Fresh Air - Molly Ringwald

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Molly Ringwald became a film icon in the '80s after starring in a trio of films: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. "I don't like to use the word iconic because it's overused — but they really are. Those films are really iconic," she tells Tonya Mosley. Now she's in the new Ryan Murphy series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, about the high society women that novelist Truman Capote loved and betrayed.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. My guest, Molly Ringwald, is having a full-circle moment. When she was three years old, she made her stage debut in Truman Capote's The Grass Harp. Now decades later, she stars as one of Capote's loyal friends in the new Ryan Murphy series, Feud, Capote vs. the Swans. Set in the 1970s, the series is about the late novelist, screenwriter, and actor Truman Capote and his high-society friend group known as the 1970s, the series is about the late novelist, screenwriter, and actor Truman Capote and his high society friend group known as the Swans, composed of wealthy wives of successful men. The group implodes after Capote turns the women's real lives into a thinly veiled work of fiction. Ringwald plays Joanne Carson, ex-wife of talk show host Johnny Carson, and one of Capote's most loyal friends, with him until the very end of his life. Molly Ringwald grew to fame representing

Gen X angst in 80s films like 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. In 2022, Ringwald starred in Ryan Murphy's Monster, the Jeffrey Dahmer story, playing the murderer's stepmother. In addition to acting, Ringwald is a jazz musician, author, and translator of several books, from French to English. Molly Ringwald, welcome to Fresh Air. Thank you for having me. It's an honor. In Capote vs. the Swans, you play Joanne Carson, talk show host Johnny Carson's second wife. And to set that up for everyone, when Joanne divorced Johnny, she became an exile from the Hollywood elite, which meant that she was not one of Truman Capote's swans, these high society women he loved. But

as he himself was exiled from writing about this secret world of high society women. He sought your character, Joanne, for refuge. I want to play a clip. And in this clip I'm about to play, Truman, who is played by Tom Hollander, comes to Los Angeles to attend Thanksgiving at Joanne Carson's home after he's been excluded from a socialite's guest's elegant high annual celebration. And disappointed, Truman and his boyfriend drive up to Carson's house. The boyfriend is angry to have to go to this party and stays in the car, and Truman goes out to greet your character, Joanne Carson. Let's listen. Hi, honey. Oh, hi. I come bearing gifts. Gracias. Thank you, thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving. Whywah. Mwah. Why is your friend sitting in the car? John wants me to buy him a house in Malibu. Little Prince Papa is pouting. Once he realizes there's a Manhattan waiting for him, he'll come in. When's dinner? In an hour, but there's lots of snacky, drinky things. I hope you like nachos and tamales. I love them. in an hour, but there's lots of snacky, drinky things.

I hope you like nachos and tamales. Do you know what that is? I love where he doesn't even answer. He's like, uh-huh, yeah. That was a scene from the new FX series Capote vs. the Swans. Molly, what drew you to this role role and how did you prepare for it? I was really interested by Truman Capote and I loved, you know, everything about that story. You know, I mean, those swans, those women, if you're, you know, I've always been intrigued by fashion and they're all such incredible, you know, fashion icons. And I was just really

excited that this was being made. I was surprised that it had never been made up until this point. Can you summarize for us who the Swans were and why they were called the Swans? The reason why they were called the Swans, I actually don't know, but I've sort of always assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that it was because of a character who actually isn't in this series. One of the Swans was Mariella Agnelli, and she had this very long neck. And I think... And describe who she was. She was a socialite, yes. She was an Italian socialite and she was one of the swans

and I kind of always assumed that that's why he called them the swans. I could be wrong, but the swans were just basically these very glamorous women who were married to these mostly important businessmen. And the series has been called The Original Housewives. That was kind of how they marketed it, which I

thought was sort of brilliant in that all of the, you know, the housewives, you know, the real housewives are all these women who actually are really successful themselves. Now, they have, you know, most of them have their own businesses and very successful women. But when the Swans happened, it was a different time. And these women were not really allowed to have their own careers. They really kind of lived adjacent to these powerful, successful men. But yeah, it's a good question to know exactly why he called them the swans. And it's also interesting that some of the women were swans and some were not, you know,

like Joanne Carson was married to Johnny Carson, who was a powerful man. But I don't think that she actually was a swan. I mean, actually, she called herself an ugly duckling, even though she was not. Well, how did you prepare to play Joanne Carson? Did you study the real Joanne Carson? You know, it wasn't that easy because there is not a lot of material on her. So, you know, of course, I went down multiple rabbit holes online just to, you know, look at, you know, what she looked like. I actually don't really look anything like the real Joanne. You know, we're physically quite different.

