Molly Ringwald says she regrets turning down iconic 1990s film

Jacob StolworthyThu, August 6, 2026 at 8:53 AM UTC

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Molly Ringwald said she 'regrets' turning down huge 1990s role (TikTok)

Numerous romantic films from the 1990s are synonymous with their stars – you can’t imagine Pretty Woman without Julia Roberts, Sleepless in Seattle without Meg Ryan or Ghost without Demi Moore. But that last one very nearly didn’t happen.

Molly Ringwald, 58, has revealed she turned down a role in the supernatural drama, calling it her biggest regret in a new interview, and acknowledging it would have “changed the entire trajectory” of her career.

Ghost follows the bereaved Molly Jensen, whose late lover, Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze), protects her from beyond the grave. It became a sleeper hit, making $505.7m (£375.7m) at the box office to become the highest-grossing film of 1990, and won three Oscars.

The film established Moore as one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, but Ringwald – fresh from roles in Eighties favourites The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink – was offered the film first.

On Watch What Happens Live!, when asked to name the one project she “still regrets turning down”, Ringwald said, without missing a beat: “Um, Ghost. But Demi is great in it. So good for Demi. She did a great job.”

Cohen replied: “Not to make this worse for you, but like that would have changed the entire trajectory of...” to which Ringwald interrupted: “I know. It was just not meant to be.”

Last year, Moore reflected on watching Ghost for the first time in 30 years with her youngest daughter, Tallulah Willis, who had never seen the film.

“They put it on and they were like ‘You’ve got to watch it,’” she said on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I said ‘There’s no way,’ but I realised I have not seen it in thirty-something years.

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Demi Moore became certified box office star after 'Ghost' (Paramount Pictures)

“I gave way and watched the second half and I was like, ‘Oh, I did OK – I was actually pretty good.’”

On Hot Ones in 2024, she recalled reading Bruce Joel Rubin‘s script and thinking: “This could either be amazing or a f***ing disaster” as it “had so many different genres mixed together”.

But she signed on to the Jerry Zucker film as she wanted to “roll the dice” and ‘see what happens”.

Elsewhere on Watch What Happens Live, Ringwald said that her time on family show The Secret Life of the American Teenager was the “worst” point of her career.

“It was hard,” she explained. “I loved the cast. I loved Shailene [Woodley]. There was one person that was really difficult.”

She added that she was “not going to say who that one person is”, but said the unnamed person “brought it down to a one” for her.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager, which premiered in 2008, followed a teenage girl (Woodley) whose life is rocked by an unexpected pregnancy. Ringwald played the mother of Woodley’s lead character.

It also starred Ken Baumann, Mark Derwin, India Eisley, Greg Finley, Daren Kagasoff, Megan Park, Francia Raisa, and Sopranos star Steven Schirripa.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”