‘The Breakfast Club’ cast say it can’t be made today

Cast of The Breakfast Club including Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Anthony Michael Hall reunited for the film’s 40th anniversary at the C2E2 convention in Chicago.

“I feel really very emotional and moved to have us all together,” said Ringwald. “We don’t have to use the cardboard cutout anymore because he’s here. I feel really moved that we’re all together.”

Estevez added that appearing at the event “was something that finally I felt I needed to do just for myself. This one felt special, it’s here in Chicago where we made the film. It’s obviously the 40th anniversary, and it just felt like it was time. Somebody told me that Molly said, ‘Well, does Emilio just not like us?’ And that broke my heart. And I went, ‘No of course I love all of them.’ And that just made sense, so here I am.”

When asked if the film would resonate as much if made today, “Movies today are concept-driven, they’re not character-driven, and the beauty of John is that he focused on characters first. And when you think about trying to pitch this movie today — it’s about five kids sitting in a library all day in detention — the studio executives would march you right out the door and say where are the monsters? Where’s the car chases? Where are the big effects?”

He added, “It’s also important to remember that we made this movie for $1 million, which at the time was still a lot of money but by Universal standards was not; it was not thought of as a big, giant tentpole film as they make today. So there was a lot of risk involved, but by today’s standards, this movie I don’t think would ever get made.”

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