John Hughes Was Peter Pan: Molly Ringwald

For Molly Ringwald, John Hughes was like Peter Pan, drawing his teen actors into Neverland, she writes in the New York Times. Hughes “was one of us,” laughing alongside the actors rather than reprimanding them as they worked. And when Ringwald and her fellow actors chose to move on to other films, Hughes warned them that leaving Neverland meant never coming back.

“True to his word, not only were we unable to return, but he went one step further. He did away with Neverland itself,” turning away from the coming-of-age films that made him famous. But for Ringwald and her friend and colleague Anthony Michael Hall, the memories remain: “I loved working with him,” she writes, “more than anyone before or since.”
(More John Hughes stories.)