I think she was more petite and had really dark brown hair and big blue eyes. But what I got from her was a real kindness and love for Truman, like really unconditional love. I think she's kind of like the only person in his life that seemed to really love him unconditionally. And then I knew a couple people that knew her. I don't think I ever met her. I think I would remember. But my friend Allie Sheedy, who I did Breakfast Club with, did know her.

And Annie Potts, who I did Pretty in Pink with, also knew her. And they both really said the same thing, which was that she was just this really incredibly warm person. So I really kind of leaned into that. So much of the Swan's lives revolve around keeping up appearances and image and maintaining a reputation. Every move is kind of predicated on what will others think. And I thought it was really perceptive that you said that the world Capote was part of is very similar to kind of what you see in your kids' lives. You're the mother of two middle schoolers. And when you said that, I was like, oh, my gosh, yes, this is very middle school.

It is. It is. It is. I mean, you know, that's pretty much what my personal life is about, you know, outside of my career. I'm at home mothering my kids. And, you know, every night we do family dinner in our house, which is really thanks to my husband. He's the one that really keeps the family dinner. And it's not easy, you know, when you have teenagers doing family dinner, but it's the one time that we all connect. And, yeah, almost every family dinner is about the politics that go on at school and which clique and, you know, who's in which clique and, you know,

and how to navigate that and, you know, when one person falls out of one click, where do they go? I mean, it's like, it's exactly like the swans and that, you know, it's exactly the same, I think. Well, as you mentioned, this is your second time in a Ryan Murphy film in the Ryan Murphy universe. Do you like working with the same director, producers over and over again? I mean, you had this similar experience in working with John Hughes, the late filmmaker for the movies that were iconic in the 80s, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and Sixteen Candles. It almost feels like maybe it's like following a boss from job to job in a way. I really love working with the same people as long as I like the people, as long as they're good. And, you know, if I have a positive experience, yeah. I mean,

I stopped working with John after, you know, the three movies that I did with him. I was supposed to do one more and then it didn't end up happening. Some kind of wonderful. Well, I was asked, no, I was asked to do some kind of wonderful, which was directed by Howie Deutsch, who also directed Pretty in Pink. And he asked me to do it, but I didn't. Because at that point, I was really worried about, you know, people never seeing me in another project. So that was my feeling was that I had to work with somebody else because I was going to get typecast. But you know what? I got typecast anyway. So I should have just kept working with him.

Well, I mean, I want to talk to you a little bit about that because you were the poster child for a generation. You were on the cover of Time magazine. You were a household name. But you've done so much more since then. How do you reconcile or deal with the fact that for a certain generation of people, you will always be seen as a teenager? I don't know. It sort of depends on the day. You know, there's been times where I've been really frustrated by that. I feel like people always think that I'm younger than I am or older than I am. Really? The older is interesting. Well, older just because, you know, I've been around for so long, you know, and I also started really young.

You know, a lot of times people, you know, I'm the same age as a lot of people that became famous in the 90s. But they'll think that I'm older because I was famous in the 80s. Yes. That makes sense. Yeah. So I feel like those films are always, you know, they're iconic and they're special. Yes, that makes sense. in 1986, because you've written quite a bit about your experiences during that time period in working with John Hughes, and also just reflecting back on the time period as we move forward in time, especially during the Me Too movement.

In this clip that I'm about to play, this is from Pretty in Pink. You played a high school senior, Andy Walsh, who lives with her working class father in a Chicago suburb. One of the rich, popular kids, Blaine, played by Andrew McCarthy, falls for you and eventually asks you out to the prom before pulling away at the last minute after being pressured not to date you by one of his friends, played by James Spader. So in this scene, your character, Andy, confronts Blaine about why he's ignoring her. Let's listen. I called you three times and I left messages. Yeah.

