Breakfast Club is one of those eternal films for a certain generation. 2025 marks 40 years ago since its release. It's not hard to find people who grew up with that film still utterly entranced with it to this day. In celebration of the big milestone, the cast are reminiscing on what it was like filming such a staple in American pop culture. For Emilio Estèvez, his first introduction to his costars was less than ideal.
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Recently, the Breakfast Club cast reunited at C2E2, a pop culture convention in Chicago. There, Estèvez recalls how the first time he met the cast for the script reading, his face was completely swollen. "The night before I just had all four wisdom teeth pulled and I was on pain pills," Emilio recounts. "My agent called and said, 'Listen, they're gonna do a read-through with the rest of the gang. You have to show up.' I said, 'Look, my face is swollen; I'm on pain pills; I'm bleeding out.' They said, 'No, no, no. It's really important. You have to be there.'"
Emilio Estevez Meets The Breakfast Club Crew While Loaded on Pain Medication
Eventually, someone picks Estèvez up because he's far too drowsy to drive himself. After hazily discussing the script director John Hughes shows them an early screening of Sixteen Candles. However, it didn't take long for Emilio to pass out from the medication.
"Then he puts on the film and we're sitting there and I don't think I made it into the opening credits and passed out [after] having all my teeth extracted," Emilio admits. "Then I woke up at the end credits and I looked at Judd and Judd said, 'I think you're getting fired.'"
Obviously, Estèvez survives the casting despite knocking out so suddenly. The film goes on to define a generation and the rest is history. The C2E2 panel actually ended up being the first time he ever joined the cast for a reunion. He jests that it's not totally uncommon for him to miss these kinds of events. However, given the occasion, he couldn't miss it. "I skipped all of my high school reunions, so this just was something that I finally felt that I needed to do for myself," Emilio says.
