Each of the film’s young stars became part of the Brat Pack (whose other members include Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy and Demi Moore), a group of actors who all hit stardom at the same time and tended to star in movies together. John Hughes appeared in an uncredited role as Brian’s father. Of the entire cast, only Hall and Ringwald were actually high school age upon the movie’s release; Nelson was twenty-five while Sheedy and Estévez were both twenty-one years old.
Judd Nelson’s performance was influenced by his method style technique of staying in character off set. He was accused of bullying Molly Ringwald off camera due to his insistence on remaining in character off-camera. This behavior nearly forced Hughes to fire Nelson, but Nelson was defended by Paul Gleason, his on-screen nemesis, who stated that Nelson was just trying to stay in character and did not mean anything by it.
Ringwald and Hall dated briefly after filming ended.
Maine North High School used in the filming of The Breakfast Club was also used for some of the school-based scenes in John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which was released just a year after The Breakfast Club. Some of the posters on the walls during filming of The Breakfast Club were still there when Ferris Bueller was filmed. The giveaway is that the sign on the front of the school reads “Shermer High School” in both films. On the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off DVD commentary (featured on the 2004 DVD version) John Hughes reveals that he filmed the two movies back to back to save time and money, and some outtakes of both films feature elements of the film crews working on the other film in each case. Hughes has never disclosed, however, whether Ferris Bueller was implied to be a student at the same school as The Breakfast Club students a year later. In 2005, MTV announced that the film would be rewarded with the Silver Bucket of Excellence Award in honor of its twentieth Anniversary at the MTV Movie Awards. To coincide with the event, MTV attempted to reunite the original cast. Sheedy, Ringwald, and Hall appeared together on stage, with Kapelos in the audience, and Gleason personally gave the award to his former castmates. Estévez could not attend the reunion because of other commitments, and Nelson appeared earlier in the show but left before the on-stage reunion for reasons unknown, prompting Hall to joke that the two were “in Africa with Dave Chappelle.” This show was taped on May 28, 2005 and aired on June 9.
