Actress Says Classic '80s Movie Is Too 'White,' Not Gender-y Enough

"The Breakfast Club" debuted in the mid-'80s, and while I was just a toddler then, my aunt introduced me to it about a decade later. Just like millions of other people, I fell in love with it, even though I think I was still too young to fully understand it. But I can confirm that I never once stopped and thought, "What this movie needs is a 'trans' person."

One of the film's actresses, however, seems to have a different opinion.

Last weekend, the stars of "The Breakfast Club" — Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall — got together for an anniversary reunion at the C2E2 pop culture convention in Chicago. During a panel, the gang took questions, and someone asked about a remake of the 1980s classic.

"I personally don’t believe in remaking that movie, because I think this movie is very much of its time," Ringwald responded. I can get behind that. Quite frankly, I'm over remakes. I don't watch a ton of movies, but when I do, I'd rather see some new and original ideas, not just some woke version of a movie I saw twenty years ago.

But I can't get behind what Ringwald said next.

“It resonates with people today," she said, adding, "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."

Annnnnnd that's where she lost me. When she said the movie wasn't timely, I thought she meant, like the kids didn't have smartphones and social media or something, but I should have known better.

If someone recast it today and added some black or Hispanic kids, I see no issue with that. But I've never watched a movie and thought "this is too white" or "this is too black." I generally judge films based on the plot, writing, acting, etc. And for the life of me, I do not think we need to insert a "gender" discussion into every single thing.

I'm not sure what Ringwald's politics are, but I typically assume anyone so obsessed with race and gender is a lefty because they never see people as individuals, just groups. They also love to virtue signal about it.

In an effort to combat this, it's excited to know that Molly Ringwald will be donating all residuals from The Breakfast Club to underprivilege minority youth.

... oh wait. No she's not doing that. Just virtue signaling. https://t.co/rPEsj54EvO
— Stuttering Craig (Official) (@StutteringCraig) April 17, 2025

Anyway, Ringwald said that she's watched the movie with her kids and that it was a "wild experience."

"I watched the first one with my now 21-year-old daughter when she was a little too young to watch it, but it was pretty amazing. We ended up doing a piece about it for 'This American Life,' and I have to say that it change my parenting watching it with her," she said, adding, "I mean, a lot of the stuff went over her head, thankfully. But how it spoke to her, you know, which character she identified with and why. It opened up this incredible conversation."

She also said that when she watched it with her 15-year-old twins, they didn't pick up their phones once, and she felt that was a "win."

Ultimately, I think Ringwald gave us two reasons why this movie should never be remade, even if she's basically contradicting herself. First of all, if her kids are any proof, it definitely still resonates with today's youth, which is something even she said. (Or maybe they're mesmerized that once upon a time, teenagers actually knew if they were male or female.)

Second, if someone did remake it, they would definitely woke it up with all sorts of trans people and conversations about pronouns. Nobody needs that.

Oh well, if you're interested, you can watch the entire reunion panel here:

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