The Breakfast Club brat pack reunites for FIRST time in 40 years – see what stars of 80's cult classic look like now

The cast of the 80s classic The Breakfast Club reunited for the first time together to celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo on Saturday. 

Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and Anthony Michael Hall had taken on leading roles as high school students in the John Hughes teen comedy – which initially released in theaters on February 15, 1985. 

The stars sat on stage during a panel discussion which was hosted by Josh Horowitz for a special live taping of his Happy Sad Confused podcast. 

Some of the cast has previously reunited before – such as in 2010 – however Estevez had been absent from the milestone. 

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But as he joined his former castmates at the event over the weekend, Emilio explained to the crowd, ‘I skipped all my high school reunions, so this was something that finally felt like I needed to do, just for myself,’ per Us Weekly.  

‘But this one felt special because it’s here in Chicago where we made the film, it’s the 40th anniversary and I just love all of them [cast] so it just made sense.’ 

In regards to the movie itself, Estevez – who portrayed the role of an athlete named Andrew – said, ‘This is one of those movies that stands the test of time. 

‘It’s a cross generational film…we were lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time.’ 

The premise followed: ‘Five high school students who meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a great deal more in common than they thought,’ per IMDB. 

Ringwald played the ‘princess’ of the school Claire and Nelson portrayed a ‘criminal’ named John Bender. 

Sheedy played ‘basket case’ Allison while Anthony Michael Hall portrayed a ‘brain’ named Brian Johnson. Paul Gleason and John Kapelos also made appearances in the 80s classic.  

Molly also poked fun on how Emilio hadn’t joined other past reunions and humorously added, ‘We don’t have to use the cardboard cutout anymore. I feel really moved that we’re all together.’

The five stars also took time to reflect on having the chance to work with director John Hughes – who passed away in 2009 at the age of 59. 

He was known for other movies such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Uncle Buck, Pretty In Pink and Sixteen Candles – with the latter two also starring Ringwald. 

Judd Nelson explained, ‘Hughes meant it when he said to us to participate in the process of making this movie. 

‘He liked us, I didn’t know how rare it was going to be for a director to like actors… He’s the first writer who could write a character who was young without them being less.’ 

The group also recalled the audition process for the film and Hall said, ‘John just called up and said, “I want you to come in.” He didn’t have a script. He didn’t give me a script.’ 

The actor then explained that Hughes instead asked him a number of questions including, ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about that?’ 

Molly chimed in to add, ‘Originally, he was gonna do The Breakfast Club before he did Sixteen Candles. And then he wrote Sixteen Candles… and turned it into the studio and they said, “Oh, we wanna do that one first.”‘ 

The actress continued, ‘So they put The Breakfast Club on hold and then, from my understanding, John Cusack was gonna play Bender and Joan Cusack was going to play Allison.

‘I don’t know who was gonna play the other parts. And then after Sixteen Candles, he gave me the script.’

The film was a critical and box office success upon its release in theaters, and raked in $51.5 million on a budget of $1 million. 

The main cast members later became known as members of the Brat Pack – which referred to young actors that starred in teen, coming-of-age movies. 

Ringwald previously slammed the term at MegaCon Orlando earlier this year, per People, and said: ‘It was a play on the Rat Pack.

‘Which was a group of, you know – Sinatra and Sammy Junior, those guys – and it was a term that was coined after this New York Magazine piece, and then we all sort of fell under this, this banner.’

She continued, ‘And I think it kind of in a way sort of minimized the work that we were doing. I mean that’s the way that I felt.’

Having appeared in multiple John Hughes films, Ringwald also reflected on being his teenage muse during an appearance on the Reclaiming podcast hosted by Monica Lewinsky. 

Molly also commented on how the director reportedly wrote the script to Sixteen Candles after seeing her headshot. 

‘He told me that story, but, you know, when you’re that age – I mean, I had nothing really to compare it to. I had done more movies than John at that point, [but] I was still only 15 years old. 

So I didn’t have a lot of life experience,’ she said, adding that it ‘didn’t seem that strange to me [at the time]. I mean, now it does.’ 

The actress expressed that it was ‘peculiar’ yet also ‘complimentary. It’s always felt incredibly complimentary, but yeah, looking back on it, there was something peculiar.’ 

Years later, Ringwald stated, ‘It’s complex. It’s definitely complex and it’s something that I turn over in my head a a lot and try to figure out how that all affected me. I feel like I’m still processing all of that.’