Lea Thompson’s Top Ten ’80s Songs

Paste: I have to ask you specifically about a John Hughes movie, Some Kind of Wonderful… “Miss Amanda Jones”… was the character named after the song?
Thompson: The character was named after the song. That’s a great song. That’s one of my other favorite songs of the ’80s. I hadn’t even heard the song before I did the movie, and it was such a great cue. Of course, they had to pay a lot for it. It’s not the most popular Stones song, but I think it’s a great one. I felt particularly honored to be able to play Amanda Jones, because those words came out of Mick Jagger’s lips! It made it even more delicious!

Paste: (Laughs) Well, that’s one of my favorite roles of yours of all time. I just loved that. That whole movie is just brilliant. There’s not a false moment in that whole movie.
Thompson: Isn’t that nice!! Well, my husband directed it, and we’re having our 25th wedding anniversary on July 23rd.

Paste: Aww! Well, that’s fantastic. Happy pre-anniversary! That’s really cool.
Thompson: And, believe me, when we made that movie and it didn’t really open that well, we never thought that, you know, 28 years later fabulous people like you would be talking about how much they loved that movie.

Paste: Well, it did become a cult classic. It found its audience.
Thompson: Yeah. It definitely did. It definitely did.