16 Facts About "Sixteen Candles" That Will Make You Want To Watch It Again

by N/A, 9 years ago | 2 min read

There's plenty you didn't know about the film that defined an era.

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1. Jake Ryan was 23.

The actor who played Jake Ryan, Michael Schoeffling, was 23 years old when he took on the role. Molly Ringwald was only 15.Â

2. There were lots of easter eggs in the film.

The license plate numbers on a lot of the cars correspondent with birthdays or were references to other films.Â

3. Molly was interested in a sequel.

In 2005, she read a script for 32 Candles, but nothing has come of it yet.Â

4. A lot of famous family members appear in the film.

Bill Murray's brother, Bryan Doyle Murray played the reverend. Jim and John Belushi's mother Agnes appears in a scene as well.Â

5. John Hughes was inspired by Molly Ringwald before they'd ever met.

He found a stack of headshots belonging to young actors and found a photo of Ringwald. He pinned it to his bulletin board and began writing the script for Sixteen Candles.Â

6. Sixteen Candles was the second of ten films John and Joan Cusack appeared in together.

7. The gong noise was unscripted.

Gedde Watanabe, who played Long Duk Dong, said that many people were unhappy with his portrayal of the characters and considered it, and the gong sound in the movie, to be racist. Â

8. The birthday cake was made out of cardboard.

9. The gym where the school dance scenes were shot was extremely hot.

There was no air conditioning in the gym because of budget issues. It was over 100 degrees during filming.Â

10. The actor who played Long Duk Dong was from Utah and only spoke English.

11. This deleted scene only appears in the television version of the movie.

12. The film was shot in Skokie, Illinois.

But that left most of the underage actors without much to do. Their older classmates usually left them to go to bars on weekends.Â

13. The role of Jake Ryan was almost given to Viggo Mortensen.

He was Ringwald's pick for the role, because of their instant chemistry, but Hughes disagreed.Â

14. The Rolls Royce is the film was extremely expensive.

The 1974 Corniche belonged to a friend of Hughes' father and is worth $66,000 today.

15. Molly Ringwald's mother had a say in the script.

She told Hughes it would be weird for a girls father to ask her what happened to her underwear (which is how Ringwald's father in the movie ends his heart-to-heart with her) and he agreed.Â

16. The part of Farmer Ted was written specifically for Anthony Hall.

He got the part based on his performance in Vacation.Â