Molly Ringwald would have quit acting if she was a teenager today.
The 50-year-old actress was just 17 when she starred as Claire Standish in ‘The Breakfast Club’ – and even younger when she was cast as Molly Parker in TV show ‘The Facts of Life’ – but has said she thinks being a teenager is "way harder" these days, and doesn’t believe she would have "continued" with her career if she had to be a teenager in today’s society.
Asked whether she thinks it’s harder to be a teenager today or when she was younger, she said: "I think it’s way harder now. I don’t even know if I would have continued to be an actor if I had to deal with the stuff that you’re required to do now. Just how much you have to put yourself out there."
Molly says that when acted as a teenager she still had a "normal life" that was "very distinct" from her working life, but doesn’t think teen stars today have that separation, which she says can be "stressful".
Speaking to People Now, she added: "I always liked that I felt like I had a sort of normal life and then I had my career, and the two were very distinct. I don’t know that you’re allowed to do that [now], you’re just expected to be on all the time, and that’s sort of stressful."
Her comments come after she previously claimed she had been left feeling uncomfortable when she reviewed ‘The Breakfast Club’ with one of her daughters, particularly in the light of the #MeToo movement.
Molly – who has Mathilda, 15, and nine-year-old twins Adele and Roman with her husband Panio Gianopoulos – said: "I worried she would find aspects of it troubling. But I hadn’t anticipated that it would ultimately be most troubling to me.
"At one point in the film, the bad-boy character, John Bender, ducks under the table where my character, Claire, is sitting, to hide from a teacher.
"While there, he takes the opportunity to peek under Claire’s skirt and, though the audience doesn’t see, it is implied that he touches her inappropriately."
Molly Ringwald would quit acting if she was a teenager today
