Sara concluded a 13-year hiatus from Hollywood in 2024 by appearing in Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck.”

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off star Mia Sara reveals why film wasn’t a ‘good experience’: ‘Not a happy career for me’

Sara concluded a 13-year hiatus from Hollywood in 2024 by appearing in Mike Flanagan's "The Life of Chuck."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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June 22, 2026 10:00 p.m. ET

Mia Sara in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'. Credit:

- Mia Sara says that shooting *Ferris Bueller's Day Off *was "not that good of an experience for me."

- The 59-year-old actress, who has largely retired from Hollywood, told *The Times *that she "didn't get along well" with director John Hughes.

- *Ferris Bueller's Day Off *was Sara's second film role. In 2024, she returned to the big screen after 13 years in *The Life of Chuck*.

*Ferris Bueller's Day Off** *was only Mia Sara's second film role, but her Sloane Peterson has come to be heralded as one of the defining parts of her career. There's an important distinction between a role being loved by fans and a role being loved by the actress who played her, however. And on that point, Sara hopes she doesn't disappoint.

"I don't really give interviews because making *Ferris Bueller *was not that good an experience for me," Sara revealed in an interview published on *The Times* on June 20. "But I'm very aware of what a precious thing this movie is, and I don't want to disappoint people."

There are a few reasons the famously reclusive star can give for the low personal marks she accords the '80s classic. But one is paramount: "I didn't get along well with John."

Mia Sara in Los Angeles in 2025.

Eric Charbonneau/Neon via Getty

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Born and raised in Brooklyn, Sara's first screen role was also her first major role, as Francesca on *All My Children* in 1983. By 1986, she'd won the part in *Ferris Bueller*, which received rave notices from critics upon its release and grossed over $70 million on a modest $5 million budget.

The film catapulted Sara and her costars — Matthew Broderick, Alan Tuck, and Jennifer Grey — to new echelons of fame. It also earned writer-director John Hughes another trophy in his already stuffed case, coming off the successes of films like *Weird Science *and *The Breakfast Club*.

Sara's costars spoke highly of their director in the *Times *profile, with Grey calling him "very playful" and noting she "really connected with him." Not so for Sara, who called Hughes "a strange guy."

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"He wanted us all to hang out together and to introduce us to the French New Wave films," she continued. "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."

Sara's ambivalence extended beyond just the film, too.

"I never really had the resilience to deal with the audition process. There are some things in my career that I'm really proud of," she said, "but overall it was not a happy career for me."

Mia Sara and Matthew Broderick in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'.

Sara recently returned to the big screen after a 13-year hiatus with a role in Mike Flanagan's 2024 *The Life of Chuck*.

"It feels a little daunting, but I'm very grateful," she told * *on the red carpet of the film's Los Angeles premiere.

"We've been such fans, and we met socially, he and the magnificent Kate Siegel, and he just said, 'Well, don't you ever really want to work again?'" Sara said of the *Haunting of Hill House *director. "And I said, 'Oh, I don't know.' He said, 'Well, what if I offered you something?' I said, 'Well, okay, if you offer me something, I'll do it.'"

She told PEOPLE on the same red carpet that she now lives in a 17th-century farmhouse in Suffolk, England, and is focused on writing poetry.

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