is for young women in Hollywood. Ringwald, an icon of 1980s teen movies thanks to roles in “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty in Pink” and more, said she was taken advantage of as a young actor — and that it’s nearly impossible not to be as a woman growing up in Hollywood.
“I never really felt like I was part of a community when I was in Hollywood, just because I was so young, really,” Ringwald said. “I wasn’t into going out to clubs. I feel like I’m more social now than I was then. I was just too young.”
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“Well, you’re lucky you didn’t get taken advantage of or got into some sort of horrible situation,” Maron replied.
“Oh, I was taken advantage of,” Ringwald replied. “You can’t be a young actress in Hollywood and not have predators around.”
Ringwald said she was “definitely in questionable situations” as a young actor, but she relied on her “incredible survival instinct and a pretty big superego” to “figure out a way to protect myself” from predators in the industry.
“It can be harrowing,” Ringwald added. “And I have a 20-year-old daughter now who is going into the same profession, even though I did everything I could to convince her to do something else. And it’s hard.”
Ringwald recently watched “The Breakfast Club” with her daughter but found some of the material in the classic film to be outdated, telling The Times of London that “there is a lot that I really love about the movie but there are elements that haven’t aged well — like Judd Nelson’s character, John Bender, who essentially sexually harasses my character.”
“I’m glad we’re able to look at that and say things are truly different now,” she said.
In a viral interview with NPR back in 2018, Ringwald admitted that she feels “very differently about the movies” that made her famous now. She noted a scene in her 1984 classic “Sixteen Candles” has her character’s crush, Jake Ryan, suggesting to take advantage of a passed-out girlfriend at a party.
“When I made those movies with John Hughes, his intention was to not make ‘Porky’s’ or ‘Animal House,’” Ringwald said at the time. “But I think, as 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,” she added. “And of course I don’t want to appear ungrateful to John Hughes, but I do oppose a lot of what is in those movies.”
Listen to Ringwald’s full interview on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast here.
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