He was a Hollywood sensation headlining on Saturday Night Live – and was still too young for a driving licence. But things did not always go well for The Breakfast Club actor
– crushes, triumphant underdogs, and an everlasting hankering for American high-school lockers – those actors feel something akin to long-lost relatives. Anthony Michael Hall has had an enduring acting career doing other work: he’s a 56-year-old father and looks nothing like his teenage self. But he can’t escape the nerdy kid in Weird Science, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. If he is tired of reminiscing about films that are 40 years old, he doesn’t show it.
Hall’s first role, at the age of eight, was in a play with Steve Allen, later a talkshow pioneer. His mother, a jazz singer, had heard about it through a friend and Hall got the part. As a child, he got attention mimicking his relatives, making them laugh. He and his mother lived together in Manhattan, and he would sometimes accompany her to gigs when she couldn’t get a babysitter. Dressed in his pyjamas, he was looked after by waitresses at the back of jazz clubs.
He was given a slot on Saturday Night Live – an intimidating prospect for any comic, let alone a 17-year-old without experience in standup. “It was daunting, because it’s rock’n’roll and theatre and comedy all in one, plus you’d have some superstar act or band each week.” It was competitive and hard work, but Hall loved it. “I’m so thankful I was a part of the show, even though the season I was on was probably one of the worst, if not the worst, maybe in its history.
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