Mia Sara has spent most of the last 40 years not talking about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Her 40th-anniversary account of the Ferris Bueller set, published in The Times on June 20, is the closest she has come to explaining why. She called the 1986 comedy ‘not that good an experience’ and named her friction with its director, John Hughes, who died in 2009.
The 40-Year Silence
Sara was 17 when the film came out. She is now 59, and the role of Sloane Peterson has stayed with her across four decades of distance from Hollywood. The Times interview is her first extended public discussion of making the film; she has otherwise kept her feelings about it inside a private life she has built in Suffolk, England. She did join a virtual reunion with the cast in June 2020 during the pandemic, telling People last year it was ‘nice to see everybody.’
The most she has done to mark the anniversary is a single round of interviews. Page Six and Entertainment Weekly both picked up her Times comments this week, and Sara spoke to People in June 2025 around her return to the screen in The Life of Chuck. Her first red carpet in more than a decade was for that film’s Los Angeles premiere at the Hollywood Legion Theater on June 2, 2025, not for any 40th-anniversary event of her own.
‘I don’t really give interviews because making Ferris Bueller was not that good an experience for me. But I’m very aware of what a precious thing this movie is, and I don’t want to disappoint people.’
She has kept the rest of her story close. The film she will most often be asked about is the one she has done least to publicise. Her other credits include the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme action film Timecop, the 2002 TV movie Lost in Oz and a stretch of smaller work in the 2000s. Her last feature before The Life of Chuck was 2011’s Dorothy and the Witches of Oz. The 14-year gap between those two titles is the longest visible absence of her career.
That gap is also the throughline of her Times interview. The role that made her famous, she argues, was not the career she wanted.
The Director She Couldn’t Read
The friction Sara names is with Hughes. ‘I didn’t get along well with John,’ she told The Times. She described him as ‘a strange guy’ who ‘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,’ Sara said. ‘I didn’t have the emotional maturity to deal with other people’s egos, or my own.’ The Times profile also collected warmer views from her co-stars. Jennifer Grey, who played Ferris’s sister Jeanie, called Hughes ‘very playful’ and said she ‘really connected with him.’ Sara was 17 and on her second film role; Broderick, Ruck and Grey were already working actors.
Sara also told Page Six she had a ‘massive crush’ on Broderick during production. ‘It was very much unrequited,’ she said, because Broderick was secretly dating Grey at the time. The cast reunion in 2020 was her first sustained contact with Broderick, Ruck and Grey in years. She told People she does not regularly keep in touch with them.
A Career She Calls Unhappy
Sara’s unhappiness with the Ferris Bueller set followed her into the work that came after. ‘I never really had the resilience to deal with the audition process,’ she told The Times. ‘There are some things in my career that I’m really proud of, but overall it was not a happy career for me.’
The film itself was a hit by any commercial measure. It turned Sara, Broderick and Ruck into household names overnight and earned strong reviews from critics at the time. Its parade-scene set piece to The Beatles’ ‘Twist and Shout’ and Ruck’s on-screen Ferrari meltdown have stayed in circulation as cultural reference points. Sara’s own imprint on Sloane Peterson is the role she is most often recognised for, and the role she has spoken least about.
- 1986: Release year of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
- $5 million: Production budget of the film
- More than $70 million: US box office gross of the film
- 14 years: Between Dorothy and the Witches of Oz (2011) and The Life of Chuck (2025)
The credits after Ferris Bueller came in fits and starts. Apprentice to Murder in 1988, Daughter of Darkness in 1990, Timecop in 1994 and Lost in Oz in 2002 anchored her on-screen life in the two decades that followed. Dorothy and the Witches of Oz in 2011 was the last feature she made before The Life of Chuck. She filled the years between them with her family and a body of poetry she has published on her own website. By the time Flanagan asked her back, her private life was the one she had chosen.
The Life of Chuck was the first feature she signed on for after a long stretch away from auditions. It came about socially, not in an audition room.
