Molly Ringwald’s onscreen Dad in ‘Sixteen Candles’ Paul Dooley says he changed one particularly perverted line in the film.
Actor Paul Dooley, who portrayed Molly Ringwald‘s onscreen Dad in Sixteen Candles, has revealed that the film had one particularly perverted and incestuous line that he had to change.
In his memoir, “Movie Dad: Finding Myself and My Family, On Screen and Off,” Dooley recalls getting ready to film his big heart-to-heart scene with a then-15-year-old Ringwald.
“Near the end of their talk, the script had the dad giving a friendly pat on his daughter’s behind while saying, ‘Where the heck are your panties?’” the character actor, 94, writes.
The line bothered not only Dooley but also Ringwald’s real-life mother.
“A pat on the behind? If you can detect missing panties, that’s more like copping a feel,” he writes.
The actress’ mom had asked what could be done about the line, so Dooley improvised another version.
“I would have the dad say, ‘When you finally meet your Mr. Right, make sure he knows you wear the pants in the family,’” he writes, adding that although the remark was innocent, it was also loaded given the audience knows Ringwald’s character, Sam Baker, gave a boy her underwear.
