"My career has been 48 years and counting," says the actor Anthony Michael Hall, "which is kind of surreal! I'm grateful for having a creative life and being able to be a part of our industry for such a long time."
As a kid, Hall got his start in commercials. He was 14 when he landed his first major movie role in 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation, in which he played Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo's son Rusty Griswold. His performance in that film impressed John Hughes, who cast Hall as "The Geek" in Sixteen Candles. From there, he catapulted to stardom as part of the infamous Brat Pack, starring in iconic movies like The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, and Johnny Be Good.
"I was a teenager, having the time of my life," he reflects now. "There was no sense of career pressure or any of that other stuff. I was just enjoying myself as a kid."
In recent years, Hall starred opposite Brad Pitt in 2017's War Machine and Michael Myers himself in 2021's Halloween Kills. (He also starred in and produced the indie comedy The Class, which paid homage to The Breakfast Club.) His newest flick is Trigger Warning, director Mouly Surya's thriller about a Special Forces commando (played by Jessica Alba) out for revenge. Hall plays the movie's villain, a corrupt senator.
"You never really want to be judgmental of the part you're playing, and it can be kind of liberating playing bad guys. But one of the things that I like to do to find common ground with a villainous character is to inject some humor in there," says the actor. "I was a kid of the '60s and '70s, so I was watching movies like Stripes and Caddyshack — and like most kids, I was watching these kinds of comedies probably five years before I should have! So being on a set, I feel really eager to prove myself as a comedic actor."
Below, Hall shares with A.frame five of his favorite films, which — like his career — range from classic comedies to what he dubs the "darker stuff."
Directed by: Martin Scorsese | Written by: Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin
I happen to be of Italian and Irish-American descent, and Raging Bull was big in my family. My stepfather, who married my mother when I was about 12 and raised me, he went on to become a talent manager and discovered Sandra Bullock and a lot of people, but he knew so much about film. So, in our household Scorsese films were really big.
Directed by: Martin Scorsese | Written by: Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese
Scorsese again. I remember I went to the Goodfellas premiere — it was actually at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. That was one moment where I felt like, "Wait a minute… how the hell did I get here?!" So, that movie really represents a pivotal point in my career for me. It makes me feel a bit nostalgic.
Directed by: John Landis | Written by: Harold Ramis, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller
When I first saw Animal House, it changed my way of thinking about comedy. I remember loving John Belushi — that guy made me laugh so much as a kid. There's that scene in the lunchroom, where he fills his mouth up with cottage cheese, and he turns to the other two kids and goes, "See if you can guess what I am now!" He smashes his cheeks and spits it all over, and he's like, "A zit!" That was a very influential comedy for me.
Directed by: Ivan Reitman | Written by: Len Blum, Dan Goldberg and Harold Ramis
I love Bill Murray to this day. What a great career he's had, and he was so funny in this movie. For me, Stripes and Caddyshack are kind of a tie. They're both really iconic comedies.
Directed by: Francis Coppola | Written by: John Milius and Francis Coppola
The '70s were such a great era for cinema, both with comedy and much darker stuff. A real classic is Apocalypse Now. There are so many movies about the hero's journey, but that film really illustrates it in a visceral way. Watching that film, it feels like you're really going on the journey with Martin Sheen. I had the pleasure of meeting him on the set of The Breakfast Club all those years ago, when he came to visit Emilio.
