8. Originally, Hughes envisioned The Breakfast Club star Anthony Michael Hall as Duckie. But the actor passed, believing it was too similar to his previous role as the Geek in Sixteen Candles.
“It was shocking to John because John felt like he was his son,” Deutch told Den of Geek. “He felt very close to him. You know, all those kids from Breakfast Club were like his family.”
9. After Hall passed, Ringwald pushed for “somebody like Robert Downey Jr.” because “he was different, and he was quirky, but it was completely imaginable that we would end up together,” she explained in You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried. Michael J. Fox was also reportedly considered.
10. Of course, Jon Cryer would go on to make Duckie Dale an iconic character. “He walked in and he was my guy,” Deutch told Gora.
11. But his co-stars didn’t really like him, with Cryer explaining in his 2015 memoir, “I think they were irritated by me from day one. Molly and Andrew were very reserved people, and I’m a very outgoing person. That could have worked out great, that dynamic, but it didn’t.”
And he wasn’t wrong, as McCarthy admitted to Gora, “Jon was very Duckie-like when we were making that movie. He was very sweet and very needy, and I had no patience for it.”
