Former teen idol Molly Ringwald has opened up about how she conceived her eldest daughter, Mathilda.
During a recent interview with The Times, Ringwald recalled she and her husband Panio Gianopoulos conceiving their daughter at Studio 54 in 2003.
“I believe that Mathilda was conceived in the dressing room at Studio 54,” Molly Ringwald remembered. “At the end of my run playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret in 2003.”
Ringwald joked that it was “so Mathilda” to be conceived in such an “iconic” place. The actress then said she knew she wanted to have children, but it took her some time.
“I was 36 when she was born,” Molly Ringwald said. “At that age, the biological clock is a real thing and it had kind of become deafening. All I could think about was: must have kids.”
Molly and Panio welcomed fraternal boy-girl twins, Adele and Roman in 2009 when Mathilda was five years old.
Speaking about the hardest part of parenting for her, Ringwald said time is a key issue.
“The hardest thing about motherhood was realizing that my time was not my own,” she explained. “As an actress, I’ve traveled a lot and learnt to live with instability, but that’s not great for kids. That’s something I am always looking to improve on.”
She did give Gianopoulos created for helping in the time department. “Luckily I have a husband who is a planner and is very stable.”
Molly Ringwald Admits One ‘Breakfast Club’ Scene Hasn’t ‘Aged Well’
As she continued to speak to The Times, Molly Ringwald said there is one scene in her iconic teen film Breakfast Club that hasn’t aged very well.
“There is a lot that I really love about that movie,” she explained. “But there are elements that haven’t aged well – like Judd Nelson’s character, John Bender, who essentially sexually harasses my character.”
Molly Ringwald noted that she was glad society is able to look at that behavior and say things are truly different now.
Also speaking about her hit ‘80s teen films, such as Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink, Ringwald said they were all really fun movies to make.
“Sixteen Candles, the first movie I made with the director John Hughes, in 1984,” she said. “[It] was filmed during the summer. He would just let the camera roll and we would improvise. It was a very free, creative experience.”
John Hughes was responsible for other iconic ‘80s teen films such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Weird Science. He passed away in 2009.