Molly Ringwald apparently has a bone to pick with that infamous makeover scene in “The Breakfast Club.” While appearing at a 40th Anniversary Reunion event for the 1985 teen drama at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo over the weekend, Ringwald let it be known that she was “not happy” about the scene as she was joined on a panel by co-stars Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez. In the film, Ringwald, who starred as the snobby queen bee Claire, pulls outcast Allison (Sheedy) aside to give her a makeover, in which she helps her ditch her dark, goth clothes and disheveled hair for a powder pink ensemble that makes jock Andy (Estevez) finally notice her. Ringwald’s response came after an audience member brought up that he’s seen a “growing consensus” among fans on the internet that Allison was “more attractive before her makeover.” “I just want to say that I am not responsible for the makeover,” Ringwald responded. “And I was really not happy.” While the ultra-predictable makeover trope, where a character undergoes a dramatic change in appearance to attract a love interest, certainly ran its course in many coming-of-age films over the years, fans later came to reject Sheedy’s transformation scene — and Ringwald is siding with them. The “Bear” star revealed how she wishes the scene would’ve gone down instead. “I thought that it would’ve been better just to strip off all of the makeup and just have Ally’s face fresh-scrubbed because it’s so beautiful,” Ringwald explained at the event. “I didn’t like the way that they did her hair at the end.” She reiterated: “I was not responsible.” Despite Ringwald’s distaste for the controversial scene, Nelson chimed in to stick up for the scene, noting that its meaning is explained in the dialogue between Claire and Allison. “Those people online don’t understand, it’s explained in the scene. ‘Why are you doing this?’ ‘Because you’re letting me,’” he said while echoing the actresses’ conversation. “That’s why.” “The actress doesn’t always win their battles with the director...the actor doesn’t as well,” Nelson continued. “Some battles you fight, and you can be right and still not win.” He added: “[That scene] might’ve been one of those cases.” Sheedy shared similar sentiments to Ringwald’s take on the scene while speaking with HuffPost in 2016, telling the outlet that Allison’s makeover scene wouldn’t have happened if the movie was filmed today. “They would have left [Allison] alone, and the onus would have been on him ― on Emilio’s character ― to break through and to see what was inside,” Sheedy said. “I didn’t have to change my look to get him to suddenly see it. But that’s where we were then.”
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