Breakfast Club star Molly Ringwald, 56, revealed she was “taken advantage of” during her early years in the industry, noting that growing up in the spotlight “can be harrowing.”
Ringwald expressed that she was “too young” for Hollywood fame and claimed that young starlets in the film scene inevitably face “predators.”
“I never really felt like I was part of a community when I was in Hollywood, just because I was so young, really,” the former teen idol said during an appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast.
“I wasn’t into going out to clubs. I feel like I’m more social now than I was then. I was just too young,” she added.
Maron responded: “Well, you’re lucky you didn’t get taken advantage of or got into some sort of horrible situation.”
“Oh, I was taken advantage of,” the mother-of-three replied. “You can’t be a young actress in Hollywood and not have predators around.”
Ringwald, who got her childhood start on sitcoms, disclosed to Maron that she had “definitely been in questionable situations” during the peak of her fame.
She also shared that she tried “so hard” to steer her daughter away from show business. Adding that she relied on her own “incredible survival” instincts and “big superego to figure out” ways to protect herself as an industry star.
“I have a 20-year-old daughter now who is going into the same profession, even though I did everything I could to convince her to do something else. And it’s hard,” she explained.
Daily Mail reported that Ringwald pointed out earlier this year that certain aspects of The Breakfast Club “hadn’t aged well” since its 1985 release.
“There is a lot that I really love about the movie but there are elements that haven’t aged well—like Judd Nelson’s character, John Bender, who essentially s*xually harasses my character,” she said.
“I’m glad we’re able to look at that and say things are truly different now,” she added.
Ringwald also previously criticized her film Sixteen Candles for featuring a scene where Michael Schoeffling’s character, Jake Ryan, contemplates taking advantage of his passed-out girlfriend.
“I’ve got Caroline in the bedroom right now passed out cold,” his character says. “I could violate her 10 different ways if I wanted to.”
Hollywood has been under a microscope in recent years, especially since the MeToo era, for alleged predatory behavior.
Comedian Katt Williams expressed his strong views on the state of Hollywood back in January, calling out its “deviants” and lack of godliness.
“All of these big-d*** deviants is all catching hell in 2024. It’s up for all of ’em,” Williams opined, as reported by Resist the Mainstream.
“It don’t matter if you Diddy or whoever you is… all lies will be exposed. That’s all, and anyone who takes that the wrong way, know why they take it the wrong way… the truth is the light,” he continued.
In March YouTubers Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, DJ Deorro and Bradley Martyn exposed Hollywood writer and producer Herschel Weingrod, 76, for meeting up with a 15-year-old girl.
The young girl abruptly leaves the scene after the YouTubers walk up to Weingrod. Then the Hollywood elitist tries to play off the whole encounter by saying he believed the girl was older and of legal age.
“We’ve been talking and flirting it’s not a big deal,” Weingrod says in the now viral footage, trying to justify the whole situation.
“So you’re a pedophile trying to meet a 15-year-old,” Zdorovetskiy mocks at another point in the video.
