Teen pregnancy is something that has always been around and probably always will be,” says Molly Ringwald, who once played a knocked-up high school student in the 1988 feature film “For Keeps.”
“To me, the only things that have changed since the time that I was a teenager are AIDS and Columbine.
“I remember being on the set of ‘The Breakfast Club’ when we heard about Rock Hudson and that was really the first time that AIDS came on to my radar.”
Now she’s playing Anne Juergens, the well-meaning but frustrated parent of Amy, a pregnant 15-year-old in the new ABC Family drama “The Secret Life of The American Teenager.”
The show was created by Brenda Hampton who enjoyed a huge success on the WB with the long-running drama “7th Heaven.” Hampton originally pitched the show years ago to Fox and Lifetime and decided to write it the way she wanted to when her series ended. After seeing “Greek,” she pushed agents to ask for a meeting with the ABC Family Channel; she had six scripts already written. The teen pregnancy plot was about to heat up again.
“I didn’t see ‘Juno’ but I had started shopping this around before that came out,” Hampton says. “Good timing I suppose.” Even better from Hampton’s perspective was that Ringwald was available. “I was so excited. She’s so good and it’s so cool that she’s doing this. I think she’s terrific.”
“It is not exactly where I am at in my personal life,” says Ringwald of the role. “But conceivably I could be the mother of a teen.”
The actress has a four-year-old daughter Mathilda with her second husband, French book editor Panio Gianopoulos. They live in Venice Beach and Gianopoulos is going to Stanford University for his Masters Degree.
“There is kind of an interesting vibe here,” Ringwald says. “I love having my daughter raised in a multi-cultural place where everybody is not all white.”
Ringwald, the daughter of a chef and a blind pianist, began her acting career at age five but will always be best known for the string of teen flicks she cranked out more than two decades ago with director John Hughes – “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club”and “Pretty In Pink.” She comes close to dismissing their importance.
“I love those movies,” she says. “But there are a lot of other things I still have to do.”
Some of those projects have included stage appearances in London (“When Harry Met Sally”) and New York (“Cabaret,” “Enchanted April”). She regrets leaving New York behind to do the new series. “I miss my old neighborhood already,” she moans. “There is a peony bush down the block from my apartment that only blooms one month a year. I hate when I miss that.” But her status at the flame-haired ‘it girl’ of 1980s cinema made her a hit on the set of “Secret Life.”
“It’s really cool to see someone who has grown up in the business and has stayed so down to Earth,” says Shailene Woodley, who plays Amy. “She is always talking to me about boys and how I like high school.”
THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER
Tuesday, 8 p.m., ABC
SIDEBAR:
SIDEBAR:
SHAILENE WOODLEY
Starring with Molly Ringwald in “The Secret Life of The American Teenager” isn’t enough for this 16 year-old brainiac. She wants to save the planet, too!
Q: So you’re, like, super smart? I’ve been acting for 12 years and I have stayed in public school the whole time until now. I have gotten straight A’s. I want to eventually live in New York and go to NYU. I want to get a degree in Psychology and Interior Design. I want to have options.
Q: Why NYU?
New York is a concrete jungle, but it’s better for the environment than L.A. Transportation is so much better. I am such an environmentalist. I am obsessed with nature. I want to start an organization, but I haven’t figured out what it would do yet.
Q: How true to life is your show? I knew of girls who got pregnant in high school and had to drop out and do the home school thing. There’s a lot of girls like that out there and a lot of shows on TV don’t really express the dangers of (having sex). Q: What are yourhobbies?
Me and my best friends love to like sew. We will go to thrift stores, buy $3 shirts and cut them up and sew them, make them our own. Or make scrapbooks, home movies. Just silly fun stuff.
Q: Got any embarrassing stories?
When I was little and I used to run around the house naked. My mom would tell me to put a pair of tights on but I would take them off a minute later. I used to run around and pee in the grass. I was such a rebellious kid. – S.D.