In some ways it feels like The Breakfast Club has always existed in our collective conscience, but it's been exactly 30 years since its release. Yup, let that sink in. Thirty years. In case you've never seen it, the coming-of-age drama, directed by John Hughes, follows five very different students―labeled the Jock, the Princess, the Brain, the Criminal, and the Basket Case―during a Saturday's worth of detention. In honor of its third decade, the cult classic has been re-released as The Breakfast Club 30th Anniversary Edition on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital HD and will play in select theaters today and next Tuesday. To honor the occasion, ELLE.com chatted with Ally Sheedy, who played heavily fringed outcast Allison Reynolds, about her experiences onset, how she became the crew's resident "Basket Case," and why that big makeover scene wasn't exactly her favorite.
What did you think the first time you read the script for The Breakfast Club?
I loved it. I didn't read it right away because John asked me to come in and talk to him about this movie he was doing and this character he was interested in having me do. I heard about the movie from John before anything. I saw the script somewhere down the line after we had some conversations, but I didn't see the script for a while. He held that script close to the vest–at least with me. And when I finally read it, I loved it.
What was the first day on set like?
It was really fun. We had time on the set to rehearse, to get together and go over stuff, and to go visit a high school. We had prep time in Chicago, so we all got close. But when we first got to see the set, it was really beautiful and huge and exciting.
You went to visit an actual high school?
Yes. I'm not really sure why, since we had all been in high school already. I guess it was a high school that was in that area. I grew up in New York so my high school experience was really different. But we just got to hang out for a day in a high school.
Did you talk to the students?
I don't think I did. I think I was just observing.
Did you and the other actors actually become friends during shooting?
We really did. We meshed and as we were doing the movie we got really close. It was a really cool cast and there weren't any tensions or anything like that.
What did it feel like the first time you put on your costume?
My costume was perfect. I talked with [costume designer] Marilyn Vance about it, and she had all these cool pictures of what I would look like. It was exactly what I had in mind and when I put it on I thought it was perfect. Right from the beginning there was nothing to change. There was Allison right there. She was already in my head and in my body. I felt like she was beginning to inhabit me, and when I put the clothes on I felt it was correct. I can't explain it any other way–it looked like her. You think about the character and their history: How would they be sitting right now? What would they choose to eat? What would they think of this or that? And sometimes characters speak to you. They start to take over your body and your mind a bit.
So was it hard to say goodbye to Allison at the end?
Yeah. But I work with theater students and high school students now. I couldn't have articulated this back then, but what's true is that once you play a character, and fall in love with that character, they never really go away. They become part of you. They're always there and you can call them up any time that you wish.
What was the most difficult scene to shoot?
I didn't find the movie difficult. The most emotional scene is the one where we're all sitting in the back of the library. It actually took us two days to shoot that scene. It was a lot of emotion. It was kind of exhausting.
What were you hoping to channel during Allison's pivotal makeover scene?
It was written in the script. I don't know if John wrote that or it was a studio thing that they wanted Allison to go from being very plain to being suddenly very glamorous. I didn't like that. I had come up with this thing about her black eye makeup and very pale skin so I thought, 'Could it be more that she's taking this mask off?' John did give me that and they didn't really put a whole bunch of makeup on me; it was more about revealing who Allison is. I wish it had been a little more of that and a little less of, 'Let's make her pretty.'
The makeover is sort of a trope in high school movies.
I think so. It is a trope, especially at that particular time. I don't know why, but 'the makeover' was kind of a big thing. A normal teenager suddenly becomes the princess. Even in Harry Potter all of a sudden Hermione has the dance sequence where she comes in in a dress and somehow she's glamorous.
So you were trying to get away from that?
It wasn't my thing at all. I'm not a big makeup person and I don't particularly subscribe to the idea that you have to look a certain way to suddenly look gorgeous to everyone. I like how Allison looked anyway. But it was a moment of passage in that movie. It had to do, I guess, with her becoming more part of the group in some way. Not using what she looked like to put people off. To become more inviting in some way. And then Emilio's character had to somehow see her as pretty. Honestly, I have no idea. I don't think it needed to happen. But I think everybody needed to have their moment of truth and I guess that was something for Allison.
As you were shooting the movie did you feel there was some significance to it?
I loved the script and I loved working on it. I knew we had the most amazing editor in the world because she was there on set. I loved John. I had a feeling that it was something special, but I didn't know it was going to be as wonderful as it was when it was all put together. And I didn't know it would be such an enormous success.
Emily Zemler is a freelance writer and journalist based in London. She regularly contributes to the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, and Observer, and is the author of five books.
