{"id":1828521,"date":"2026-07-16T12:29:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/?p=1828521"},"modified":"2026-07-16T12:29:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:29:58","slug":"breakfast-club-icon-anthony-michael-hall-on-being-back-in-the-classroom-with-fellow-celebrities-in-nations-dumbest-i-was-like-are-we-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/breakfast-club-icon-anthony-michael-hall-on-being-back-in-the-classroom-with-fellow-celebrities-in-nations-dumbest-i-was-like-are-we-go\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Breakfast Club\u2019 Icon Anthony Michael Hall On Being Back In The Classroom With Fellow Celebrities In \u2018Nation\u2019s Dumbest\u2019: \u201cI Was Like, \u2018Are We Gonna Be Friends On Monday?\u2019\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Anthony Michael Hall<\/a> skyrocketed to fame in the 1980s playing the quintessential teenage nerd in John Hughes classics like Weird Science<\/a>, Sixteen Candles<\/a>, and The Breakfast Club<\/a>. Now, more than 40 years after those iconic movies hit the big screen, the esteemed actor has found himself back in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Nation\u2019s Dumbest <\/a>is FOX\u2019s newest celebrity game show, and it brings together a motley crew of A-listers, from actors like Hall to reality stars like JoJo Siwa<\/a> to politicians like Andrew Yang. In the show, the 12 high-profile contestants are put through various challenges and quizzes, with the most successful competitor eliminated each week until one celebrity is ultimately crowned the \u201cNation\u2019s Dumbest.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the show largely taking place in a high school classroom, it was not lost on Hall that it was quite the full-circle moment for him. \u201cIn my career, I never leave high school,\u201d he joked when he stopped by DECIDER\u2019s studio earlier this week. \u201cI\u2019m pushing 60. I\u2019m still dealing with high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, there were even times during filming when Hall once again felt like a teenager sitting in Saturday detention with people he probably wouldn\u2019t have crossed paths with in his everyday life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a parallel with this show because I had such a good time with all these people and there were 12 of us,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there were moments in my head where I was like, \u2018Are we going to be friends on Monday? Is this going to work out?\u2019 Because I really wanted to get together.\u201d<\/p>\n

When DECIDER caught up with the actor, he teased more about his trajectory on Nation\u2019s Dumbest, what it was like to reunite with Tim Burton on Wednesday<\/a> for the first time since Edward Scissorhands (1990), and which of his movies he\u2019s shown his 3-year-old son. Check out the full interview below.<\/p>\n

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DECIDER: I am so excited to have you back here \u2013 this time, to talk about Nation\u2019s Dumbest! How was this show pitched to you and what made you say yes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL: <\/strong>First of all, you hear that title, I was like, \u201cWait a minute, I\u2019m a serious actor.\u201d I had to throw all that out the window. Honestly, it was a great lesson in staying open to new possibilities. Never say never. I\u2019m also one of those husbands that\u2019s home talking a lot of smack about reality shows. Meanwhile, my wife is like, \u201cSit down, let\u2019s watch Love is Blind.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cReally, honey? There\u2019s a UFC fight I want to watch on YouTube.\u201d So, when you get married, you have to have at least two TVs, right? So it was really fun. I just embraced it, Sam. Honestly, it took me by complete surprise. I was really grateful. I had heard that this show was co-produced by FOX and BBC. It had been a hit, I guess, in Norway and a bunch of other countries, so it was like a proven model. It was just so much fun. <\/p>\n

We went up to Toronto to shoot. I took my family with me. FOX and everybody was so kind. They just took great care of us. We shot this in 12 days. It was incredible. So we have 12 weeks of a show, and each day was a dedicated episode. We had like four challenges, I think, each day. It was incredible, and it was tough, I\u2019m telling you. It wasn\u2019t just trivia. It was brain games, word games. There was science and math involved, which is where I tap out. I\u2019m the worst. I barely got a GED in my life, so I was just like, \u201cOh, my God, what am I doing here?\u201d But honestly, it was also great listening and not judging a book by its cover and just really enjoying the people. <\/p>\n

