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ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL TAKES US BACK TO 1985 TO SHARE THE WHIRLWIND EXPERIENCE OF WORKING ON MADCAP FANTASY WEIRD SCIENCE FOR DIRECTOR JOHN HUGHES
WORDS: SIMON BLAND ILLUSTRATION: TRACIE CHING
I LOVE THIS MOVIE,” GUSHES ANTHONY Michael Hall, discussing the 35th anniversary of director John Hughes’s Weird Science. Thanks to the enduring power of his work with Hughes, the iconic ’80s star has gathered an alarming number of films that are currently enjoying double-figure anniversaries. Starting with 1984’s high school comedy Sixteen Candles, and continuing into 1985 with decade-defining drama The Breakfast Club and the gloriously over the top entry we find ourselves focused on today, Hall’s collaborations with this pillar of teen cinema not only impacted a generation of audiences worldwide - they forever changed his life.
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“John was like my best friend,” he says candidly. “He was amazing.” Set in the director’s native Chicago and vigorously peppered with Oingo Boingo’s eponymous earworm track, Hall and Hughes’s final collaboration is their most off-the-wall. When nerdy teens Gary (Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell Smith) get tired of waiting for their luck with the ladies to change, they decide to take matters into their own hands and create the woman of their dreams.
Using Wyatt’s geeky know-how, clunky ’80s tech and bras strapped to their heads, the duo’s lofty goal soon becomes a lusty reality when supermodel Lisa (Kelly LeBrock) suddenly appears alive and in the flesh. However, keeping their scantily-clad party girl hidden from Wyatt’s hot-headed brother Chet (Bill Paxton) and local bullies Ian (Robert Downey Jr) and Max (Robert Rusler) proves trickier than either of them anticipated.