Ask Me Anything

10 Revelations From Molly Ringwald’s Reddit ‘AMA’

Highlights of the Brat Pack star’s Reddit ‘AMA’—from the truth behind her lipstick trick to how she stays young. By Brian Ries.

Molly Ringwald is taking over the Internet.

“Your former teen-age crush,” as she describes herself on Twitter, has been on a tear these past few days, amassing 10,000 followers on the microblogging site and, last night, landing on the front page of Reddit.com with an extensive AMA—Ask Me Anything—with her fans.

“Hi everyone. I’m Molly Ringwald," is how she introduced herself. “You probably know me from Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. Though I do lots of other things like write books, speak a little French and, until I started a twitter account three days ago, raise three kids."

Below, we extract our highlights, in which Molly details her start with acting, her favorite behind-the-scenes moments on set of The Breakfast Club, and reveals the truth behind the infamous “lipstick trick.”

How Molly got into acting.

“Originally I considered myself a singer. I used to sing with my father’s jazz band and then when I was ten years old a musician friend of his suggested that I try out for the first west coast production of Annie. I auditioned and I got a part in the chorus. It was my first professional job. Before that, I had been doing a lot of community theater as an extra curricular activity. After Annie I auditioned for a show that would become The Facts of Life, got an agent and landed my first movie at age 13. When I was 15 I met John Hughes and the rest is history."

How John Hughes nearly fired Judd Nelson from ‘The Breakfast Club.’“This is true. I think Judd was doing the method actor thing during rehearsals. He was wearing Bender’s clothes and trying to annoy me. I was fine but John Hughes was very protective of me. We ended up having a powwow, led by Ally. I remember her telling me, “We have to get him focused. Like a laser!" I think a bunch of us including myself called John and asked him to reconsider. I am thankful he did."

The truth behind the infamous ‘lipstick trick.’“Regarding lipstick, it’s all movie magic. There is a story behind that: John Hughes wrote it but never actually thought about me having to do it. He kept putting it off until the end of filming that long scene. I kept bringing it up, like, “Hey. We gotta figure this out. Are we going to have robotic breasts?” Finally we decided it was better to see less and let everyone assume that I was particularly skilled.”

Molly’s favorite behind-the-scenes moment.“When I did the smoking doobage scene “I’m so popular, everyone loves me at this school,” it was basically all improvised and John just let the camera roll for twenty minutes. He was so psyched with everything he got that he dragged my mother into the room where they were showing rushes so she could see how brilliant her daughter was. Of course, my mom was horrified.”

On rumors of sequels to ‘Sixteen Candles,’ ‘Pretty in Pink,’ and ‘The Breakfast Club.’“At one point, six years ago, I was considering participating in a sequel to Sixteen Candles. But John Hughes didn’t want to have sequels to any of the movies I was in and I didn’t feel comfortable doing it without his involvement.”

On keeping in touch with her Brat Pack co-stars.“I see them all from time to time but not every day. Weirdly, I was having dinner with Bret Easton Ellis who I hadn’t seen in a decade. We were seated at the Chef’s table when we saw James Spader touring the kitchen. I think it was surreal for everyone involved, like a wormhole from the eighties opened up.”

Her favorite ‘Mad Men’ character.“Peggy Olson. She’s who I would have been had I chosen that career path and had a time machine. I am most interested to see how her character evolves. Shout Out: John Slattery is so incredibly consistently funny and a phenomenal director. His episodes have a great snap to them.”

How today’s stars are constantly connected with their fans on social media.“I think that it’s up to the individual in terms of how much of themselves they want to keep private. My family was very protective and I am glad they were. It kept me from crashing and burning.”

Who she would bring along during a zombie apocalypse.“They’d slow me down but I’d have to take my two-year-old twins. My older daughter Mathilda is pretty fierce so I’d need her on my team. Luckily my husband is a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He can break boards with his butt. Just bragging.”

Her secret anti-aging tactic. “How did you manage to get hotter with age?” a user asked Molly. Her response: “I drink the blood of Kristen Stewart.”

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