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The Movie Got Its Title Because Molly Ringwald Really Liked The Song
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In a joint interview with "Seventeen" magazine, "Pretty in Pink" screenwriter John Hughes revealed that he would hear Molly Ringwald listening to The Psychedelic Furs' "Pretty in Pink" while they were filming their earlier movie "Sixteen Candles", which led to their next film's title. "I wrote 'Pretty In Pink' the week after we finished 'Sixteen Candles'," he said.
Furs frontman Richard Butler, however, admitted that having their song in the movie wasn't as advantageous as one might imagine. “[The movie] was nothing like the spirit of the song at all,” Butler admitted. “It’s really hard to say whether it was damaging for us."
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The Star Of ‘Flashdance’ Was Almost Cast In Molly Ringwald’s Role
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John Hughes wrote "Pretty in Pink" with Molly RIngwald in mind, yet she almost didn't ge the role. "Flashdance" star Jennifer Beals was producers' first choice — but turned it down, clearing a path for Ringwald.
“I remember actually hearing that Jennifer Beals was in the running, and it was sort of upsetting to me to imagine her in that,” Ringwald said in the book "You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried". “I felt like she was already an adult by then. It just didn’t seem possible, so I was really glad when I was approached about it.”
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The Two Surprising Actors Who Turned Down Duckie Before The Role Went To Jon Cryer
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Jon Cryer's portrayal of Duckie proved to be his breakthrough, but if producers had their way the character would have been played by Anthony Michael Hall. However, director Howard Deutch felt that casting choice would lead audiences to think Hughes was simply rehashing "Sixteen Candles", so the casting continued.
Star Molly RIngwald, however, had one actor in mind: Robert Downey Jr. It was only when the future "Iron Man" star turned it down did Cryer land the role.
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John Hughes Ditched The Original Ending After A Disastrous Test Screening
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In the original ending, it was Duckie whom Ringwald's Andie ended up with at the end of the movie, not Andrew McCarthy's Blane. In the first test screening, however, that pairing was met with boos by the audience, leading director John Hughes to rewrite and reshoot the final scenes to accede to the wishes of the audience that Andie gets together with Blane, despite what the script had outlined.
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Jon Cryer’s Casting Wound Up Changing The Entire Movie
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According to director Howard Deutch, Ringwald had earlier (and correctly) predicted that audiences wouldn't buy Andie winding up with Duckie as played by Jon Cryer, but would have if the character had been played by her choice, Robert Downey Jr.
“Molly dropped the bomb that she would’ve been fine with the original ending if Robert Downey Jr. had played Duckie, but since it was me, she just couldn’t see it,” Cryer revealed in the film’s 2006 "Everything’s Duckie "DVD edition. “It was like, ‘Wow, so I’m that unattractive?’ Thanks, Mol!”
Deutch later conceded that, story-wise, Andie should have ended up with Duckie. "And I could have ended that way, had I not f**ked with one thing: I cast Jon Cryer,” he joked in the book "You Couldn't Ignore Me".
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Andrew McCarthy Was Cast Because Molly Ringwald Thought He Was ‘Cute’
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For casting the role of Andrew McCarthy's Blane, producers envisioned a square-jawed jock type until Ringwald intervened and suggested McCarthy.
“I did push for him to get hired,” Ringwald said in "You Couldn't Ignore Me".
“I thought he was cute and I thought, if I thought he was cute, then Andie would think he was cute!"
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Duckie’s Best Lines Were Improvised By Jon Cryer
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Director Howard Deutch let the actors freely improvise, which led to Jon Cryer coming up with some of his character's most memorable lines.
Among these was when he burst into the girls' room, and quips of the tampon machine on the wall, “So this is what it looks like. We don’t have a candy machine in the boys’ room.”
Another one cooked up on the spot by Cryer was, “His name is Blane? That’s a major appliance, that’s not a name."
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James Spader Almost Didn’t Get Cast Because He Was Too Convincing As An A-hole
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When James Spader auditioned for the role of jerky Steff, he got so into his loathsome character that director Howard Deutch absolutely loathed him — until realizing that was exactly what they wanted from the character.
According to "You Couldn't Ignore Me", after Spader was cast, he and co-star Jon Cryer were discussing Spader's previous (and very similar) roles, when Spader told Cryer, “I figure I got a lock on this teenage a**hole thing."
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Duckie’s Iconic Dance Moves Were Courtesy Of The Choreographer of Footloose
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One of the most memorable scenes in "Pretty in Pink" is when Jon Cryer's Duckie does a lip-sync and dance to Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness.”
As Cryer later told "Entertainment Weekly", director Howard Deutch brought in acclaimed choreographer Kenny Ortega, who designed Kevin Bacon's moves in "Footloose", to put together Duckie's routine. "And getting together with a seriously world-class choreographer, you’re gonna come up with something," admitted Cryer.
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Molly Ringwald Thinks Duckie Is Gay, Jon Cryer Disagrees
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“Duckie doesn’t know he’s gay,” Ringwald once told "Out" magazine. “I think he loves Andie in the way that [my gay best friend] always loved me.”
Cryer, however, begged to differ, telling Zap2It: “I want to stand up for all the slightly effeminate dorks that are actually heterosexual. Just ‘cause the gaydar is going off, doesn’t mean your instruments aren’t faulty. I’ve had to live with that, and that’s okay.”
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