Mira Sara has had a complex relationship with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off since working on the film.
“I don’t really give interviews because making Ferris Bueller was not that good an experience for me,” Sara, 59, told The Sunday Times in an interview published on Saturday, June 20. “But I’m very aware of what a precious thing this movie is, and I don’t want to disappoint people. But I didn’t get along well with John [Hughes, who directed, wrote and coproduced the movie].”
Sara, who was 17 when she was cast in the film, has opted not to act much since the movie hit theaters in 1986. Instead, she chooses to focus on writing poetry.
“I never really had the resilience to deal with the audition process. There are some things in my career that I’m really proud of, but overall it was not a happy career for me,” she said.
In 2001, Sara starred in the TV series Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story — which was directed by Brian Henson, whom she married in 2010. The pair have been together for 16 years and share a daughter. (Sara is also the mother of a son from her previous marriage to Jason Connery.)
“My kids say they can see the moment their friends make the connection between me and the movie [Ferris Bueller] and they’ll say, ‘Wow, your mom was hot!’” Sara said.
Ferris Bueller centered on the titular character (Matthew Broderick), who skips high school for a day in Chicago with his best friend (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend (Sara) while his sister (Jennifer Grey) and school principal (Jeffrey Jones) attempt to catch him.
In the interview, Sara went on to reflect on collaborating with Hughes, who died in 2009.
“John was a strange guy,” Sara recalled. “He wanted us all to hang out together and to introduce us to the French New Wave films. But the others were seasoned actors and I was a snotty New York kid and had seen all those movies, so he was frustrated in that desire. I didn’t have the emotional maturity to deal with other people’s egos, or my own.”
Sara revealed in the interview that she did, however, connect with Broderick. She even wanted to be more than friends with the actor, who is now married to Sarah Jessica Parker. (Broderick and Parker tied the knot in 1997 and share son James, 23, and twins Tabitha and Marion, 17.)
“I had a massive crush on Matthew during the filming, but it was very much unrequited,” Sara shared.
