Once gracing the big screen in flicks like “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club,” actress Molly Ringwald is all grown up and handing the reigns to her 20-year-old daughter Mathilda, who is now making her acting debut.
In an interview with The Times, Ringwald, 56, explained her hesitancy to allow Mathilda to pursue a career all too similar to her own. “We wouldn’t let Mathilda pursue acting when she was a child, as we wanted her to concentrate on being a kid. She fought us on that — she’s still kind of mad about it, but it was the right decision,” she admitted.
“I don’t think that professional acting is a great way for kids to grow up. It’s way too stressful and it’s a crap shoot on whether or not the kids can make it through. I did my first professional job at ten years old, and it was not easy.”
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But Mathilda is a young woman now and living separately from her parents. Earning her first acting credit in the upcoming Anne Hathaway-led romance “The Idea of You,” Ringwald alluded to knowing that Mathilda was destined for greatness based on where she was likely conceived.
“I believe that Mathilda was conceived in the dressing room at Studio 54 right at the end of my run playing Sally Bowles in ‘Cabaret’ in 2003,” she said of the famous club turned Broadway theater. “It’s so Mathilda to be conceived in such an iconic place.”
At the time, she and her now husband, Panio Gianopoulos, were not married.
“My husband, Panio, an author and book editor, and I were both enchanted from the moment Mathilda was born. She was five weeks early, so she was on the smaller side, but she had these big, beautiful eyes. Even before she could talk, she had an amazing sense of humor and the best belly laugh,” she raved. “I have recordings of her laughing, which I listen to when I want a little pick-me-up.”
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“She and I are both emotional and headstrong,” Ringwald added. “When she was learning to walk, if we helped her for a couple of steps, she would stop and say, “Do myself lone” and go back and do it again. That’s still her attitude today, including in her acting career. She took Gianopoulos, her father’s name, instead of Ringwald. I said, ‘Are you sure? Ringwald is so much easier to spell and it might open some doors.’ But she was adamant.”
“The nepo baby thing is ridiculous,” Ringwald admitted of the hot-button topic in Hollywood right now. “Of course, if you have a parent in the industry, it’s something that you’ve heard about and might be genetically predisposed to.”
“I’ve talked to Mathilda about navigating the spotlight, but everyone experiences it differently. Some people don’t mind living completely out loud. I’m not one of those people and I don’t think she is either. We’re basically a family of introverts who have had to learn to be more extrovert because of what we do,” she shared.
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Mathilda, who was also interviewed, echoed her mother’s sentiments, admitting that she and her mother are “both very passionate.”
“We may have butted heads when I was growing up, but we also bonded over that. We’ve always felt more like sisters, and as I get older, we get closer and closer.”