We all got along really well, from some of the Gen Z, like JoJo Siwa and Chase, all the way up to the OGs like me and Dr. Drew and Ice-T. It\u2019s so funny, every time I watch the commercials for it, I\u2019m like, \u201cIs that me? Oh no, that\u2019s Dr. Drew, he\u2019s in better shape than me. I don\u2019t look so good here.\u201d But it\u2019s really funny, it was just such a great experience and I loved it. I heard people like Steve-O and Ice-T were involved and I was like, \u201cI\u2019m there.\u201d So it was really a great, great experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Anthony Photo: Brian Zak \/ celebrity.land<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you feel like actors get a bad rap when it comes to education and intelligence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m upfront about it. I got a GED in 10th grade so I could do SNL across the street. I\u2019ll be honest with you. But I really wasn\u2019t a good student despite the image of my early characters as the nerd and the booksmart one. I was a pretty good student. I was good in English and history maybe, but everything else? Not at all.<\/p>\n

I imagine there\u2019s a lot more pressure in the moment when you\u2019re answering those questions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was! To be very honest, everybody was like, \u201cI want to get the hell out of here. I don\u2019t want to be the last man standing here or the last woman standing.\u201d But it was really all good fun. And again, a credit to FOX and BBC, they produced this so well, it was so well thought out and it was a blast for all of us. But the other thing you notice when you get to a reality show set, there were literally like 35 or 40 camera guys. I was like, \u201cWhat the hell is going on?\u201d We got the GoPros on the ceiling and all this other stuff. So it did feel like Big Brother to an extent where I was like, \u201cWait a minute, can I ever get off this set?\u201d I just kind of felt stupid because I didn\u2019t have a script, I didn\u2019t have a role, nothing to prepare. But that was also a great lesson. Just go up there and be yourself, have some fun \u2013 that\u2019s what I tried to do \u2013 and just lean into it. I started goofing a lot, kind of ad-libbing a lot and having fun with it because all of us felt like idiots. I\u2019m in show business. I\u2019m already one of the nation\u2019s dumbest, thank you very much. So it was really great. Then you have to constantly do these interviews in between, so we\u2019d be in the high school hallway set in between each game, talking about how we all felt stupid or whatever. But we just had a great time with it. It was really cool. And everyone got along beautifully. It\u2019s really fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This show really has a packed cast. You, JoJo Siwa, Carmen Electra, Andrew Yang, Steve-O, Hilaria Baldwin. Who did you bond with the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I honestly was so impressed by everyone in different ways, like JoJo Siwa. She\u2019s a young lady that I had heard of for years. She basically grew up on reality shows. I didn\u2019t know any of this. I didn\u2019t watch Dance Moms. I\u2019m a little late to the scene. But she was incredible. What a great spirit she has. She\u2019s such a competitor, such a fire. Meanwhile, between games, we\u2019re hanging out a lot and she\u2019s flipping houses in Palm Springs. I\u2019m like, \u201cJoJo\u2019s a rock star!\u201d But she\u2019s really competitive [and a] really fun person. She\u2019s awesome. Chase was really a lot of fun. He\u2019s a very bright young guy. He was like a young rock star. He\u2019s recorded with Travis Barker and all these people, so he\u2019s really cool. But I loved hanging out with Ice-T. He was great. He had some great stories. Steve-O, I\u2019ve always been a fan of. I love the Jackass series and all that. Dr. Drew, I was on Loveline years ago with him. My wife was actually from Slovakia originally. She learned English watching old Baywatch episodes and watching Loveline in Europe. So, she has a special love for Dr. Drew. Every night we\u2019d be back at the hotel at the Shangri-La in Toronto hanging out. We\u2019d all share meals. It was honestly such a great experience. It was a great reminder of a lot of things. Don\u2019t judge, stay open to surprises and just have a good attitude. It was a lesson in all that for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"'Nation's Photo: FOX<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of JoJo, she has really become a staple in reality game shows. She was great on <\/strong>Special Forces: World\u2019s Toughest Test.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I heard, I heard \u2026 Steve-O of all people, Steve-O bought a piece of land in Tennessee, he lives outside of Nashville, and he left because he had to go to clown school. He\u2019s going to clown school in Nashville! I\u2019m like, \u201cDamn right Steve-O\u2019s going clown school.\u201d It was so cool. Carmen Electra was great, Elle King was incredible, everybody was so cool. There was such a wide variety of people, different demos and everything.<\/p>\n

