Mia Sara Says Filming “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” Was ‘Not That Good of an Experience’ for This Reason

"I didn't have the emotional maturity to deal with other people's egos, or my own," the actress explained of the iconic movie

NEED TO KNOW

• Mia Sara has said that making Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was “not that good of an experience” for her
• The 59-year-old was just 17 when she was cast as Sloane Peterson, several years younger than her castmates, and she said she didn’t enjoy working with director John Hughes
• Sara, who returned to the big screen for the first time in over a decade with The Life of Chuck in 2024, admitted that acting was “not a happy career” for her

It might be one of the most iconic movies of the 1980s, but Mia Sara has revealed that she didn't actually enjoy working behind the scenes on Ferris Bueller's Day Off, describing acting as "not a happy career" for her.

Speaking to The Sunday Times for the teen comedy's 40th anniversary alongside costars Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, and Jennifer Grey, Sara reflected on her age compared to her castmates and how it might have affected both her enjoyment of filming and her relationship with director John Hughes.

The actress, who played Bueller's girlfriend Sloane Peterson, is now 59 and was just 17 when she was cast, whereas Broderick was 23, Ruck was 29 and Grey was 25.

"I don't really give interviews because making Ferris Bueller was not that good an experience for me," she told the newspaper in an interview published June 21 "But I'm very aware of what a precious thing this movie is, and I don't want to disappoint people."

She explained that she "didn't get along well" with Hughes, who worked on several of the biggest coming-of-age movies of the era.

Describing Hughes as a "strange guy," she added, "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."

In hindsight, she admitted she was partly at fault, explaining, "I didn't have the emotional maturity to deal with other people's egos, or my own."

Sara hasn't acted extensively since the 1986 film, most notably playing the titular character in the ABC miniseries Queenie the following year and winning a Saturn Award for her turn in the 1994 sci-fi movie Timecop.

"I never really had the resilience to deal with the audition process," she shared with The Sunday Times. "There are some things in my career that I'm really proud of, but overall it was not a happy career for me."

Elsewhere, Sara admitted that she had a "massive" crush on Broderick, who played her on-screen boyfriend, during filming, but that it was "very much unrequited."

At the time, Broderick was secretly dating Grey, who played his character's sister Jeanie, and he said they were together for about two years. "It was not easy to keep hidden on set,” Grey said, revealing that she "got the giggles" so badly once during a scene that she had to bite her cheek to compose herself.

"It was the way he looked at me!" she recalled. "The crew was, like, ‘Why don't you take a walk around the block?'  "

Sara's comments on Ferris Bueller come a year after she told PEOPLE she hadn't seen the film in years and doesn't often keep in touch with the rest of the cast — though they had a Zoom reunion during COVID.

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She shared that her children, son Dashiell Connery and daughter Amelia Henson, had seen the movie when they were younger and found it "embarrassing."

In 2024, Sara returned to the big screen for the first time in over a decade when she starred in Mike Flanagan's fantasy drama The Life of Chuck as Sarah Krantz, the titular character's grandmother.

When asked whether she'd act again in the future, she told PEOPLE, "If Mike needs me, I'll be there."

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