Molly Ringwald has identified "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" as her worst acting experience, citing a "really difficult" colleague as the reason for her dissatisfaction.
Ringwald, 58, who played Anne Juergens on the ABC Family series from 2008 to 2013, expressed her negative feelings about the show during an appearance on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live." When asked to rank her past acting jobs on a scale of one to 10, she stated that "The Secret Life" was "the worst."
Despite her strong negative reaction to one aspect of the production, Ringwald emphasized that she had positive relationships with many others involved in the series. "I love the cast, I love Shailene [Woodley], there's so many people that I worked with... there was one person that was really difficult," she explained. She declined to name the individual or specify whether they were an actor or part of the crew, but stated that this person's presence significantly lowered her overall experience.
Ringwald played the mother of a pregnant teenager, portrayed by Shailene Woodley, in the series that ran for five seasons. She received a Teen Choice Award nomination for her role as "Choice TV Parental Unit."
In contrast to her experience on "The Secret Life," Ringwald rated her time working on the John Hughes film "Pretty in Pink" as one of her best. She described the 1986 movie as a "pretty great" experience, giving it a perfect score of 10. Ringwald noted that "Pretty in Pink" was written specifically for her and that by that point, she and director John Hughes had developed a strong working synergy.
Ringwald, an icon of 1980s cinema, also starred in other John Hughes films, including "Sixteen Candles" and "The Breakfast Club."