‘The Breakfast Club’ stars reunite for the first time in 40 years

Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estèvez and Anthony Michael Hall at the reunion. (Barry Brecheisen/WireImage/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The cast of “The Breakfast Club” reunited over the weekend for the first time in 40 years.

Stars of the 1980s coming-of-age movie took to the stage at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo on Saturday.

“I feel really, very emotional and moved to have us all together,” said Molly Ringwald, who played Claire in the movie. “This is the first time that Emilio (Estèvez) has joined us. We don’t have to use the cardboard cut-out anymore.”

Estèvez, who played Andrew, said joining the reunion was “something that finally I felt I needed to do, just for myself,” adding that it was special to return to Chicago where they shot the film.

The actors remembered the film’s late director, John Hughes, who was also known for iconic teen movies like “Sixteen Candles” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

“Hughes explained to us the differences between the young and old, so now is the time for him to show us where we meet in the end, cause we’re all older now,” said Judd Nelson, who played John Bender. “But we’re not gonna get that, which is sad.”

Estèvez also revealed that he “passed out” when the cast first met, having had his wisdom teeth taken out the day before. According to Estèvez, after their first readthrough of the script, Hughes proposed viewing the first cut of “Sixteen Candles,” which Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall both starred in.

“I don’t think I made it through the opening credits, and I passed out,” said Estèvez. “I woke up at the end credits and I looked at Judd and Judd says, ‘I think you’re getting fired.‘”

Ringwald, who was 16 when they shot “The Breakfast Club,” said re-watching it years later with her children was a “wild experience” that changed her parenting.

“If you would’ve told me when I was 16 years old (that) one day I would be watching that movie with my 10-year-old and (it’d) change the way that I parent. I mean it’s just mind-blowing,” she said. The actress admitted that, at the time, her daughter may have been too young to watch the movie. However, speaking about the characters her daughter identified with “opened up this incredible conversation.”

“And then I watched the movie recently with my 15-year-olds, little more age appropriate, and I have to say that they didn’t pick up their phones once, which to me… that was a win,” Ringwald added.

Article written by Rosa Rahimi, CNN