It’s hard to separate the cult of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off from the smug look of Matthew Broderick, who already forty years ago was an adolescent idol, riding high after WarGames in 1982. At the time, however, many will recall that screenwriter and director John Hughes, with The Breakfast Club (1985) as the chronicle of Eighties teen life on the big screen, had another young actor he kept returning to in several memorable films. That very actor, still active, revealed that Ferris was originally written for him.
Anthony Michael Hall Refused Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Leaving John Hughes Feeling Offended
Born in 1968, Anthony Michael Hall has recently appeared in the series Reacher, as well as in an episode of Wednesday: from time to time he resurfaces, but with the appearance of someone almost sixty, it’s a bit hard to recognize him as the emblem he was in the Eighties, alongside other very young colleagues under the creative guidance of the late John Hughes. By the mid-eighties he was considered part of the “Brat Pack,” a group that included Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Judd Nelson: these were the young actors who brought the teenager to the cinema as the protagonist, the social and cultural cornerstone of the era. Hughes himself was their chronicler, as writer and/or director, who had actually begun his collaboration with Hall by crafting the zany National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983, directed by Harold Ramis), before discovering this new, intimate-sentimental-teen vein. The fact remains that Hall would become one of the stars of a historic trio: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink (1985, from which we took the photo here at the top right).
Yet Hall, unsettled by the similarities between the Pretty in Pink script and Sixteen Candles, pulled back, worried about always playing the same type of role. He recounts, on the Teen Beat podcast: “Ferris Bueller was written for me by John. He wanted me to do both films at the same time [Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Pretty in Pink], but I felt it was important for me to move on. In my view I think I broke his heart a little. Hats off to Matthew Broderick, who was a great Ferris, and of course to Jon [Cryer] and Andrew [McCarthy], who did very well in Pretty in Pink. […] Unfortunately our friendship cracked. Because John was a bit like the characters he wrote, he had a strong sensitivity, even though technically he was something of an adult. I hadn’t realized he would take it so personally. I was just trying to grow professionally, but never denying what he had given me. […] It was an incredible experience, it changed my life; I owe John my career. It was really a great opportunity to work with him.”
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