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Celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this weekend is beloved Brat Pack flick, Pretty in Pink.
Directed by Howard Deutch and written by the genius John Hughes, the iconically eighties romantic comedy tells the story of Andie (Molly Ringwald), a high school senior from the wrong side of the tracks who becomes the object of desire for her equally outcast childhood friend, Duckie (Jon Cryer in his breakout role), as well as popular playboy, Blane (Andrew McCarthy). What many consider to be Hughes’ last great high school story, Pretty in Pink embodies the fears and flaws of being a teenager amidst an environment of relentless peer pressure and unfair social norms.
Both adorably funny and powerfully genuine, Pretty in Pink stands the test of time, even three decades after the fact… even if the outfits don’t. Below are ten fun facts you may or may not have come across in the last thirty years about the 1986 rom-com.
James Spader was originally cast as Blane but turned it down.
The ’80s heartthrob was originally offered to play Blane before McCarthy signed on, but thought it would be way more fun to play the villain so he asked to fill the role of Steff instead. Smart move, Spader. Dark and brooding serves you better anyway.
The soundtrack is considered to be one of the best in film history.
“If You Leave” by the Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark was written specifically for the film and was a smash hit success and elevated the soundtrack, which featured the likes of The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, and New Order, to a transcendent level. Rolling Stone nominated Pretty in Pink as cinema’s 11th greatest soundtrack of all time, just missing the top ten thanks to the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Andie was supposed to end up with Duckie.
John Hughes had originally written the ending so that Andie would choose her dorky childhood sweetheart over the handsome rich kid at the prom. They were even supposed to dance to David Bowie’s “Heroes.” When test audiences responded poorly to this outcome, however, Paramount Pictures required Hughes to change the ending so Andie would end up with Blane.
Howard Deutch had to reshoot the ending with a bald McCarthy.
By the time the ending was rewritten by Hughes, Andrew McCarthy had moved on to a Broadway play, The Boys of Winter, which required him to shave his voluminous locks. In the final scenes of the movie, the normally well-coiffed actor is actually wearing a wig. Eek!
The ending may not have been rewritten if Robert Downey, Jr. played Duckie.
Anthony Michael Hall was originally asked to play the role of Duckie but turned it down out of fear of typecasting. It then went to Robert Downey, Jr. before Cryer was ultimately cast in his breakout role. In an interview, Ringwald has said she believes that if Downey, Jr. was cast as Duckie, Hughes would have been able to keep his original ending because the two wouldn’t have shared a brother-sister vibe the test audience complained about.
Hughes wanted his original ending shot in some way, so he and Deutch made 'Some Kind of Wonderful.'
Hughes desperately wanted a film where a love triangle similar to the one in Pretty in Pink ended with the girl going home with her childhood sweetheart, rather than with someone outside their social circle. Shortly after Pretty in Pink wrapped, Hughes re-teamed up with Howard Deutch for Some Kind of Wonderful, the same production that brought him and actress Lea Thompson together. Bonus fun fact: their daughter, Zoey Deutch is also an actress and has starred in comedies Vampire Academy and Dirty Grandpa.
Jon Cryer was allegedly an outcast on set.
In an interview with CBS News, Cryer admitted he wasn’t exactly embraced by Ringwald and McCarthy on set. He claimed the two, who were more withdrawn than their jovial co-star, didn’t quite mesh with his social butterfly antics for the duration of the shoot. “Molly and Andrew were very reserved people and I’m a very outgoing person,” Cryer explained. “That could have worked out great, that dynamic, but it didn’t.” Poor Duckie.
The film marked John Hughes' last collaboration with Molly Ringwald.
When Ringwald turned down her longtime collaborator for Some Kind of Wonderful, Hughes reportedly held it against the actress for the next two decades, until his death in 2009. The actress told The Atlantic in 2010 the two didn’t speak again after that, even after the film was released and the dust had settled.
There's a novel adaptation that was actually written after the movie.
Written by H.B. Gilmour, a famous movie novelist, Pretty in Pink was adapted to the page after its domestic and international box office success. Gilmour also adapted Saturday Night Fever, All That Jazz, and Fatal Attraction, among others. P.S. We would totally read Fatal Attraction.
The film was shot at the same high school as 'Grease'
That’s right: John Marshall High School in the Los Feliz suburb of Los Angeles, California was a pop culture hub for cinematic classics like Grease, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Rebel Without a Cause, and more. The school was also used for television series like Boy Meets World, The Wonder Years, and Growing Pains.
