Thirty-two years later, the director and cast reflect on the making of the film.
Before shooting began, the script went through several iterations and casts.
I wanted Molly [Ringwald], and she turned it down.
It was a perfect part for him, and he passed.
I turned it down because I knew the other girl’s part was so much better.
MARY STUART MASTERSON (Watts):The first draft was comedically more broad.
ERIC STOLTZ (Keith Nelson):We had rehearsed for quite some time with a different cast.
MASTERSON:The character changed a great deal after I was hired.
She would probably change her pronoun the way it was written originally.
DEUTCH:When I came back, it was not the same script.
Interestingly, there are still moments of the darker fairy tale within it.
MASTERSON:[Hughes] wrote the soundtrack before the script.
The soundtrack didn’t change, but the screenplay did dramatically.
So I hopped on my motorcycle and took her the script.
She was living up on Mulholland Drive at the time.
THOMPSON:Howard the Duckcame out, and it was a huge bomb.
It was very maligned, and I thought my career was over.
Four or five days later I was shooting.
DEUTCH:I was frankly lucky to be able to have her in the movie.
The movie endured because people identified with both those characters so strongly.
I went in and auditioned, and Howie thought it was cool that I had this weird hair.
Keith and Watts are both creatively minded.
Keith is a visual artisthis room is covered in his work and he dreams of going to art school.
MASTERSON:I got ready to be inSome Kind of Wonderfulby learning how to play the drums.
I was training with this amazing drummer named Billy Moore.
I would go to his studio every day and do exercises and work with him.
STOLTZ:I did take painting lessons.
I hope they didn’t because they weren’t very good!
They like, “No, they’re really cool.”
I still have them.
To help Keith prepare for his date with Amanda, Watts suggests he practice kissing her.
DEUTCH:That scene wasn’t in the script period.
Then, John said to me, “You know we need one more scene.”
I remember him saying, “Let’s call it the kiss that kills.”
He wrote that scene literally in front it me in like a half hour or less.
It was also a very hot and sweaty day in Los Angeles.
It’s the way you touch each other, it’s not just the kiss.
MASTERSON:It’s very cool because of how it was shot.
I thought it was really smart.
DEUTCH:I had a great cinematographer named Jan Kiesser and we collaborated on it.
That’s how it feels like that.
It’s not just editorial cuts; it’s more designed.
The two argue, but ultimately Clifford supports his son.
THOMPSON:I thought it was a bizarre plot point to be honest.
A very strange thing.
That he would cash in his college [money] to buy these stupid diamond earrings.
STOLTZ:I thought it was nuts then, and I think it’s nuts nownuts and terribly romantic.
JOHN ASHTON (Cliff Nelson):We did a lot of rehearsing off camera, Eric and I.
The funny thing is he never called me John.
He always called me Pop.
The whole time we were shooting, even off camera.
We’d go to lunch and he’d call me Pop.
When we finished our last scene, we went and had lunch and he called me John.
STOLTZ:Ashton and I got along famously.
I was doing another job that dyed my hair.
ASHTON:In the original scene, I had mentioned that he bought the earrings for $10,000.
DEUTCH:I saw [that car] on the road actually.
STOLTZ:[Being in a museum after hours] was lovely, like being in a church.
DEUTCH:I’m pretty certain it was LACMA [the Los Angeles County Museum of Art].
They’re still lurking somewhere.
They’re still in the Paramount warehouse somewhere.
Keith then takes Amanda to the Hollywood Bowl where the two sit on the stage for a heart-to-heart.
He gives her the earrings and they kiss, while Watts looks on from the cheap seats.
DEUTCH:That was a difficult night, and it took all night.
MASTERSON:It was amazing to be in that space alone.
I loved that day.
It’s similar to [rehearsing in an empty Broadway theater.]
THOMPSON:It’s a weird, big, lonely place.
DEUTCH:The next morning I was told the lab had scratched all the film.
I was devastated because I was really happy with what we’d shot.
We ending up using the original footage, not re-shooting it, and cutting around the scratches.
That was a nightmare.
Watts reluctantly drives them to the party.
DEUTCH:We had a stunt coordinator, and Lea slaps him twice.
That was Lea’s idea, and I loved it, so we kept it.
THOMPSON:Craig Sheffer made me really slap him.
He’d be like, “Harder!
Slap me harder!”
and I’d be like, “No!”
STOLTZ:We all wanted to have more Elias Koteas in the film because he was beloved.
THOMPSON:In that scene, I just slapped [Hardy] and left.
They added the gang coming in.
[Elias Koteas] was such a revelation, and I remember being so transfixed with his performance.
He’s wearing a wig.
By the end of the night, both Keith and Amanda have become fundamentally changed.
It seems they might end up together as Watts tearfully storms off down the road alone.
They kiss; he gives her the earrings and jokes, “You look good wearing my future.”
I wasn’t sure.
It’s a totally materialistic thing.
This doesn’t really jive with this character.
But she couldn’t admit that she really wanted themI can deal with that.
That always heightens what’s going on in the scene.
THOMPSON:Howie thought he was gonna have to shoot [a different ending].
But he didn’t.
He thought they’d want Keith to end up with me but they went crazy for [Watts].
When we finally got it, I cried and everybody cried.
Sometimes you get lucky and the chemicals work between everybody and the shot works.
I wanted it to be almost operatic.
I’m very happy with that ending.
The film has gone on to endure as one of Hughes' seminal teen romantic comedies of the 1980s.
For Deutch and Thompson, it has an even deeper resonance, having brought them together.
DEUTCH:The relationship was professional on the movie.
She was engaged to someone else.
That made me feel like he was special.
When you watch someone have passion and be really good at their job, it’s very attractive.
ASHTON:It’s a universal story.
John Hughes took his teenagers very seriously.
It’s not exploitative or crasshe respected and loved them.
MASTERSON:Nobody had ever really done that.
The stakes are so high when you’re in high school it’s not dumbed down.
It’s honest and emotional and gave respect to that whole time of life.
DEUTCH:John was a romantic.
If you really look at his writing, he was in love with love.