Well, I didn't get them. My family, they're very responsible about that stuff, you know. I waited for you this morning. Yeah, where? Parking lot. I saw you and I thought that you saw me. No. What about prom, Blaine?

Andy, I'm having a bad day. Can we talk later? No. What about prom? Come on, why don't we just meet after school? No! What about prom? Andy, come on. Just say it. What? Just say it. I want to hear you say it.

Andy, please, all right? I want to hear you say it. What? Just say it. I want to hear you say it. Andy, please. All right? I want to hear you say it. A month ago, I asked somebody else, and I forgot. You're a liar! You're a filthy f***ing ogle liar! You didn't have the guts to tell me the truth! Just say it!

I'm not lying. Tell me! What? Tell me! What do you want to hear? Just tell me! What? You're ashamed to be seen with me. No, I am not. You're ashamed to go out with me. What? Tell me. What do you want to hear? Just tell me. What? You're ashamed to be seen with me.

No, I am not. You're ashamed to go out with me. You're afraid. You're terrified that your great friends want to throw. Just say it. That was a scene from the 1986 cult classic, Pretty in Pink. I was very young when I saw this film, Molly. And I still, I still at that scene, it takes me back to high school and rejection in that same way. I know. It actually makes me emotional.

It does, huh? It does, because I feel for her. And I also can't help but hear my kids in it. That's what I really love about. I mean, I have written extensively about the issues that I have with certain elements of the films and what I don't agree with and the elements that don't age well. But the fact that he would write a movie that John would write, that John Hughes would write a whole film, you know, about a girl getting uninvited to prom and how huge that is, you know, in the life of a teenager. That is huge. And of course, like hearing myself, you know, I hear my younger voice and, you know, it takes me back. You actually watched, it was The Breakfast Club with your daughter several years ago.

Yeah, I did. Yeah. What have been your kids' reaction to seeing this younger version and also playing what you say John Hughes really captured, the realities of a young person? Well, I played it for my now 20-year-old daughter when she was 10, which was really, I think, too young to watch The Breakfast Club. But all of her friends had seen it, and, you know, she didn't want to watch it at a slumber party or, you know, she didn't want to watch it with someone else. She wanted to watch it with me. So we did watch it, and I ended up doing a piece on that, that experience for This American Life. This American Life, yeah. And it was really interesting to watch it with her and what she got out of it because, you know, at the age of 10, she, of course, there was a lot of stuff that went over her head, mercifully, because, you know, we didn't have to have that conversation. But what we did get out of it

was that it had to do with her feelings with us, you know, that I was putting pressure on her, you know, because at the time, you know, we were having a hard time with, you know, I was having a hard time with, you know, making her do her homework and feeling like, you know, oh, come on, do that, you know, I wanted her to be a certain kind of student. So it was really an incredible experience to be able to have that conversation and actually feel like it changed my relationship with her. And it changed my way of parenting, basically. It changed your way of parenting.

Yeah. You were able to have language based on that. Yeah. That movie gave you parenting. Yeah. You were able to have language based on that. Yeah. That movie gave you language. Yeah. And, you know, also when I watch the movies now, of course, I'm very curious about the parents because the parents are really, they're not seen. You only hear about the parents from what the kids feel. But you don't know what the situation is at home.

I mean, all of them feel like they're being either neglected or misunderstood or outright abused. You know, as John Bender's character, played by Judd Nelson, is physically abused by his father. So, yeah, that was a really interesting experience and also pretty surreal. But it took a lot out of me. And I knew I was going to have to watch the movies again with my now 14-year-old twins.

And it took me, you know, a long time to feel like I could do it again. And we just watched the movies about, I don't know, three weeks ago. Did you have similar insights? They loved the movie. They didn't take out their phones once, which was incredible. It's a big deal. Yeah. I mean, I was looking. I mean, the phones were there and I was like, how long is it going to take for them to pick up the phones? And they didn't. But it was also interesting because they are older, you know, the, you know, sexual harassment that my character Claire experiences, you know, which she is.

