'80s Teen Queen Takes on the Small Screen

Amy Amatangelo - Boston Herald

Jul 02, 2008

When she was acting as a teenager, Molly Ringwald had no idea her movies, including "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club" and "Pretty in Pink," would still be popular decades later.

"I don't think when you're a teenager you think all that much about the future," Ringwald said.

The famous redhead stars as Anne, the mom of a 15-year-old who also didn't think about the future, in "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (on ABC Family).

In the pilot, Anne's daughter Amy (Shailene Woodley) discovers she is pregnant after an ill-advised one-night stand with the school's resident bad boy.

"It is kind of the perfect show for parents and for kids," Ringwald said. "I have fans who are my age, and I also have fans who are the same age as the kids of my fans. I hope people will relate and discuss things, but it's great entertainment, too. I don't think it has to send a message. I think people will get out of it what they will, and it's not up to me to make them think anything else because I'm just an actor."

She heard about the show as she was looking to move from New York to Los Angeles. Her husband, Panio Gianopoulos, will attend Stanford Business School in the fall (the couple has a 4-year-old daughter, Mathilda).

"That's kind of where my head was at and this script appeared out of the blue," she said. "I really sort of fell in love with Brenda Hampton, who is the creator of the show. It was mostly talking with her on the phone about the project and talking about where the characters are going to go and her sort of saying she was going to make it worth my time. I've been doing this for long enough to know how important it is to like the people you are going to be working with."

Anne eventually will find out about her daughter's pregnancy.

"It's a really great episode when she finds out. It kind of incorporates every emotion you would think of - shock, denial, anger, surprise and fear and all of that stuff. I think she really handles it well, and I think it kicks off her changing her life because taking this on and dealing with it helps her go in a new direction in her own life."

Back to Ringwald's life: Does she have a theory as to why her movies are so beloved?

"I just think that they're really good and unique," she said. "All the ingredients helped make something really special, and there really hasn't been anything to take their place. Until there's that thing that takes their place, they are going to continue to be as iconic as they are now."

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