The cast of Pretty in Pink is all grown up — but they’ll never forget what it meant to star in the teen classic all those years ago.
The 1986 film marked star Molly Ringwald’s third and final project with its writer, John Hughes, who she had previously worked with on 1984’s Sixteen Candles and 1985’s The Breakfast Club.
“He was unlike any other director that I had ever met. He had spiky hair and these crazy sneakers,” Ringwald told Vogue in March 2021 in honor of Pretty in Pink’s 35th anniversary. “We really clicked and got along almost immediately. I was fairly introverted, but he just had so much confidence in me, to the point that I felt like I could do anything.”
In the film, Ringwald played Andie Walsh, a high schooler whose thrift store wardrobe made her an outcast with her more affluent peers including her bully, Steff McKee (James Spader), and her crush, Blane McDonough (Andrew McCarthy).
However, Hughes, who passed away in 2009, was so enamored with the then 17-year-old redhead’s style that he wrote the script with her in mind.
“At that point in my life I also just really liked pink — Andie’s room was basically modeled after my own,” Ringwald revealed to the magazine. “The prop people even took a collage from my personal bedroom and used it in the movie for Andie’s room, if that tells you anything.”
The costumes in the film were also inspired by Ringwald’s real wardrobe — but the former teen star hated Andie’s Pepto-Bismol-colored prom gown. She even “burst into tears” when she first saw it.
“I kept all of the clothes except for that dress because I hated it so much,” the California native told Vogue. “And of course now I wish I could frame it!”
Ringwald didn’t get to wear the dress of her dreams in the film’s big finale — but her character did get the man of hers. That wasn’t always the plan, though. Pretty in Pink originally ended with Andie choosing her bestie Phil “Duckie” Dale (Jon Cryer) over Blane. However, early screenings of the film found that audiences wanted to see their leading lady get the guy she had been pining for all along, not her nerdy friend.
When asked about the initial reactions to the ending, director Howard Deutch told Den of Geek in June 2020, “I had a heart attack because it was my first movie and we were in the screening room. … These kids that they recruited to watch the movie were screaming, loving the movie, screaming. It was like a hit! And then all of a sudden, the minute the ending came and Duckie was gonna be the hero they started booing.”
Deutch was forced to go back and filmed a new ending in which Andie got her happily ever after with Blane, which he still believes was the right choice.
“I think it was [Princess Bride director] Rob Reiner [who] said, ‘You can’t have the princess get the frog,’” he noted. “In other words, you have to give the women what they want and they wanted [Andie] to have what she wanted. She wanted the cute boy and forget the politics.”
Keep scrolling to see what Ringwald and the rest of the cast are up to all these years later:
The cast of Pretty in Pink is all grown up — but they’ll never forget what it meant to star in the teen classic all those years ago.
The 1986 film marked star Molly Ringwald’s third and final project with its writer, John Hughes, who she had previously worked with on 1984’s Sixteen Candles and 1985’s The Breakfast Club.
“He was unlike any other director that I had ever met. He had spiky hair and these crazy sneakers,” Ringwald told Vogue in March 2021 in honor of Pretty in Pink’s 35th anniversary. “We really clicked and got along almost immediately. I was fairly introverted, but he just had so much confidence in me, to the point that I felt like I could do anything.”
[jwplayer xE48UlGT-zhNYySv2]
In the film, Ringwald played Andie Walsh, a high schooler whose thrift store wardrobe made her an outcast with her more affluent peers including her bully, Steff McKee (James Spader), and her crush, Blane McDonough (Andrew McCarthy).
However, Hughes, who passed away in 2009, was so enamored with the then 17-year-old redhead’s style that he wrote the script with her in mind.
“At that point in my life I also just really liked pink — Andie’s room was basically modeled after my own,” Ringwald revealed to the magazine. “The prop people even took a collage from my personal bedroom and used it in the movie for Andie’s room, if that tells you anything.”
The costumes in the film were also inspired by Ringwald’s real wardrobe — but the former teen star hated Andie’s Pepto-Bismol-colored prom gown. She even “burst into tears” when she first saw it.
“I kept all of the clothes except for that dress because I hated it so much,” the California native told Vogue. “And of course now I wish I could frame it!”
Ringwald didn’t get to wear the dress of her dreams in the film’s big finale — but her character did get the man of hers. That wasn’t always the plan, though. Pretty in Pink originally ended with Andie choosing her bestie Phil “Duckie” Dale (Jon Cryer) over Blane. However, early screenings of the film found that audiences wanted to see their leading lady get the guy she had been pining for all along, not her nerdy friend.