She's harassed by John Bender the whole time. You know, that really did not resonate with them. They could not figure out why I went with him in the end. It was really sort of confusing. Like, they were just bewildered. And it didn't seem strange to me that she goes with Bender in the end, which is interesting that that doesn't seem strange. I mean, I had a great relationship with my father, you know, who passed away a couple years ago. So there's really no reason why that should have been normalized for me.

But it was. This idea that, oh, if somebody treats you badly or, you know, isn't complimentary or whatever, that that should be the person that you go for. But strangely, it was. And that's just not the case anymore. I thought it was just really interesting, these questions that you posed to yourself and those movies sit in our culture, especially now having these experiences with your children? Yeah, I do love the movies, and I'm really glad that I made them. It's not black or white, you know? Those movies are not perfect, but there is so much good in them. And there are also things that are not good or there's things that have changed. The lack of diversity bothers me in those movies. Certainly the, you know, the sexual politics bother me, but they were movies of a time. To me, that is one of the dangers of this desire to erase the past. I don't personally believe that you can erase the past, but you can look at it and you can debate and you can talk about it.

And I believe that talking about it and understanding it is what sets us free, not trying to erase it. Our guest today is Molly Ringwald, who stars in the new FX series, Capote vs. the Swans. We'll be right back. I'm Tanya Mosley, and this is Fresh Air. I'm Fresh Air's Anne-Marie Baldonado, here with a promo for the latest Fresh Air Plus bonus episode. It was just odd, I think, to be singing that song when I was so young. And the meditation was so big, it seemed like I hardly scratched the surface of it, so I never felt it was really successful.

That's recent Grammy winner Joni Mitchell talking about her song Both Sides Now with Terry Gross in 2004. You can hear more from this interview and three different versions of that song by joining Fresh Air Plus at plus.npr.org. My guest today is Molly Ringwald. She stars in the new FX series Capote vs. the Swans. In it, Ringwald portrays Joanne Carson, ex-wife of talk show host Johnny Carson, and one of novelist Truman Capote's most loyal friends. Ringwald grew to fame in the 80s, starring in the John Hughes teen movie Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink.

More recently, she was in the TV series Riverdale, based on the characters of the Archie comics, and Ryan Murphy's monster, the Jeffrey Dahmer story. Ringwald is also an author and has translated two books from French to English, including My Cousin Maria Schneider, a memoir, written by the niece of the late actress, who starred with Marlon Brando in the 1972 movie Last Tango in Paris. Molly, I'd love to talk with you a little bit more about how you choose what roles to play, because they're so varied when I look at your career beyond the 80s. You appeared most recently in episode three of season one of The Bear as a meeting coordinator for Al-Anon. And to refresh people's memory who's seen The Bear, The Bear is about a chef named Carmen in the fine dining world who returns home to run a family sandwich shop after his brother

dies by suicide. And Carmen goes to an Al-Anon meeting to try and understand his brother's struggles with addiction and suicide. And in this scene I'm going to play, we hear Molly's character sharing her story. Let's listen. It's hard to hear it, so I just keep saying it. I didn't cause it. I can't control it.

I can't cure it. A lot of my life, I thought I was just a victim. Because my husband drank so much, this would happen or that would happen. The short term was always so awful. I thought if I just could throw out his liquor, you know, hide whatever he was on, that would fix it. You can't curb that kind of chaos until the thinking changes, until the foundations change, until the chemistry changes. And it's difficult. I know I played a part in his abuse. And I'm really mad at myself for that. But, but, if there's anything good that came out of it,

it's that it made me realize that the best thing for me to do is just to try to keep my side of the street clean. Instead of trying to fix everything, just remove myself from any situation that is or could become toxic. That was a scene from the FX Hulu series, The Bear. And Molly, it's a very small scene, but it's so powerful. You're only in this series for a short period of time, but how did you come to this and choosing this role? I was offered that, which, you know, I knew that it was going to be a cameo. I knew that it wasn't a character that, you know, that

