Molly Ringwald ranked "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" as the worst project of her career on live television, blaming one unnamed "difficult" person for the experience.
The 58-year-old actress appeared on Tuesday's episode of "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen," where the host asked her to rank her past projects on a scale of one to ten. Ringwald put the ABC Family drama at the very bottom, a one, and didn't hesitate about it.
"The worst is one?" Ringwald asked, confirming the scale. "That was it. The worst." Five seasons and 96 episodes of work, and she gave it the lowest score possible. The show ran from 2008 to 2013, meaning Ringwald spent roughly five years on a set she now calls her least favorite.
What made the segment notable was Ringwald's willingness to separate the people she liked from the one she didn't. She went out of her way to compliment the ensemble, including Shailene Woodley, who played the lead character Amy Juergens.
Page Six reported Ringwald's on-air explanation:
"It was a hard, I mean... OK, I love the cast. I love Shailene Woodley."
But then came the qualifier. Ringwald said one individual, whose identity she refused to reveal, made the entire experience miserable enough to earn the bottom ranking.
"There was one person that was really difficult. And I'm not gonna say who that one person is [but] they brought it down to a one."
She offered no further detail about what the person did or whether they were a fellow actor, a producer, or someone else on set. The cast listed in the show's credits included Mark Derwin, Ken Baumann, Daren Kagasoff, India Eisley, Francia Raisa, Greg Finley, and Steve Schirripa, among others. Ringwald gave no indication which name, if any of theirs, she had in mind.
At the other end of the scale, Ringwald gave a ten to "Pretty in Pink," the 1986 film that remains one of her most recognized roles. She was unequivocal about it.
"That was pretty great... I'll give that a 10."
When Cohen asked about the film, Ringwald credited the late writer and director John Hughes, calling it her third collaboration with him. She described the project in personal terms.
"It was written for me. He wrote the movie for me."
That kind of creative partnership, a filmmaker writing a role specifically for one actress, is the sort of thing most performers spend a career chasing. Ringwald had it at the start. By her own telling, nothing since has matched it, and at least one project fell as far from that standard as possible.
The gap between a one and a ten is the whole scale, and Ringwald didn't land anywhere in the middle. She didn't rank "Secret Life" a four or a five, disappointing but tolerable. She put it at the floor.
The obvious question, who made it so miserable, went unanswered. Ringwald drew the line clearly: she would name the show, she would name the score, and she would say one person caused it. She would not say who. Whether that restraint was professional courtesy, legal caution, or personal preference, she didn't explain.
The full list of rankings Ringwald gave for her other projects wasn't reported. Only the extremes made the segment, the best and the worst, separated by nearly four decades of work.
Hollywood runs on relationships, and Ringwald just told the world that one bad one can define an entire job. The name she's protecting may stay private, but the verdict she delivered is public record now.
