Molly Ringwald reveals what she was ‘really not happy about’ on ‘The Breakfast Club’

Molly Ringwald reveals what she was ‘really not happy about’ on ‘The Breakfast Club’

Don’t you forget about her. 

Molly Ringwald is speaking out about a controversial scene in “The Breakfast Club.” 

The Brat Pack actress, 57, reunited with the movie’s stars — Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez — for the “Don’t You Forget About Me: The Breakfast Club 40th Anniversary Reunion” at the C2E2 pop culture convention in Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday.

Onstage, Ringwald spoke about Sheedy’s character Allison’s infamous makeover scene toward the end of the 1985 classic, which has long polarized audiences. 

Ally Sheedy (clockwise from bottom left), Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall in “The Breakfast Club.”
Ringwald (left) and Sheedy during C2E2 on the main stage for the “Don’t You Forget About Me: The Breakfast Club 40th Anniversary Reunion” at McCormick Place on April 12, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. WireImage

“I just want to say that I am not responsible for the makeover,” Ringwald quipped. “And I was really not happy.”

In the scene, the goth “basket case” Allison gets a makeover from popular girl Claire (Ringwald), giving her a preppy look instead. 

This makes jock Andrew (Estevez) notice Allison more since she now conforms to the popular crowd look. 

It’s an odd moment, since the movie is about teens from different cliques getting to know each other in detention, learning that there’s more to them than what’s on the surface. The movie’s themes include the danger of conformity, since each teen has struggled with conforming to their respective clique or surface image.

Nelson (from left), Ringwald, Sheedy, Estevez and Hall during C2E2 on the main stage for the “Don’t You Forget About Me: The Breakfast Club 40th Anniversary Reunion” at McCormick Place on April 12, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. WireImage
Sheedy (left) and Ringwald in “The Breakfast Club.” ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection
Estevez and Sheedy in “The Breakfast Club.” ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

Fans have taken to social media in the past to express outrage with the scene. 

“Watching The Breakfast Club and no matter how many times I watch it, I still get mad at this ‘makeover,’” one complained on X (formerly Twitter). 

“The breakfast club was wild for giving allison a makeover that made her 10x less pretty than when she started,” another fan said

Apparently, Ringwald agrees. 

“I thought that it would’ve been better just to strip off all of the makeup and just have Ally’s face fresh-scrubbed because it’s so beautiful,” she said at the event.

“I didn’t like the way that they did her hair at the end … I was not responsible.”

Ringwald during C2E2 on the main stage for the “Don’t You Forget About Me: The Breakfast Club 40th Anniversary Reunion” at McCormick Place on April 12, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. WireImage
Nelson (from left), Estevez, Sheedy, Ringwald and Hall in “The Breakfast Club.” Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock

Sheedy, 62, told Elle in 2015: “I don’t know if John [Hughes] wrote that, or it was a studio thing that they wanted Allison to go from being very plain to being suddenly very glamorous. I didn’t like that.

“I had come up with this thing about her black eye makeup and very pale skin so I thought, ‘Could it be more that she’s taking this mask off?’ John did give me that and they didn’t really put a whole bunch of makeup on me; it was more about revealing who Allison is,” she continued. “I wish it had been a little more of that and a little less of, ‘Let’s make her pretty.’”

Ringwald (from left), Hall and Estevez in “The Breakfast Club.” ©Universal/courtesy Everett / Everett Collection
Nelson and Ringwald in “The Breakfast Club.”
Estevez (from left), Hall and Sheedy in “The Breakfast Club.” ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

Nelson, 65, however, defended the moment. 

“Those people don’t understand, it’s explained in the scene. ‘Why are you doing this?’ ‘Because you’re letting me,’” he said on Saturday, quoting the movie. 

“That’s why.”

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