Mike Flanagan Asked the Question That Brought Her Back
It was Mike Flanagan who changed the arithmetic. The director behind The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass had become a household obsession for Sara and her family. The two met socially with his wife, the actor Kate Siegel. ‘He just said, “Well, don’t you ever really want to work again?”‘ Sara said at the premiere, in her 2025 red carpet interview on returning to work. ‘And I said, “Oh, I don’t know.”‘
‘He said, “Well, what if I offered you something?”‘ she continued. ‘I said, “Well, okay, if you offer me something, I’ll do it.”‘ Sara signed on to play Sarah Krantz, the grandmother of the title character played as an adult by Tom Hiddleston. Her husband on screen is Albie Krantz, played by Mark Hamill.
If Mike needs me, I’ll be there.
The Life of Chuck is a Flanagan adaptation of a Stephen King novella. It opened in select US theaters on June 6, 2025, and went wide a week later on June 13. The premiere in Los Angeles drew Sara out of a private life she has otherwise guarded, and onto a red carpet for the first time in years. Asked by People whether more acting might be ahead, she gave one answer: ‘Honestly, it really was all about Mike.’ She told Entertainment Weekly on the same red carpet the experience had been ‘a little daunting’ and that she was ‘very grateful.’
The 17th-Century Farmhouse in Suffolk
The life Sara has in the gaps between Flanagan projects is a long way from a Hollywood soundstage. She lives in a 17th-century farmhouse in Suffolk, England, with her husband, Brian Henson, the filmmaker eldest son of the late Jim Henson. They have two children: a son, Dashiell, 28, from her earlier marriage to the actor Jason Connery, and a daughter, Amelia, 20.
Both Sara and Brian Henson are from New York City. Both lived and worked in England earlier in life, and decided to relocate for good. ‘I read a lot of crime fiction. I cook a lot,’ Sara told People last year. She added: ‘I started when I was really young, and I met my husband, and I just felt like, “I kind of need to get a life.” And I got a really, really good one.’
What the Film Still Means to Everyone Else
The film that gave Sara her career has only grown in cultural weight in the four decades since. The dance during Chicago’s Von Steuben Day parade to ‘Twist and Shout’ is a recurring reference point in American film writing. Ruck’s Cameron destroying a Ferrari in a rage is a fixture of coming-of-age essays.
The closing wave from a neighbour at the bedroom window is one of the most-quoted final shots in 1980s American cinema. Sara has stayed mostly on the other side of that legacy. She told People last year she had not watched the film in a ‘very long time.’ The role she is most identified with is the one she has the least to say about. The Times interview this month is the most she has said publicly about making it.
She has not gone back to watch it in a ‘very long time.’ She has not been back to a press junket for the film in the four decades since. The interview this month was her first extended public discussion of making it. She does not want to disappoint the people who love the film.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Mia Sara say about making Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?
In an interview with The Times published June 20 around the film’s 40th anniversary, Mia Sara said making the 1986 comedy was ‘not that good an experience’ for her. She said she ‘didn’t get along well with’ director John Hughes, who she described as ‘a strange guy.’ She added that she did not want to disappoint fans of the film.
How old is Mia Sara?
She is 59 as of June 2026, per Entertainment Weekly. She was 17 when Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was released in 1986.
Who is Mia Sara married to?
Mia Sara is married to Brian Henson, the eldest son of Muppets creator Jim Henson. They live in a 17th-century farmhouse in Suffolk, England, and share a daughter, Amelia. Sara also has a son, Dashiell, from her earlier marriage to actor Jason Connery.
What is The Life of Chuck and when was it released?
The Life of Chuck is a 2025 science-fiction drama written and directed by Mike Flanagan, adapted from Stephen King’s novella of the same name. Sara plays Sarah Krantz, the grandmother of the title character played by Tom Hiddleston. The film opened in select US theaters on June 6, 2025, and went wide on June 13, 2025, per Flanagan’s official Life of Chuck page.
Why did Mia Sara stop acting?
Mia Sara has said she ‘never really had the resilience to deal with the audition process’ and that acting ‘was not a happy career’ for her. The decision to step away came after she met her husband, Brian Henson. ‘I just felt like, I kind of need to get a life,’ she told People last year. Her first feature film after a long stretch away from the screen was Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck in 2025.