came back. I mean, she could come back. In fact, I hope she comes back. But I was sent a couple of scripts, and I watched the first episode, I think, but it hadn't aired yet. But I was so taken with it. I was so taken with the writing and everything about it, and I just said I wanted to do it, and I did, and I'm so happy that I did, and I'm so happy that the series, you know, has done well. But I just knew that it was going to be great. And also, it's really interesting that that monologue that I have is one of the only monologues that I've ever had that I didn't change one word, not one word. It was so well written. I mean, even that one line where I say, but, and then I say, but, you know, that it sounds so natural, but it was written that way. And it was such a pleasure

to do because it was so well written. And, you know, and those kind of opportunities don't come along or they haven't come along a lot for me, you know, where something is so well written that it makes the acting so easy. This role, as you said, was brought to you. Why do you think they chose you for this role? Because you killed it. But it also, as you said, is a cameo, but it's also so powerful in driving the story and moving it forward in our understanding of the main character. Yeah. I mean, nobody would really expect to see me in a role like that. In fact, a lot of people didn't even recognize me.

That it was you. Yeah, because I look very different and, you know, very unglamorous. I think she was, you know, I have almost no makeup on and, you know, the lighting is a bit harsh, you know, but it was right for that character. And to me, it was just it was such a compliment that people didn't recognize me, whatever they think that I am, because of those those movies, you know, that they're remembering that an actor plays different people than themselves, you know, and that's, of course, a delight for me. When you say that you don't often get roles like this or the scripts that you're given don't have this kind of depth and meat, what is it? What are the types of roles that are passed across your desk in years past that you just say no? I've been in mom purgatory for years. You went from being a teenager to a mom.

Yes, yes. And I always like to say that I sort of skipped being the sexy aunt or, you know, like, I don't know. I really do feel like I went from a teenager to mom. And it was like all they wanted me to play was a teenager for years. And I felt like there were a lot of parts that I missed out on because I was sort of too young. Like there were a couple of movies that I had gotten close on and that I didn't get, and it was heartbreaking to me. But a lot of what I heard was, well, she's really too young.

Yeah, and then all of a sudden it was the mom. And, you know, and I am, yeah, and there was nothing in between. And I am a mom, and, you know, there's nothing wrong with being a mom. I love being a mom, but I want to play somebody who pushes the story along, you know, where I'm not just sort of patting my kid on the head and saying, you'll figure it out, honey. You know, and I have played a lot of those because I'm a working actress, and it's also how I earn my living and help pay for my family. So, you know, I take what is offered, but I can't say that the opportunities have just been, you know, coming my way.

You know, so I've also been, you know, creating my own opportunities and, you know, and then sort of taking what I could as an actor. But I feel like that's changing. So I'm really grateful for that. If you're just joining us, I'm talking with Molly Ringwald. She's in the new FX series Capote vs. the Swans about the high society women that novelist Truman Capote both loved and betrayed. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is Fresh Air.

Today we're talking to Molly Ringwald. She's in the new FX series Capote vs. the Swans. Ringwald grew to fame in the 80s, starring in the John Hughes teen movies 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. In your 20s, after experiencing this tremendous success as a teen, you moved to Paris. And while living there, you, there was a lot that happened to you. I mean, how would you describe your time in Paris and the growth of who you are and like identifying who you were outside of this child actor that you, you know, you had been all of your life? Yeah, I think that it was really important for me to do. And, you know, I'm actually processing that now because I'm in the process of writing a book, a memoir about my time in Paris. So I'm still kind of figuring that out. But it was something that was important for me to do as a human being. I felt like I

had really, I was burnt out and I was uninspired and everything that I liked about acting and movie making and all of that, it seemed to have sort of evaporated. And I wasn't doing the projects that I really wanted to do. And I felt really isolated and alone. And then I realized that, well, I didn't realize that I had to move to Paris. It sounds way more courageous, you know, if I actually just said, you know, I'm moving to Paris and take my suitcases and go and that's it. But it didn't really happen that way. I went to Paris on a movie. And then once I was there, I was so happy and felt so good that I decided to stay.

