Why Emilio Estevez Was on Pain Pills First Time ‘Breakfast Club’ Cast Met

During a long-awaited and emotional reunion for the five lead actors of The Breakfast Club over the weekend, Emilio Estèvez revealed why he was on painkillers the first time he met his costars. 

The 1985 movie, written and directed by the late John Hughes, starred Estèvez, now 62, as well as Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson and Molly Ringwald as a disparate group of high school teenagers forced to attend Saturday detention.  

While Ringwald and Hall, both 57, were handpicked for their roles by Hughes, the others had to audition, with most of the ensemble not getting together for the first time until everyone had been cast.

“The first time we all got together, John had organized a read-through of the script at a hotel in Century City,” Estèvez recalled of their Los Angeles gathering during the C2E2 panel in Chicago on Saturday, April 12.

“The night before I just had all four wisdom teeth pulled and I was on pain pills,” the actor continued. “My agent called and said, ‘Listen, they’re gonna do a read-through with the rest of the gang. You have to show up.’ I said, ‘Look, my face is swollen; I’m on pain pills; I’m bleeding out.’ They said, ‘No, no, no. It’s really important. You have to be there.’ ” 

After agreeing to go, they sent a car to pick him up (“Because I obviously couldn’t drive,” he said) and take him to the hotel where he and his costars discussed the script. “That was the first time, I think, we’d all met,”  Estèvez said. 

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He then revealed that after the read-through of The Breakfast Club, Hughes surprised them with a screening of a first cut of Sixteen Candles, which also starred Ringwald and Hall.  

“He says, ‘I’m gonna show it to you.’ And so, we said, ‘Okay, great.’ Then he puts on the film and we’re sitting there and I don’t think I made it into the opening credits and passed out [after] having all my teeth extracted,” Estèvez admitted, adding, “Then I woke up at the end credits and I looked at Judd and Judd said, ‘I think you’re getting fired.’ ” 

In the end, the actor didn’t get fired — and the whole cast went on to star in the now-iconic teen movie that, for many, spoke to an entire generation. 

While most of the cast has reunited in the years since the movie’s release on Feb. 15, 1985, the C2E2 panel marked the first time the leads shared the stage together in 40 years. 

Reflecting on what it meant to be together again, Ringwald told the crowd, “I feel really very emotional and moved to have us all together. This is the first time that Emilio has joined us.” 

Explaining why he missed the past reunions, Estèvez said, “I skipped all of my high school reunions, so this just was something that I finally felt that I needed to do for myself.”