There was a little bit of a Breakfast Club Easter egg in Episode 2 with the elephant lamp.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, because in my career, I never leave high school. I\u2019m pushing 60. I\u2019m still dealing with high school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Did that surprise you when you saw that?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, they told me about that ahead of time, that they kind of worked that in. I guess my character, yeah, he\u2019s in detention in The Breakfast Club in 1984 because he didn\u2019t make the elephant lamp. So they did that. They kind of harkened back to that, which I thought was kind of funny. But it was cool. Everybody was really great. Honestly, [they were] very encouraging and supportive. Every day we didn\u2019t know what to expect. It was like four new games every day and challenges and it was really a lot of fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Will we see you on future game shows or reality shows?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s so funny. My representatives asked me the same question, as did the producers. I was like, \u201cLet\u2019s see how this one goes first.\u201d You know what I mean? If people enjoy this, I mean, I\u2019m open to it. But it was also a great lesson in that, never say never. You never know. I just really had a lot of fun with the people and just kind of goofing off and just being myself. Usually, I have to have a script and be prepared. I had nothing to prepare here. That was fun, but it was kind of awkward in a funny way.<\/p>\n

\"'Nation's Photo: Fox<\/span><\/p>\n

When we last saw you, you were getting ready to celebrate the 40th anniversary of <\/strong>The Breakfast Club, <\/strong>and the full cast was going to reunite for the first time ever since filming the movie. What was that reunion like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny because there is a parallel with this show because I had such a good time with all these people and there were 12 of us. But there were moments in my head where I was like, \u201cAre we going to be friends on Monday? Is this going to work out?\u201d Because I really wanted to get together. But we\u2019ve honestly kept the group text going and people are reconnecting and we all hope to stay in touch. I\u2019m going to be in Nashville in the fall, so I think I\u2019ll see Steve-O and Elle King there. They live there. It was really cool. But it\u2019s really funny about my career because of these John Hughes films that obviously live in people\u2019s hearts and I\u2019m so grateful for them, it was really funny that here I am stuck in high school again in Toronto. I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat the hell am I doing?\u201d It was a great experience, it really was.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, you also got to reunite with Tim Burton for a cameo in <\/strong>Wednesday<\/strong>. What was that experience like?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Incredible. When I got to Dublin to shoot it \u2013 I\u2019m Irish and Italian, my ethnicity \u2013 and I was so excited to be working for him again. We shot in Dublin, I took my wife and my son. We were already in Europe visiting my mother-in-law. We just went right to Dublin to shoot this and it was so cool. When I got to the production office, the first question I asked was like, \u201cWhere\u2019s Tim?\u201d They\u2019re like, \u201cTim\u2019s in the South of France editing.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cOf course, if I\u2019m Tim Burton, I\u2019d be in the South of France editing, too.\u201d But I was directed by a gentleman named Pablo Cabezas, and I did one episode, but we were there for like six weeks. So it became a great opportunity to take my family all across Ireland and we took all these great weekend trips and it was just a great experience. But I sent Tim an email and I said, \u201cTim, thank you for the opportunity. I\u2019m really honored to be working with you again.\u201d And I tagged my email with, \u201cYou didn\u2019t have to wait 34 years to hire me again, dude.\u201d It was awesome. It was really a real pleasure to be a part of his world. Because I think Tim Burton stands alone honestly, like other than Walt Disney, he\u2019s such a visionary. He has such a signature look, even though his movies can be very different. But he\u2019s a great artist and I was happy to join that cast for a little bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"'Wednesday'\" Photo: Everett Collection<\/span><\/p>\n

