Molly Ringwald on Her New Controversial Television Series

For those of us who grew up in the 80s Molly Ringwald was the leader of the Brat Pack.

Nowadays the actress is 40 years old and is set to rekindle her career with a new television drama.

ABC’s ‘Secret Life of the American Teenager’ stars Ringwald as the mother of a 15-year-old girl who became pregnant after a one night stand.

Ringwald spoke with AOL TV about her controversial role and her classic teen flicks of the 80s.

What made you decide to do a TV show?

I was thinking about moving to Los Angeles for personal reasons — my husband’s going to be attending a Stanford MBA program in the fall. So this series sort of came up, and I really liked Brenda [Hampton], the creator. She really wanted to have me in the show, and she was persuasive and I liked the subject matter, and it just kind of seemed like a cool thing to do.

Given the teen pregnancy pact scandal and the success of ‘Juno,’ your series is timely. Will the pregnancy plotline continue for the whole season?

It definitely starts out as the event that kicks off the show, but the show is about more than that. It has to be about more than that, because that story line is going to resolve itself. It really is sort of a sociological study of these teenagers and their families.

What other kinds of things happen to your character, Anne?

My character doesn’t find out [about her daughter's pregnancy] until episode 6, and the audience pretty much knows from the beginning, so there’s that suspense about when the family is going to find out. My character’s not clued in to what’s right in front of her. That has to do with her own life, and the decline of her marriage, and the fact that she’s really not happy with where she’s at in life.

Have you had input into your character?

Definitely. When the pilot was written, Brenda didn’t know that I was going to play Anne. Getting to know me and my strengths as an actor made the character evolve a certain way. I mean, she’s still different from me. But there are elements of me in Anne, and I definitely made her more liberal, because it’s really important to me that both sides are represented. Brenda’s totally supportive of that.

So will Amy explore all of her pregnancy options, no matter how controversial they may be?

Yes. I will say that Amy makes her own choice in terms of what she wants to do about her pregnancy. And it was very, very important to me that that was clear. Though I won’t tell you what [Amy's] choice is right now..

In the ’80s, you were the go-to teen actress. Is it weird to be playing the mom of a teenager now?

It is weird, but it’s kind of good, too. I’m an actor and I’ve done a lot of different stuff, but because those movies were so successful, it’s kind of stuck in people’s heads that I’m that figure. It’s good for me to be seen in a different light. I’m in a project with teenagers and I’m not the teenager, so I’ve come full circle in a way.

A couple of years ago there were rumors of a ‘Sixteen Candles’ sequel. Where does that stand now?

It was in the works. It was something that I definitely wanted to do, but [writer-director] John Hughes wasn’t interested, and I didn’t feel comfortable doing it without his involvement. If we can get John to agree, I think it would be great. I think there are definitely a lot of people who would love to see it, and I would love to do it.

Is ‘Sixteen Candles’ the only one of your teen movies you’d like to revisit?

I think so. I would ordinarily not want to do something like that, but I think that ‘Sixteen Candles’ lends itself to [a sequel]. I mean, ‘Breakfast Club,’ is just so perfect as is. I guess ‘Pretty in Pink’ is possible, but ‘Sixteen Candles’ is really the one … it was such a Cinderella story. And I was interested to see what happened to this girl.

Do you ever watch any of those movies when you come across them on TV?

I don’t really sit down and watch them. I mean, I’ve seen them so many times, you know? I think when my daughter’s old enough, I’ll probably watch them with her.