new video loaded: Molly Ringwald on Why ‘The Breakfast Club’ Is the Greatest Gen X Work of Art
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Molly Ringwald on Why ‘The Breakfast Club’ Is the Greatest Gen X Work of Art
The actress Molly Ringwald discusses one of the Gen X era’s most defining films, “The Breakfast Club,” in this excerpt from a T Magazine documentary about how the cohort once synonymous with slacking came to leave such an indelible impression on the culture.
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What is the best Gen X work of art? Is it totally immodest to name my own movie? “Breakfast Club,” you know? The writer-director John Hughes was actually a Boomer, but he was really writing for Gen X. I don’t really see the characters in “The Breakfast Club” as cynical. I feel like they’re very realistic about the way that the high school is run, particularly my character in that movie, Claire. You know, are they going to talk on Monday? And she says, “You want the truth?” “Yeah, I want the truth.” “I don’t think so.” And she’s absolutely vilified for that. And it’s hurtful. But she’s being honest because that’s the way that high school works. And it has not changed at all.
By Megan Lovallo and Jamie Bradley
December 9, 2025