When asked about the initial reactions to the ending, director Howard Deutch told Den of Geek in June 2020, “I had a heart attack because it was my first movie and we were in the screening room. … These kids that they recruited to watch the movie were screaming, loving the movie, screaming. It was like a hit! And then all of a sudden, the minute the ending came and Duckie was gonna be the hero they started booing.”
Deutch was forced to go back and filmed a new ending in which Andie got her happily ever after with Blane, which he still believes was the right choice.
“I think it was [Princess Bride director] Rob Reiner [who] said, ‘You can’t have the princess get the frog,’” he noted. “In other words, you have to give the women what they want and they wanted [Andie] to have what she wanted. She wanted the cute boy and forget the politics.”
Keep scrolling to see what Ringwald and the rest of the cast are up to all these years later:
Credit: Shutterstock (2)
Molly Ringwald
After Pretty in Pink, Ringwald would go on to star in the coming-of-age comedy For Keeps, before playing the adult in teen movies like Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Jem and the Holograms and Netflix’s Kissing Booth trilogy. She was a regular on Freeform’s Secret Life of the American Teenager from 2008 to 2013 before joining the cast of Riverdale in 2017. One year later, she battled her Pretty in Pink costar Jon Cryer on the musical reality competition series Drop the Mic. She released her debut jazz album, Except Sometimes, in 2013.
Ringwalf was married to French writer Valéry Lameignère from 1999 to 2002 before she moved on with Greek author Panio Gianopoulos. The pair welcomed their first child, daughter Mathilda, in 2003 before getting married four years later. In 2009, they became parents to fraternal boy-girl twins, Roman and Adele.
Credit: Shutterstock (2)
Jon Cryer
As Andie’s iconic bestie — and unrequited crush — Duckie, Cryer got to show off his lip-syncing skills to Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness.” Now he is best known for his 12-season run on Two and Half Men, which ran from 2003 to 2015. The role of Alan Harper won him two Emmy Awards in 2009 and 2012 for Outstanding Supporting Actor and Lead Actor, respectively. He went on to appear as Lex Luthor on Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and Batwoman after previously playing Lex’s nephew, Lenny, in the 1987 film, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. He released his memoir, So That Happened, in 2015.
Cryer married entertainment reporter Lisa Joyner in 2007. The two adopted their daughter, Daisy, two years later. He shares a son, Charlie Austin, born in 2000, with his ex-wife, British actress Sarah Trigger, whom he was with from 1999 to 2004.
Credit: Shutterstock (2)
Andrew McCarthy
After playing Andie’s crush Blane, the former Brat Packer went on to star in popular ‘80s films including Mannequin, Less Than Zero and Weekend at Bernie’s. He later directed TV shows such as Orange Is the New Black, Gossip Girl and The Blacklist, starring his Pretty in Pink costar James Spader. He became a well-known travel writer and published the memoir, The Longest Way Home, in 2012. He is also the author of the 2017 YA novel, Just Fly Away, and released his autobiography, Brat: An ’80s Story, in 2021.
McCarthy married his college sweetheart, Carol Schneider, in 1999 — 20 years after they first started dating. The two welcomed a son, Sam, in 2002, but divorced three years later. The New Jersey native got remarried in 2011 to Irish writer and director Dolores Rice, with whom he shares two kids, Willow and Ronan, born in 2006 and 2014, respectively.
Credit: Shutterstock (2)
James Spader
His Pretty in Pink character Steff McKee was an arrogant trust fund kid that moviegoers loved to hate. The Boston native has since made a name for himself in cult films that viewers love to watch such as Secretary, Stargate and Sex, Lies and Videotape. In the 2000s, he landed memorable roles on TV shows including The Practice, Boston Legal, The Blacklist and The Office. He was also the voice of the titular villain in Avengers: The Age of Ultron.
Spader was married to decorator Victoria Kheel from 1987 and 2004. The pair share two sons, Sebastian and Elijah, born in 1989 and 1992, respectively. He began dating actress Leslie Stefanson, in 2002. They welcomed their son, Nathanael, six years later.
Credit: Shutterstock (2)
Annie Potts
Potts’ character, Iona, was a mentor to Andie — and an ‘80s style icon. So, it’s only fitting that she went on to star in the CBS sitcom Designing Women from 1986 to 1993. She played Janine Melnitz in Ghostbusters and its sequel, as well as the 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. She is also the voice of Little Bo Peep in Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 4. She has played Connie “Meemaw” Tucker in the Big Bang Theory prequel series, Young Sheldon, since 2017.
Potts married her fourth husband, James Hayman, in 1990. The pair welcomed two sons, James “Doc” and Harry, in 1992 and 1996, respectively. She is also mother to Clay, born in 1981, whom she shares with her third husband, Scott Senchal. Potts was married to Senchal from 1981 to 1989.
