Jon Cryer says Duckie continues to be a role model

If there’s one character that Jon Cryer will forever be linked to, it’s Duckie from Pretty in Pink. The hopeless romantic who pines for Molly Ringwald’s Andie, he was the charming underdog that gave the audience someone to root for. And while he didn’t get the girl (although he did in the original ending), Duckie remains a key character not just in ‘80s teen movies but for Jon Cryer himself, saying he continues to be a role model.

Speaking with People, Jon Cryer said, “Duckie was very aspirational for me, because he was the guy I wish I was.” The actor, who was never part of the Brat Pack but danced around it (literally) through Pretty in Pink, added that he – and some classmates – shared many characteristics with Duckie. “I think that really is a universal experience for most people…I don’t think most people go through high school thinking, ‘I was the sh–. Everybody really dug me in high school.’ But Duckie was … a bit of a conglomeration of several of my friends growing up. I had a friend named Artie who had this ridiculous pompadour. I stole some of the sayings of my friend David, who would go, ‘Do I offend?’ And so he was a great way to represent my peer group.”

Duckie is undoubtedly a relatable character to many, at least more so than Andrew McCarthy’s Blane (what is he, a major appliance?), who ends up with Andie by the end of the movie while Duckie would catch the eye of another girl. And that’s much of what makes Pretty in Pink last all these years. Sure, Ringwald was a catch back then but Jon Cryer’s Duckie sells it better than anyone else.

As Cryer also put it, Duckie holds a special place for him not just through his own hopes but because of those who also feel marginalized. “I’ve heard it from people [that it’s] because there’s this outsider thing…I’ve found a lot of the gay community approached me saying, ‘That character meant a lot to me. I really felt like that was a relationship that was very similar to what I went through.’ And that’s amazing to feel like it resonated in that way for people, because you try to make a story that is just honest, and when that honesty really touches people, you feel like you did your job.”

Did you relate to Duckie when you saw Pretty in Pink? What is your favorite scene from the movie? Let us know!