ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609180052
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CINDY PEARLMAN NEW YORK TIMES SYNDICATE
Is there life after the Brat Pack? In 1989, Molly Ringwald would have said no. By then the actress's last ``teenybopper'' flick, ``Fresh Horses'' (1988), had flopped, and for the first time since age 11, the actress was suddenly unemployed - and being heckled to boot.
``I walked down the streets of New York a year after `Fresh Horses' and people were actually yelling at me,'' Ringwald, now 28, recalls.
``Complete strangers would come up and shout in my face, `You're not working! Where are you? What are you doing with your life?' I wanted to cry.''
This was the same Molly Ringwald who in 1986 beamed on the cover of Time magazine, which announced her ascent as the No. 1 teen superstar of her generation.
In 1987, Ringwald, Tom Cruise and Madonna graced the cover of Life magazine, under the headline: ``Legends in Their Own Time.''
But after a few unmemorable studio features such as ``The Pick-Up Artist'' (1987) and ``Fresh Horses,'' Ringwald slipped out of the limelight.
Fed up with bad press about her latest films, as well as rumors of a rift with director John Hughes and a nonexistent romance with Warren Beatty, Ringwald packed her bags and moved to France, where she lived for four years.
She popped over to the States to do a TV miniseries, ``The Stand'' (1994). But a full-fledged return was the last thing on her mind.
``[I figured] `If I'm going to come back [to Hollywood], I'm going to do it in a big way,''' Ringwald says.
And she has - on television. Her ABC series ``Townies'' premieres Wednesday (at 8:30 p.m. on WSET-Channel 13). Ringwald plays Carrie, a young woman who still lives near her old high school and hangs out with her childhood pals while waiting tables at a local restaurant.
``It's about real people that I can relate to,'' Ringwald says. ``It reminds me of my best friends. We're `The Girls.' [We] hang around and talk about work, guys, clothes, money, family.''
Starring in a prime-time series is not bad for someone who returned to America this January with ``no big plan.''
``I was only back a month before I got offered the TV series and three months later I was filming the pilot,'' Ringwald says.
Today, the most famous screen redhead since Lucy can't get a moment's peace. Ringwald recently completed a starring role in the Miramax film ``Office Killer,'' playing a sniping young woman who sleeps her way to the top. It's scheduled to be released in February. Also in 1997, audiences will see her in ``Dogwater,'' the directorial debut of David Schwimmer of ``Friends'' fame.
In her ``Townies'' dressing room in Los Angeles, on a typically manic Wednesday afternoon, she talks about her return to acting.
``This is a really great feeling,'' she says. ``I've had such a great homecoming. People who don't even know me come up now and wish me well. I really feel like people are rooting for me. And it was so unexpected.
``I guess it was the same thing with John Travolta,'' Ringwald adds. ``I feel like the public was always behind me, but the powers that be in Hollywood thought no one cared about me anymore.
``Now everyone is happy to have me back and the Hollywood people are saying, `Oh yeah, Molly, we've been dying to welcome you back. We have missed you so much. You're our girl.'''
``Getting Molly was our good luck,'' says Matthew Carlson, the creator of ``Townies.'' ``We didn't really think about the bonus of what an icon she is for her generation. But since we started filming episodes it has become clear.
``When we're out on the streets, people seem to have this protective feeling about Molly. She's not Miss Ringwald. She's Molly. People feel like they know her.''
It has been that way since Ringwald was 11 years old, when she did local commercials in the Los Angeles area, which led to a stint on the TV show, ``The Facts of Life.'' At age 13, she played John Cassavetes' daughter in the film ``The Tempest'' (1982).
Her big break came in 1983, when her agent dropped a picture of Ringwald on the desk of director Hughes, who nabbed the mugshot and tacked it to his bulletin board to serve as inspiration while writing ``Sixteen Candles'' (1984).
Ringwald followed that film with classic coming-of-age hits such as Hughes' ``The Breakfast Club'' (1985) and ``Pretty in Pink'' (1986).
Professionally, Ringwald says she was very happy during her heyday.
``At the time I was really enjoying what I was doing. The only bad thing was that I didn't get to take some time, step back objectively and figure out who I was outside of all that stardom. You know, my young life was not exactly a real place to live.''
Plus, growing up on-screen, Ringwald says, ``was not the easiest thing in the world.''
``I went to regular school where people hated me,'' she recalls. ``Without even knowing me, the other kids thought I had this attitude. I had to stop caring to get through it.''
And, like countless child stars, no one wanted her to grow up.
``I think so many people saw the John Hughes movies and they were such a big deal that it put me into this icon status rather than just being an actress or even just a kid,'' Ringwald says.
She was also unprepared for the onslaught of fame that followed the Hughes films.
``It was so weird,'' Ringwald says. ``At 18, I'm on the cover of Time, which really blows your mind. It's a big honor and very flattering, but it's not exactly the thing you want for a long career. It's something you're supposed to work toward and it just happened to me really young.''
Today, Ringwald says she wants to do smaller roles in independent films, which was always her goal.
``I never wanted to do movies that were just about me. Then it's about your persona and your image. It really doesn't become about the acting anymore.''
Although taking on more offbeat roles was part of Ringwald's career plan, she says that there was "a lot of resistance" by fans and Hollywood, who wanted her to play the innocent ingenue everyone loved in Hughes' films.
"They say, 'no, you can't do that. You have to be charming and always the same because you are Molly Ringwald,'" she explains.
"And that's so boring when you wnat to be more than just a celebrity."
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