Molly Ringwald, 57, told Andy Cohen during her Aug. 4 appearance on Watch What Happens Live that “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” was her worst work experience, rating it a one on a scale of one to ten.
The ’80s icon played a game where she was asked to rank some of her roles randomly selected from her IMDb.
The list included “Secret Life,” “Not Another Teen Movie,” “Jem and the Holograms” and “Pretty in Pink,” but it was her time on the ABC Family show that landed at the bottom.
Ringwald said of the ABC Family show, “That would be, the worst is 1?”
“Okay, that was it. The worst.”
Both the host and the audience seemed shocked by the answer.
“It was a hard—I mean, okay, I love the cast,” she told Andy Cohen during her Aug. 4 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, and the issue didn’t lie with her costars, who included Shailene Woodley, Daren Kagasoff, India Eisley, Ken Baumann, Mark Derwin, Megan Park and Francia Raisa, among others.
But one person spoiled everything.
“I love Shailene, there were so many people I worked that were—there was one person that was really difficult. And I’m not going to say who that person is.”
Ringwald confirmed they singlehandedly brought the experience “down to a one.”
In the viral moment from Ringwald’s segment, she went through a ranking game testing her opinions on various roles throughout her career.
“Pretty in Pink”—the third of the John Hughes movies Ringwald starred in—finds itself at the top of her pyramid. “That was pretty great,” she declared of the 1986 film. “I’ll give that a 10. It was written for me.” Plus, she got to have an even greater hand in bringing the movie to life. “I actually have like a collage that I made myself that’s in the bedroom and I love it,” Ringwald added.
“And, I mean except for the prom dress, I loved all my costumes.”
The drama series was a departure.
The ABC Family series premiered in 2008 and starred Woodley as a teenager who gets pregnant unexpectedly and is forced to navigate the changing relationships with her family and friends as she moves through the experience of pregnancy into motherhood. Ringwald played Woodley’s mother in the series.
The show ended after five seasons in 2013.
Ringwald’s co-star Shailene Woodley, now 34, had notably appreciated working with her.
“I got to know her as just this, like, beautiful older sister motherly figure to me, who was really protective of honoring, like, my authenticity as a young person and who I was and just being, like, a kiddo playing a kiddo,” Woodley explained.
“She protected me in that way,” Woodley added. “and I’m so thankful for that because there is a pressure for people to grow up very quickly, especially when it comes to Hollywood.”
Woodley’s appreciation was striking given how little she knew about Ringwald initially.
“I didn’t know who Molly Ringwald was,” Woodley confessed. “I was 15, didn’t grow up with a TV.”
Woodley had never seen the iconic 1980s films.
“Every one of my parents’ friends were like, ‘You’re working with Molly Ringwald!’ And I was like, ‘What is her…. Why? I don’t get it.’ Because I had never seen Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles or any of her films.”
But that disconnect worked to their advantage.
“However, the Three Women actress said having not watched any of director John Hughes’ films that launched Ringwald to stardom as a teenager actually worked out in the end. “I got to know her as just this, like, beautiful older sister motherly figure to me, who was really protective of honoring, like, my authenticity as a young person and who I was and just being, like, a kiddo playing a kiddo,” Woodley explained.
The “Secret Life” experience stands in stark contrast to Ringwald’s legacy work in the 1980s.
“Pretty in Pink” finds itself at the top of her pyramid. “That was pretty great,” she declared of the 1986 film. “I’ll give that a 10. It was written for me.”
She also noted her nostalgia for other projects.
When asked to rank her roles including “Not Another Teen Movie,” “Jem and the Holograms” and “Pretty in Pink,” Ringwald rated them higher than her time on “Secret Life.”
Ringwald, who was born on Feb. 18, 1968, is a mother of three.
She shares 17-year-old twins Adelle and Roman with husband Panio Gianopolous.
Ringwald has been cast in Yellowjackets Season 4, which will be the final entry in the popular Showtime series.