When pop culture icon Molly Ringwald looks back on her legendary career, one specific television chapter stands out for all the wrong reasons.
During a lively appearance on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, the 58-year-old actress participated in a rapid-fire game where she was asked to score her various acting projects on a scale of one to ten. While most of her beloved classics received stellar ratings, her time on the hit ABC Family drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager received a devastating one.
The reason for the abysmal score had nothing to do with the script, the story, or her fellow cast members. Instead, Ringwald revealed that a single, unnamed person on set made the working environment so deeply unbearable that it ruined the entire experience for her.
Loved the Cast, Hated the Environment
Ringwald starred as Anne Juergens—the mother of lead character Amy Juergens, played by Shailene Woodley—throughout the first four seasons of the series, which ran from 2008 to 2013, before returning as a guest star in the fifth and final season.
When host Andy Cohen pressed her on the low score, Ringwald was careful to clarify that her frustration was not directed at her co-stars, with whom she shared strong professional bonds.
“I love the cast. I love Shailene. There were so many people I worked with that were [great],” Ringwald explained to Cohen. “There was one person that was really difficult—and I’m not going to say who that person is.”
Despite the stellar ensemble cast—which included Woodley, Daren Kagasoff, India Eisley, Ken Baumann, Megan Park, and Francia Raisa—that one unidentified individual single-handedly dragged the entire five-year television experience down to the absolute bottom of her career list.
From a Career Low to a Nostalgic High
At the polar opposite end of her rating scale sat Pretty in Pink, the seminal 1986 John Hughes classic that helped define 1980s cinema and cemented Ringwald as a permanent Hollywood icon. Unsurprisingly, she awarded the film a perfect ten out of ten.
“That was pretty great. It was written for me,” Ringwald shared with a smile, revealing that she still keeps a framed collage from the movie hanging on her bedroom wall.
While she playfully admitted to having one minor lingering complaint about the film—namely, the polarizing, home-sewn prom dress her character wore in the final act—she emphasized that everything else about making the movie was an absolute joy.
For fans who watched Ringwald play the nurturing, compassionate mother on The Secret Life of the American Teenager, her candid admission offers a striking glimpse into the reality of working in Hollywood: even on a hit show with a beloved cast, a single toxic presence behind or in front of the camera can turn a dream job into a nightmare.