You're still pretty immersed, though, in French culture. I mean, namely, you mentioned that you're a writer. You've written a book of your own, but you also translate books from French to English. What drew you to translate? And translation, just by, I just want to make a note, I mean, that's some intense work. Yeah. Yeah, it is. My first translation is a book called Lie With Me, which is a gay love story that takes place in the 1980s. And I never, ever would have thought that, I mean, as strange

as it is for people to think of me as a translator, it's equally as strange for myself. It was nothing that I ever thought that I could do or nothing that I sought out. It was something that came to me by Valerie Steiker, who acquired the book when she was an editor at Scribner. And it was her idea. And she took me out to lunch and said, I have this crazy idea. I think that you should translate this book. And she knew that I had some experience in France because she had edited an essay that I wrote for Vogue magazine when she was there. And my first response is, no, I can never do that. That's the craziest idea that I've ever heard. But I took it home and I read the first couple chapters and I really liked it. And I thought, what a challenge, you know. And I thought I would be able to do it and I thought I would be able to do a good job. You translated one that just more recently, My Cousin Maria Schneider, a memoir, which was written by Vanessa Schneider, who was Maria's younger cousin.

And just to lay this out for a second, Maria Schneider was a 1970s movie star who catapulted to fame in the film Last Tango in Paris. She was traumatized by one particular scene in Last Tango in Paris that kind of marked her for the rest of her career. Can you explain what happened on the set? Well, The Last Tango in Paris is a film that was written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. And it's a story about two people, a man who's played by Maria Schneider, who's a young woman who has a filmmaker fiancé, played by Jean Pierlio. And they begin, Marlon's character, Paul, and Maria's character, Jean, began a sexual relationship. And it was Bertolucci's idea to make this movie about these two people who only communicate carnally through their bodies. And Maria read it. And, you know, she was, I mean, she was pretty punk rock.

You know, like she was out there. She was bold. She was interested, she thought it was audacious. And everybody said, you know, you can't turn up this opportunity to do this movie with Marlon Brando. It's an incredible break. And so she did the movie, and it was pretty bold and explicit. But there was one particular scene where the Marlon Brando character, Marlon and Bertolucci decided to add this new thing that was not, Maria says that it was not in the original script. And I think that's true. It was not in the original script where Marlon's character takes her completely by surprise.

It was basically sexual assault. And it was— And they wanted the authentic surprise during the filming. That's right. He wanted to have her— he wanted the real response. And I have worked with directors and, you know, where, you know, you throw lines out that aren't in the script and you do get a sort of, you know, surprise or authentic, you know, I mean, that's not completely unheard of. On the other hand, this was, it was basically sexual assault. Marlon's body was still pinning hers to the ground. And it was an assault. Do you look at that film differently or even Bertolucci differently after translating this book?

Absolutely, I do. I had seen the movie before, but I, of course, didn't know that that was something that was sprung upon Maria. Yeah, it's really hard to watch. I went back to watch it after I took the job of translating it, and it was really painful to watch. And also knowing that, you know, the film came out and it had such a response, you know, but people were sort of horrified by the explicit nature of the film. And it all kind of fell on Maria. You know, she was the one that was really criticized more than anyone, I think. And I think she really struggled with that. I think it was basically, it was an assault.

But what I thought was also interesting was that she really didn't blame Marlon. It was really Bertolucci that she did not forgive for the rest of her life. If you're just joining us, I'm talking with Molly Ringwald. She's in the new FX series Capote vs. the Swans. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is Fresh Air.

I want to talk briefly about other aspects of your career because you're a writer, you're an actor. Of course, we know this about you, but you also are a singer. And I read that some of your first memories were singing with your father on stage. I want to play a clip of you at six years old singing Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight with your father and his group, the Fulton Street Jazz Band. Let's listen. And you've got a jazz band just to drive away the blues When you hear that music start to play Tap your feet and start to step that way And when you get the rhythm, you want to shout hooray It'll be a hot time in your town tonight, my baby

When you hear those bells go ding-a-ling All turn round and gale-a-you-muck-ing When the first is through In chorus all join in The hot time in your town tonight That was Molly Ringwald at six years old performing Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight with her father's jazz band. That song was a real traditional jazz song.

