Molly Ringwald had a Sixteen Candles moment on Friday, the actress revealed on social media, sharing that — much like her character in the 1984 movie — her mother forgot her birthday.
The actress shared on Instagram a screenshot of a text exchange with her mother, captioning it, “Actual conversation with my mom today.”
In the conversation, which happened on her birthday on Feb. 18, Ringwald asked her mother, “That’s it? You don’t have anything else to say to me today?”
Her mom wrote back, “I didn’t realize it was the 18th today. Happy birthday! I haven’t got your present in the mail. Will do very soon.”
Ringwald was quick to notice the similarity to the plot point at the beginning of the John Hughes film, in which her character Samantha’s family forgets her 16th birthday, writing “Life imitates art.”
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Her mother replied, “How true. It took me a few more years to forget.”
Ringwald seemed to take the moment in stride, reacting with a laughing emoji. She also posted photos to Instagram of her celebrating her birthday with friends.
And she reflected on the fact that Feb. 18 was also the birthday of late Sixteen Candles director John Hughes, with whom she also collaborated on The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.
Hughes died of a heart attack in 2009.
“Thinking about John Hughes and this birthday we share. I like to imagine him somewhere making the best mixed tapes,” she wrote on Instagram alongside a black-and-white photo of her with Hughes.
In 2018, Ringwald wrote a much-discussed essay for The New Yorker in which she re-examined Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club in the wake of the #MeToo movement and sexual misconduct accusations against Harvey Weinstein.
In the essay she highlights a number of problematic scenes and elements in both films, including what happens between Anthony Michael Hall’s character and Caroline (Haviland Morris) in Sixteen Candles, and explains how she and her mom objected to a line about her character giving Hall’s character her underwear.
Despite those “troubling” elements, Ringwald recently clarified that she didn’t want those films “erased.”
“I’m proud of those movies, and I have a lot of affection for them. They’re so much a part of me,” she said.
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