Molly Ringwald: ‘The Secret Life of the American Teenager’ co-star was toxic
Molly Ringwald calls The Secret Life of an American Teenager her worst gig, pinning it on a toxic co-star.
On the Aug. 4 episode of Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Molly Ringwald played a round of “Spill the IMDb Tea,” rating past projects from 1 to 10 based on what it was like to make them. When she got to The Secret Life of the American Teenager, she gave it a 1—not because of the ensemble overall, she said, but because of one unnamed person who made the job miserable.
“OK, I love the cast. I love Shailene [Woodley]. There was one person that was really difficult. And I’m not gonna say who that one person is, [but] they brought it down to a one.”
Ringwald played the mother to Shailene Woodley’s pregnant teen on the ABC Family drama, which ran from 2008 to 2013. She was a series regular for the first four seasons and returned as a special guest in the fifth and final season. The show also starred Steve Schirripa, Greg Finley, India Eisley, Ken Baumann, and Mark Derwin.
How she scored the rest
- Pretty in Pink — 10
- The Facts of Life — 2
- Diff’rent Strokes — 2
- Not Another Teen Movie (2001) — 4
- Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999) — 8
- Jem and the Holograms (2015) — 7
Why Pretty in Pink tops her list
Asked for her best experience, Ringwald didn’t hesitate: Pretty in Pink scored a perfect 10. She said the part was written for her by John Hughes, and she still has a collage she made of memories from that set hanging in her bedroom.
The conversation also doubled as a mini–career tour for the Brat Pack icon, best known for Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. More recently, she’s popped up on TV in The CW’s Riverdale and Netflix’s Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.