Jon Cryer weighs in on original Pretty in Pink ending

For fans of John Hughes movies, it is a controversy on the level of whether Han or Greedo shot first. Should Andie have picked Duckie at the end of Pretty in Pink (as was originally filmed) or should she have picked Blane (which she ultimately did after test audiences balked at the original take and a new ending was filmed during reshoots)?

We asked the man whose character ended up on the losing end of the ultimate decision when Jon Cryer stopped by EW Morning Live on Entertainment Weekly Radio (SiriusXM, channel 105). So should they have kept the film as is and had Andie and Duckie find true love? Cryer's answer may surprise you. "In the end, I think no," says the actor. "I do think the movie is best as it is, ‘cause I think you really do invest in that relationship."

Cryer admits he was not so happy about the switch back in the 1980s, however — especially the way he found out about the change. "At the time, I was annoyed, because I wanted to be the guy who got the girl," he says. "And when they told me they were doing reshoots it wasn't until I got to L.A. — I was shooting another film at the time and they flew me back to L.A. — it wasn't until then that I got the sides and they told me, ‘Oh, yeah, by the way, your character is not getting the girl anymore." I was like ‘Oh, okay.' I was very stoic at the time. But again, that's the gig. You got to get involved with people you trust and actually trust."

While Cryer was taken by surprise by that aspect of the story, there is something else that has surprised him more of late. "I rewatched the movie fairly recently and realized that a lot of people thought Duckie was gay. And that was total news to me as a person that does not happen to be gay and did not intend for that flavor to be in there. Even Molly [Ringwald] herself thought of Duckie as her gay best friend! And I was like, ‘Wow, I didn't think of that.' To some members of the gay community, he's kind of an icon and it's like, great! More power to them!"

While Cryer had no intentions of playing Duckie as gay, he sees how people may have mistakenly gotten that impression, and ties his take on the character back to some folks wanting Duckie to get the girl at the end. "I was an effeminate heterosexual dork and I was hoping for one for the effeminate heterosexual dorks out there," he said. "I'm glad people bought into it that way. I'm glad they wanted it to happen. A lot of people feel [Andie spurning Duckie] is a historic injustice along the lines of the massacres of Serbia, or whatever. But it is not that. It's just a movie, folks. I'm happy the way it came out. The movie holds up great." <iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/330545254&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false" class="" allowfullscreen="" resize="0" replace_attributes="1" name=""></iframe>

To hear the entire interview — including Cryer's revelation of the one Pretty in Pink song that makes him cry every time — download the new EW Morning Live podcast, or click on the Soundcloud above. As a bonus, you'll also get to hear our conversation with SNL's Aidy Bryant as well as our interview from Fiji with Survivor challenge producer John Kirhoffer. And for more EW Morning Live podcast news, follow us on Twitter @EWMLPodcast.