John And Joan Cusack Were Originally Slated For Two Major Breakfast Club Roles

Sibling actors John and Joan Cusack have starred in a number of films together, going all the way back to their teen years in the early 1980s. The quirky duo are great in all kinds of comedies, having gotten a career boost with small side parts in the 1983 movie "Class" and then the 1984 John Hughes film "Sixteen Candles." In fact, it was the latter movie that almost landed them leading roles in another '80s Hughes classic: "The Breakfast Club." 

During a 40th anniversary retrospective of the movie at C2E2 in Chicago in 2025 (via People), "The Breakfast Club" star Molly Ringwald revealed that John and Joan Cusack were originally in contention to co-star as "bad boy" Bender and "weird girl" Allison, respectively. Those characters were ultimately brought to life by Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy, but it's absolutely wild to imagine the Cusack siblings as major members of the Brat Pack. 

"The Breakfast Club" itself is a quintessential 1980s high school film with some stellar performances and a pretty perfect cast, and while John and Joan Cusack are both great actors, they almost certainly would have brought a very different energy to those roles.

Some things about "The Breakfast Club" haven't aged all that well (to the degree that even Ally Sheedy is surprised that it's still such a beloved movie), but a big part of its reputation is because of its cast. Imagining anyone else in the roles of the criminal, the princess, the athlete, the brain, or the basket case is a bizarre exercise, as each actor brought depth to the characters well beyond their (admittedly sometimes silly) dialogue. John Cusack is amazing, but he would have been a lot more menacing and probably snarkier as Bender, while Jane Cusack's chaotic energy likely would've been a bit more edgy than Sheedy's when it comes to the character of Allison. 

Thankfully, the Cusack siblings did just fine without "The Breakfast Club," with both going on to be major stars on the big and small screen. The duo later appeared together in films like "Say Anything" and "Grosse Pointe Blank," with John Cusack moving into more serious roles alongside his comedies and Joan Cusack earning an Academy Award nomination for her role in the Kevin Kline comedy "In & Out." It's always fun to wonder about the casting decisions that almost happened, but in this case, things definitely worked out for the best for everyone.