“The Breakfast Club” star Anthony Michael Hall knows exactly why he’s been able to survive in Hollywood for more than 50 years.
Hall appears on FOX’s celebrity competition series “Nations of the Damnedest,” hosted by Jack Whitehall. At a press event, Hall explained the secret to longevity in Hollywood.
“I have a thick skin, I just want to be challenged and I just want to work with the best people possible,” he began. “You just have to be persistent and persistent. And, thank God, I was born with a hard head. But you have to have thick skin.”
“You have to really want and love what you’re doing. So I think that’s it.”
Hall also spoke to FOX News Digital about the biggest lessons he’s learned after 50 years in the industry.
“Stay humble, stay focused, keep your eyes on the road and somehow keep moving forward. There are no guarantees in this business and it’s a tough business, but I’m very lucky because it’s a really great business,” he said.
“(I) feel very blessed. This is my 51st year doing this, and it’s been really unique because I didn’t expect it,” Hall continued, referring to “Nations Damn Best.”
“I was really surprised and had a lot of fun,” he said. “So it was also about learning that lesson: staying open to new opportunities and just being chill and having fun. So, we all had a really great time. It was great.”
“Nations’ Damest” is FOX’s new celebrity competition series that puts a comedic twist on the traditional game show format. The series, hosted by Whitehall, challenges 12 celebrities to return to ‘summer school’, where they compete in a mix of classroom-inspired trivia, physical games and school-themed challenges.
But unlike most competition shows, the goal is not to win, but to lose. Each week, the best-performing contestant “graduates” from the competition, while those who struggle remain in the game. In the end, the last celebrity standing wins the coveted title: “All-American Fool.”
Hall told FOX News Digital that he saw some similarities between his time on “The Breakfast Club” and his return to the classroom setting on FOX’s new competition series.
“You know, we definitely had some things in common. We were all thrown together. We were all stuck and had nowhere to go. And to be honest, we all got along really well. All this. It was a really nice natural surprise to have fun with people. As I often feel in this industry, I was coming up to a year where I didn’t know where my next job was going to be. And I got the call and was really excited about it,” he said.
“And I really embraced it, and I went to Toronto and just had fun filming, and everyone was really cool. So we had a really good time,” Hall concluded.
The original cast includes Hall, Ice-T, Jon Heder, Hilaria Baldwin, Carmen Electra, Chase Hudson, Elle King, Matt Leinart, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Steve-O, JoJo Siwa, and Andrew Yang.
The internationally successful format combines pop quizzes, report cards, recess-inspired games and ‘final exams’ with typical Whitehall humour. FOX described the series as a new take on celebrity competition television that aims to deliver laughs by completely subverting the usual goal of winning.
The series premiered on FOX on Wednesday, July 15th and streamed on Hulu the next day.
