Molly Ringwald Calls “Secret Life of the American Teenager” Her ‘Worst’ Experience Because One Person Was ‘Really Difficult’

The actress clarified that she was “not going to say who that one person is” during her appearance on ‘Watch What Happens Live’

NEED TO KNOW

• Molly Ringwald reflected on her time filming The Secret Life of the American Teenager
• The actress, who starred as Anne Juergens in the ABC Family series, rated the experience a 1 out of 10 during her appearance on Watch What Happens Live
• “There was one person that was really difficult,” she said

Molly Ringwald said she “loved” the cast of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, but there was “one person” who was “really difficult.”

The actress, 58, appeared on the Tuesday, Aug. 4 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen and participated in a game of “Spill the IMDb Tea,” during which she rated a few of her high-profile roles based on her experiences on set.

After going through films including Not Another Teen Movie, Jem and the Holograms and Pretty in Pink, Ringwald was faced with rating her experience on The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

“That would be, the worst is 1?” Ringwald asked of the rating system. “Okay, that was it. The worst.”

After gasps from the Bravo audience, and a “wow” from host Andy Cohen, Ringwald explained her reasoning.

“It was a hard… okay. I loved the cast. I loved Shailene [Woodley], there’s so many people that I worked with that… there was one person that was really difficult,” she said.

Ultimately, Ringwald clarified that she was “not going to say who that one person is,” but they “brought it down to a 1” on Cohen’s rating scale.

Ringwald, who recently made her stage return in off-Broadway’s Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, starred as Anne Juergens, the mother of Woodley’s Amy Juergens, in the ABC Family teen drama from 2008 to 2013. It followed the story of Amy, a high school student who became pregnant at age 15 and had to navigate various familial and life changes.

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Ringwald and Woodley starred alongside Ken Baumann, Mark Derwin, Megan Park, India Eisley, Francia Raisa and others. The series ended in June 2013 after five seasons.

Woodley, who praised Ringwald during a 2024 reunion as “the queen who grew me up,” revealed in an October 2024 edition of Vanity Fair’s “Scene Selection” that she was not familiar with Ringwald’s work going into the series.

“I got to know her as just this, like, beautiful older sister, motherly figure to me, who was really protective of honoring, like, my authenticity as a young person and who I was and just being, like, a kiddo playing a kiddo,” she said.

“She protected me in that way,” Woodley added, “and I’m so thankful for that because there is a pressure for people to grow up very quickly, especially when it comes to Hollywood.”