‘Ferris Bueller’ Star Slams Iconic Film, Reveals Set Tensions
Actress Mia Sara revealed her difficult experience filming "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" included tension with late director John Hughes and an unrequited crush on Matthew Broderick.
The 59-year-old actress, who portrayed Sloane Peterson in the iconic film, rarely speaks publicly about the movie, according to New York Post. She explained that her time on set was far from the lighthearted experience audiences might imagine.
Sara told the Sunday Times that she avoids interviews specifically because of how challenging the production was for her personally. While she acknowledges the film’s cultural significance and doesn’t want to diminish it for fans, she admitted she had significant friction with Hughes, who passed away in 2009.
She characterized the director as a “strange guy” who wanted the cast to bond and watch French New Wave cinema together. But Sara, who described herself as a seasoned New York teenager already familiar with those films, found herself at odds with Hughes’s vision. The other cast members were more experienced actors, and she lacked the emotional tools to navigate the interpersonal dynamics on set.
Unrequited Crush on Matthew Broderick
Despite the tensions behind the scenes, Sara confessed she harbored a “massive crush” on her on-screen boyfriend Matthew Broderick, who played the title character. That attraction went nowhere, she revealed, because Broderick was secretly involved with Jennifer Grey, who played his on-screen sister Jeanie Bueller in the film.
Hollywood Exit and Poetry Career
Beyond the troubled “Ferris Bueller” shoot, Sara said she was generally unhappy in her acting career and struggled with the constant rejection of auditions. She eventually left acting behind to pursue poetry writing instead.
Her filmography includes “Apprentice to Murder” from 1988, “Daughter of Darkness” in 1990, “Timecop,” and “Lost in Oz” in 2002. After appearing in “Pretty Pretty” in 2013, she took a decade-long break from film.
Sara only recently returned to the screen for the 2025 film “The Life of Chuck,” directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Tom Hiddleston. She played Sarah Krantz in the production and made her first red carpet appearance in more than ten years at the premiere in June 2025 at the Hollywood Legion Theater in California.
She told People at the time that she came out of retirement specifically to work with Flanagan after becoming captivated by his 2021 horror series “Midnight Mass.”
With information from New York Post
