Molly Ringwald's working relationship with John Hughes started before they even met. Ringwald recounted to Vanity Fair that, as the story goes, Hughes found a headshot of her while casting "The Breakfast Club," and was so enamored with the photo that "he put my headshot on the bulletin board by his desk and wrote 'Sixteen Candles' over a weekend. And when it came time to cast it, he said, 'I want to meet her: that girl.'"
Hughes not only met "that girl," but he and Ringwald worked on a trio of generation-defining films together: "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," and "Pretty In Pink." They became close collaborators, with Ringwald writing in The New York Times, "John saw something in me that I didn't even see in myself." But Ringwald wasn't just a girl in a photograph. She was a maturing young adult who desired growth and sought work with other filmmakers. As a result, Hughes, who could hold a "supernatural" grudge, didn't speak to her for more than 20 years.
Eventually, Ringwald extended an olive branch to Hughes, writing to him toward the end of his life. He responded by sending her an extravagant floral arrangement, and she accepted the gesture as closure on their relationship.
