Actress Ally Sheedy’s character Allison Reynolds in the groundbreaking ’80s movie the breakfast club she transforms at the end of the “basket” into (somewhat) of a “princess” when Claire Standish, played by Molly Ringwald, gives her a makeover.
The moment becomes the character’s big story arc, as she suddenly goes from wearing a heavy, masculine dark sweater and deep black makeup to wearing a light camisole and a natural glow. the breakfast club audiences during the era embraced the metamorphosis. But decades later, Sheedy reflected on her character transformation and revealed that she didn’t love the direction.
Ally Sheedy said her ‘Breakfast Club’ character didn’t need to change
“So that was in the script that she transforms into some kind of princess,” he recalled in the Behind Velvet rope with David Yontef podcast. “I don’t feel like that was necessary in the script. Which was part of the ’80s, you know, kind of a Rom-Com that was going on.”
Director John Hughes had considerable creative control over the film, but had to give in to the studio’s demands. “I think [Hughes] he actually agreed with me,” Sheedy said. “So this was more of something the studio wanted and he had written it.”
Allison from ‘The Breakfast Club’ took off her ‘armor’
Sheedy recalled how her breakfast club the character wore a lot of makeup. “She had all this black eyeliner and stuff for Allison that was part of how she would look: armor,” she shared. “And she let me change it so that Molly is really taking some of that heavy, you know, scary makeup off of Allison.”
“So I was trying to think of it more as a discovery, you know what I mean?” She continued. “She takes off that huge black sweater and all of a sudden, you know, there’s a real person in there, something about being able to come out of hiding that she really had.”
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“So to have an element of that, he really went in there with me,” Sheedy said of Hughes. “It was much more of a makeover thing than when it was originally written. So it evolved. I brushed my hair off my face and, you know, all of a sudden I started to see this person emerge from what they were, it looked like armor to me, but at the same time, aesthetically I like armor better.”
Some elements of ‘Breakfast Club’ are sad today
Sheedy recognized that although loved, the breakfast club he weaved themes of sexism and misogyny throughout the film. “I think there are some embarrassing moments,” she admitted.
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“I haven’t seen him in a long, long time. And I think there are moments that are like sex, sexist and questionable. And I think there’s this kind of very old-fashioned, very old-fashioned ’80s stuff that’s in that movie, which, again, I haven’t seen in years. But it’s one of the things that surprises me that people still love it, even now.”
“So somehow he manages to get past that crap,” he added. “I do not know how. [But]That’s actually that’s one aspect of the movie that’s problematic. It’s a mixed bag.”
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