And it's very emotional for me because, yeah, I performed with my dad since I was three. And he passed away a couple years ago and i'm so sorry thank you um and he was he was a really incredible person and i performed with him um for my whole life and not only did i perform with him but um but we had an incredible connection he was um he was a really amazing, he was an amazing father and an incredible musician. And yeah, it's hard. I just, I miss him a lot. Yeah. I mean, I can feel that. And I know you've talked quite a bit about your father's influence. I think you called him a big fish in a small pond as a jazz musician. He was very well respected. He was beloved. He was not just well respected, but he was beloved. Was it natural for you and your siblings to perform with him and his band? That was something

that was just a natural family occurrence for you guys to sing together? It was something that I did. My sister and my brother were not musical in the same way. It was something that my mom actually was the one who noticed that I was a singer because I was the last of four children. My first brother died when he was three and a half, and then my sister, and then my brother. But so I was the fourth kid, and there was something in the way that I, I guess, babbled in the crib or something that she said, this is different. She's singing. And she was the one who told my father that she thought that I was a singer.

And so that's when we started to work together. And that was really kind of a bond that we had. That was like our special bond. Your father was also visually impaired. And I find from personal experience that children in my life with parents who are deaf or blind have a certain maturity and emotional intelligence that seems to serve them well in life. And I was just wondering if you see that in yourself. I do. I mean, it's really hard for me to have anything to compare it to because he's the only father that I had. But I definitely think that he gave me an eye for detail. I do feel like I was, whenever I was around my father, especially when we would watch movies or we would go anywhere, I feel like I would notice things. And I was always looking for things to tell him. And I was kind of like his eyes in a way. And I kind of prided

myself on that. I was somebody that he really liked to watch movies with because I was really good at explaining things. You all would watch movies together and you'd be the narrator. That's right. That's right. And I do feel like it gave me a certain emotional maturity it was it was also just different you know I think my my dad wasn't only blind but he was he was a musician and he supported our family by being a musician and so he had you know he was unlike other fathers. He didn't drive. My mom did all the driving. And we would have family dinner together, and then my father would go to work, and he would work all night. When I was growing up, he was a working musician, did piano bar. Sometimes my father would work seven days a week, and we never went on vacation.

I think we took one family vacation together because my dad was always working. You kind of sit in the middle of these two things. Now you watching your daughter as an actor, what kinds of advice do you give her? I try to give her, I say give her advice. I mean, it's hard, you know, with your kids because, you know, she and my other kids, they're going to have to discover things for themselves. You know, Matilda has been passionate about acting. You know, she's wanted to act since she was a kid like me. And my husband and I made the choice not to allow her to be professional. You know, and I guess the advice that I've given her is just to learn how to act. You know, we have given her, you know,

acting lessons. We've, you know, Matilda has fantastic taste in movies. I mean, she's always had really great taste in movies. But we'll, and we'll watch monologues, and we'll stop and go back and, you know, and talk about what makes that so good and so powerful. But it's also a really hard business, so I've talked about that, too, because just because you're a talented actor doesn't mean that you can be successful in this career. They're almost like two different things. And it's hard because, you know, in order to be an actor, a good actor, you have to be a really emotional person and be able to access that emotion. But also being a very emotional sensitive person, it's not very easy to be in a business where you're rejected a great deal of the of time so you know those are issues that we talk about molly ringwald i really enjoyed this conversation me too thank you so much thank you and i also didn't say too that that fresh air was one of my father's favorite shows he like all of like all the he was like, when are you going to

do that fresh air? You know, he would, he would, you know, if, if there's a heaven somewhere, my, my dad is definitely smiling. Molly Ringwald is in the new FX series Feud, Capote versus the Swans. Tomorrow on Fresh Air, actor Mark Ruffalo. In the new movie Poor Things, he plays a foppish rake with a terrific accent. It's a departure from his previous roles. He's up for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. I hope you can join us. I know why I've waited Know why I've been blue Prayed each night for someone Exactly like you Why should we spend money

On a show or two No one does those love scenes exactly like you. You make me feel so grand. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salet, Phyllis Myers, Sam Brigger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Anne-Marie Baldonado, Teresa Madden, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelly, and Susan Nyakundi. Our digital media producer is Molly C.V. Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. For Terry Gross, I'm Tanya Mosley.