Molly Ringwald claimed, 'You can't be a young actress in Hollywood and not have predators around'
Molly Ringwald revealed she was "taken advantage of" during her early career in Hollywood.
Ringwald, 56, explained she found herself in "questionable situations" despite not "going out to clubs" in her teen years.
"I never really felt like I was part of a community when I was in Hollywood, just because I was so young, really," Ringwald said during an appearance on the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast. "I wasn't into going out to clubs. I feel like I'm more social now than I was then. I was just too young."
"Well, you're lucky you didn't get taken advantage of or got into some sort of horrible situation," host Marc Maron, 60, told Ringwald.
Molly Ringwald, right, claimed she was "taken advantage of" as a young star. (Universal Pictures/Getty Images)
"Oh, I was taken advantage of," the "Pretty in Pink" star explained. "You can't be a young actress in Hollywood and not have predators around."
Ringwald used her "incredible survival instinct and a pretty big superego" to "figure out a way to protect" herself when she was in "questionable situations."
However, the actress explained she tried to "convince" her daughter not to go into acting to avoid the same fate.
"But, yeah, it can be harrowing," she said. "And I have a 20-year-old daughter now who is going into the same profession, even though I did everything I could to convince her to do something else. And it's hard."
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Molly Ringwald didn't want her daughter to go into acting. (Gilbert Flores/WWD via Getty Images)
Years after playing characters such as Clarie Standish in "The Breakfast Club" and Samantha in "Sixteen Candles," Ringwald feels "differently" about the '80s era movies.
"When I made those movies with John Hughes, his intention was to not make ‘Porky’s’ or ‘Animal House,’" Ringwald previously told NPR. "But I think, as everyone says, and I do believe is true, that times were different and what was acceptable then is definitely [not] acceptable now and nor should it have been then, but that’s sort of the way that it was."
"I feel very differently about the movies now, and it’s a difficult position for me to be in, because there’s a lot that I like about them," she added. "And, of course, I don’t want to appear ungrateful to John Hughes, but I do oppose a lot of what is in those movies."
Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall in "The Breakfast Club." (Getty Images)
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Ringwald recently watched "The Breakfast Club" with her daughter and reflected on the movie in an interview with The Times.
"There is a lot that I really love about the movie, but there are elements that haven’t aged well — like Judd Nelson’s character, John Bender, who essentially sexually harasses my character," she told the outlet.
"I’m glad we’re able to look at that and say things are truly different now."
Molly Ringwald photographed in 1985. (Getty Images)
