Molly Ringwald felt "very emotional" to reunite with her 'Breakfast Club' co-stars on Saturday (12.04.25)

Noting she had reunited with the rest of the group before, it was the first time Emilio had joined them, Molly said: "I feel really very emotional and moved to have us all together...

"We don't have to use the cardboard cutout anymore because he's here. I feel really moved that we're all together."

Emilio, 62, explained appearing at the event was something he felt he "needed to do just for" himself and admitted he was devastated when he heard Molly had taken his previous absences personally.

He said: "This one felt special, it's here in Chicago where we made the film. It's obviously the 40th anniversary, and it just felt like it was time.

"Somebody told me that Molly said, 'Well, does Emilio just not like us?' And that broke my heart. And I went, 'No of course I love all of them.'

"And that just made sense, so here I am."

Meanwhile, Judd admitted he had always expected the cast to reunite on screen for a follow-up but insisted that would never happen following the 2009 death of writer-and-director John Hughes.

He said: "I always felt in a weird way that the work was half done, that at some point we would all get back together - because there were too many questions by everyone, 'What happens on Monday?' The film is about the fact that everyone has to make that decision for themselves [about] what happens on Monday.

"But I felt, personally, that it was one shoe and I needed the second shoe, and that could only come from John.

"So his passing was profound for me, because it's like the work will always be in a circle leaning one direction. What we needed was the one to counterbalance it, because Hughes explained to us the differences between the young and old.

"So now is the time for him to show us where we meet in the end, because we're all older now, but we're not going to get that, which is sad. But in a way Hughes has been telling us, 'Think for yourself.'"

Emilio doesn't think 'The Breakfast Club' would get green lit in the modern age.

He said: "Movies today are concept-driven, they're not character-driven, and the beauty of John is that he focused on characters first. And when you think about trying to pitch this movie today - it's about five kids sitting in a library all day in detention - the studio ex ecutives would march you right out the door and say where are the monsters? Where's the car chases? Where are the big effects?

"It's also important to remember that we made this movie for $1 million, which at the time was still a lot of money but by Universal standards was not; it was not thought of as a big, giant tentpole film as they make today. So there was a lot of risk involved, but by today's standards, this movie I don't think would ever get made."