John Hughes has many films to his name that are beloved by all, such as The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. While Molly Ringwald appeared in both, she recently revealed that Hughes wrote Sixteen Candles because of her headshots. 

Sixteen Candles, starring Ringwald alongside Anthony Michael Hall and Justin Henry, follows a girl trying to celebrate her own 16th birthday, with all of her attempts at an easy birthday falling through one after the other. The film has become known as an 80’s classic, and was both written and directed by John Hughes. 

Hughes is well known for other films like Home Alone and its sequel Home Alone 2, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He’s also known for his writing timeframe for his screenplays, which he would sometimes write within a single weekend. Ringwald, appearing on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, spoke about how Hughes adapted that style for Sixteen Candles after coming across her headshots. 

“He had gotten my picture from a stack of headshots from ICM, and he just had it up on his wall, and he wrote Sixteen Candles over a weekend, looking at my picture,” she said. “So, when it was time to cast it, he cast the girl in the picture.”

As Hollywood Reporter points out as well, upon wrapping production on Sixteen Candles, Hughes offered Ringwald a role in The Breakfast Club, and also did the same for Anthony Michael Hall. 

“He was really collaborative,” the actress added. “They were so well-written that we would always just kind of do it as written, and then he would say, ‘Now just do what you want.’” Ringwald also added several more positive comments about Hughes as a director, stating he always wanted to hear from everyone, and to make it as positive an experience as he could. 

Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club can both be streamed online, and Ringwald can be found on FX in the premiere of Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans on January 31st.