Molly Ringwald Says 'The Breakfast Club' Was 'So White,' New Films Should Take 'A Different Direction'

Brittany M. Hughes | April 16, 2025
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In a particularly notable scene from the classic 1985 movie The Breakfast Club, Ally Sheedy’s distinctively emo character Allison famously states, “When you grow up, your heart dies.”

And apparently for some people, their brain does, too.

Famed ‘80s actress Molly Ringwald, who played Claire Standish in the iconic film, is throwing some shade on one of the beloved movies that made her a household name before the age of 20. According to her, The Breakfast Club, a film set in the Chicago suburbs in the 1980s, is “so white,” doesn’t “talk about gender,” and “doesn’t represent our world today.”

"I personally don't believe in remaking that movie, because I think this movie is very much of its time," Ringwald, now 57, said at a recent cast reunion at the C2E2 convention, addressing a question about whether the classic film may ever see a re-do.

"It resonates with people today," she continued. "I believe in making movies that are inspired by other movies but build on it and represent what's going on today. This is very, you know, it's very white, this movie. You don't see a lot of different ethnicities. We don't talk about gender … none of that. And I feel like that really doesn't represent our world today. So I would like to see movies that are inspired by The Breakfast Club, but take it in a different direction."

Related: Virtue Signal of the Week: Molly Ringwald Says 80s Hughes Films are 'Really, Really, Very White'

The film’s fictional setting of Shermer, Illinois, was based on director John Hughes’ real-life hometown of Northbrook, where the population is currently 78% white, 17% Asian, and about 4% black and Hispanic.

But apparently, forcing in a couple of black trans lesbians and maybe a non-binary chick from Guatemala was really what the whole story needed, senseless as it may have been.

After all, Disney’s tested out this theory, and it’s worked out super well at the box office so far.