I know your son is still young, but do you have an idea of what movies of yours you\u2019ll show him first and when?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s so funny you said that because I happened to buy him a Batman action figure a couple months back. And it just dawned on me naturally, I was just watching him after school a couple weeks ago and I\u2019m like, \u201cMichael, do you know that Daddy knows Batman?\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cYou know Batman?\u201d I was like, \u201cYeah, I did a movie with him. I know Batman. I worked with him.\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cYou did?\u201d So I put on The Dark Knight. He got through about four minutes of it and he was like, \u201cCan we put on Minions?\u201d He got bored quick. But it\u2019s so cute because it became a running gag. He comes home from school and he\u2019ll go, \u201cCan we watch The Dark Knight?\u201d He knows the title now. And it\u2019s like my heart just comes out of my body. He\u2019s beautiful. He\u2019s my everything. My wife and I just adore him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You have some other things coming out too. You\u2019re going to be in <\/strong>Halloween Store<\/strong>. You\u2019re returning to the horror genre. You did <\/strong>Halloween Kills<\/strong>. What is it about this genre that kind of draws you in?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, that was the only horror film I ever saw as a kid was Jamie Lee [Curtis] in the first Halloween. I think my parents had gone out, and I\u2019m like, \u201cOkay, you have cable, you\u2019re alone in the apartment, what am I gonna do?\u201d I discovered that film years ago in the \u201970s as a little kid. But Halloween Store came about because I was at the SNL 50th in 2025. And I got to talk to Kenan Thompson, who\u2019s a great guy, I\u2019m a big fan of his. He and his producing partner, Johnny Ryan, have a company called Artists for Artists, and they invited me to take part in this film. It\u2019s called Halloween Store. It\u2019s kind of a horror comedy. It\u2019s a lot of fun. We shot in Hawaii. I mean, how can you say no to Hawaii, right? So we went to Hawaii.\u00a0 I took my family and it was a great experience, a lot of fun. The young lady who stars in it is Natalie [Alyn] Lind, who\u2019s starring on the Dutton Ranch, and she\u2019s a sweetheart, she couldn\u2019t be nicer. She\u2019s one of the producers of the film along with Kenan and his partners and also the executive producer Stephen Schneider that did Insidious and Paranormal Activity. We\u2019re hoping for a big release sometime this year, if not next year. I\u2019m excited about it. But it was a lot of fun. I did it for Kenan and Johnny. These guys have become friends and they\u2019re really talented. I love Kenan. He\u2019s a great, great comic and a great actor and really a nice person. He\u2019s a great guy. So, it was fun to do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then I did this show S.W.A.T. Exiles. I worked with Shemar Moore. He\u2019s the great guy. I guess that show ran on CBS for like eight years. It was a big hit. The spinoff was produced by Sony and they were looking to find a home, and I guess it\u2019s gonna be on Starz now in the fall. So I have S.W.A.T. Exiles coming out, and then Halloween Store as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What can you tease about your <\/strong>S.W.A.T. Exiles<\/strong> character?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You know what\u2019s interesting? Someone was asking me about that this morning. People that live in LA will know who Rick Caruso is. He\u2019s kind of like a Rick Caruso character, a guy who\u2019s a political, a well-to-do guy, a figure who hires this security team. S.W.A.T. Exiles is like this team of young sort of millennial hotshots, male and female, that Shemar has kind of taken the lead of. It\u2019s a spinoff of S.W.A.T., but it\u2019s still S.W.A.T. It was a fun show to be part of. Jerry O\u2019Connell was there. He played the mayor that day, we shot at the Oscar Museum in LA, which was really cool to be a part of. I need one of those golden boys one day.<\/p>\n

Yeah, you do!<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was just a great experience. So, as usual I\u2019m just taking care of the family, taking care of business and moving forward.<\/p>\n

\"'Nation's Photo: Fox<\/span><\/p>\n

I have one last question for you and I want to round it back to <\/strong>Nation\u2019s Dumbest. <\/strong>Without spoiling anything, how do you feel about wherever you landed in the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t give any spoilers here. I was getting nervous, and that\u2019s a little bit of a clue there. I was there for a while. I\u2019ll tell you this. I think I\u2019m not talking out of school here. I was there more than twice the length I thought I\u2019d be there. So it\u2019s 12 people, 12 weeks, and I was almost to the end, to be very honest with you. But it\u2019s a testament to how well it was produced, because there was a wide array of questions. Like I said, it was trivia, brain games, word games, science, math, geography, all kinds of things. And me with my GED, I didn\u2019t feel up to the task, but I got through it somehow, I\u2019ll tell you. It was nerve-racking for sure. Some people want to get right out of there. Like Steve-O was like, \u201cI gotta get back to Nashville. I\u2019m late for clown school.\u201d I was like, \u201cDamn right, Steve-O.\u201d And you can tell Ice-T always looks kind of pissed off, so you know Ice is ready to leave. It got a little nerve-racking. You\u2019ll see. I\u2019m there longer than I wanted to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

Nation\u2019s Dumbest airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source decider.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n


\n \u2018O artigo anterior pode incluir informa\u00e7\u00f5es divulgadas por terceiros\u2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Alguns detalhes deste artigo foram extra\u00eddos da seguinte fonte celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Michael Hall skyrocketed to fame in the 1980s playing the quintessential teenage nerd in John Hughes classics like Weird Science, Sixteen Candles, and The Breakfast Club. Now, more than 40 years after those iconic movies hit the big screen, the esteemed actor has found himself back in the classroom. Nation\u2019s Dumbest is FOX\u2019s newest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1828522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1828521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estrelas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1828521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1828523,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828521\/revisions\/1828523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1828522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1828521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1828521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1828521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}