Mia Sara has made rare comments about her ‘bad experience’ filming the iconic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off film.
The American actress, 59, stepped away from the spotlight to prioritise poetry and now resides in Suffolk, England after relocating from California with her husband Brian Henson.
After more than a decade away from acting, Mia returned to Hollywood to star in The Life Of Chuck back in 2024.
Mia was just 17-years-old when she starred as Ferris’ [Matthew Broderick] girlfriend Sloane Peterson in the 1986 drama.
Reflecting on her breakthrough role in a new interview with The Sunday Times, Mia admitted her relationship with the film is ‘complicated’.
‘I don’t really give interviews because making Ferris Bueller was not that good an experience for me’, she said.
‘But I’m very aware of what a precious thing this movie is, and I don’t want to disappoint people. But I didn’t get along well with John [Hughes].’
John, who died in 2009, directed the movie as well as films including Breakfast Club, Weird Science and Pretty In Pink.
Mia Sara, 59, has made rare comments about her ‘bad experience’ filming the iconic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off film (pictured with her husband Brian Henson in 2025)
Mia was just 17-years-old when she starred as Ferris’ (Matthew Broderick) girlfriend Sloane Peterson in the 1986 drama (pictured together)
Hinting at a clash between her and John who she called a ‘strange guy’, Mia explained: ‘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. I didn’t have the emotional maturity to deal with other people’s egos, or my own.’
After snubbing Hollywood for a career in poetry, Mia revealed acting was ‘not a happy career for her’.
Born Mia Sarapochiello in Brooklyn, New York, she was just 16 when she landed her big break as a princess to Cruise’s man from the woods on Legend.
The movie was anchored by Hollywood heavyweights — not just Cruise, but also superstar director Ridley Scott — yet still turned out to be a box office flop.
But just one year later, Mia became a star across America when she starred as Sloane Peterson, the girlfriend of mischievous high school senior, Ferris Bueller.
Ferris gets his famous day off by pretending to be sick, and manages to get Sloane to join him by feeding the school the fake story that her grandmother has died.
In the 1990s, Sara featured in such movies as the Melanie Griffith drama A Stranger Among Us – directed by Sidney Lumet of 12 Angry Men fame – as well as the smash hit Jean-Claude Van Damme action movie Timecop.
She continued acting on TV Programs like CSI: NY and movies like Dorothy & The Witches of Oz until 2013, when she took a hiatus that ultimately lasted longer than a decade.
As early as 2010, she had remarked that she was ‘mostly retired’ as she had become a ‘mother with a really noisy, difficult house to maintain!’
Reflecting on her breakthrough role in a new interview, Mia admitted her relationship with the film is ‘complicated’ and said she didn’t get along with director John Hughes (pictured)
The New York native also noted: ‘I’m a poet, so for the last couple of years that’s what I’ve been focusing on,’ in an interview with Total Film.
In an online biography on her writing-focused website, she says she ‘used to be an actress, but recovered her senses and now she writes.’
During her hiatus, she focused her energies on her writing, and her poems have appeared in multiple publications and literary journals.
Mia now has a daughter named Amelia, 20, by her second and current husband Brian, who is the son of The Muppets creator Jim Henson.
She also has a 28-year-old son called Dashiell by her first husband Jason Connery, whose father was none other than James Bond legend Sean Connery.
