Molly Ringwald is a household name thanks to her breakout roles in The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. Photo / AP
Molly Ringwald is a household name thanks to her breakout roles in The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. Photo / AP
Molly Ringwald was “taken advantage of” in the early days of her career.
The 56-year-old actress became a household name through her performances in 1980s films such as Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club but insisted that she was “too young” for Hollywood fame and alleged that any young starlet on the film scene has to deal with having “predators” around them.
Speaking on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, she said: “I never really felt like I was part of a community when I was in Hollywood, just because I was so young, really. 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.
”I was taken advantage of. You can’t be a young actress in Hollywood and not have predators around.”
The Pretty In Pink star - who started out by starring in a national production of Annie in the late 1970s but has now carved out a secondary career as a translator - revealed she had “definitely been in questionable situations” during the height of her fame and tried “so hard” to steer her daughter in any direction other than showbiz.
Ringwald - who has 20-year-old Mathilda with husband Panio Gianopoulos - explained: “I need incredible survival instinct and a pretty big super ego to figure out a way to protect myself. But, yeah, it can be harrowing.
“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.”
Molly Ringwald (second from right) starred in The Breakfast Club in 1985. Photo / Supplied
Earlier this year, Ringwald claimed that there were certain elements of The Breakfast Club - which follows a group of five teenagers in detention - that “hadn’t aged well” since its 1985 release.
She told The Times: “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.”
