During the cast's 40th anniversary reunion, they opened up about auditioning for the John Hughes classic — and who almost got some of the key roles

"You can look at that movie now and still connect to it," producer Andrew Meyer tells PEOPLE of the 1985 film

"My face is swollen; I'm on pain pills," the actor recalled of getting together with his new costars for a read-through of John Hughes' script

The cast of the 1985 coming-of-age film reunited at a C2E2 panel in Chicago on April 12

Ringwald confirmed that Hughes wrote 'Sixteen Candles' after he was inspired by her headshot

"We all sort of fell under this banner," Ringwald said of the 'Brat Pack' moniker

The movie became one of the most iconic high school films of all time

The cast reunited — minus Emilio Estevez — four decades after the iconic film's debut

Ringwald and her husband, Panio Gianopoulos, share 15-year-old twins Roman and Adele, and daughter Mathilda, 20

Actor Michael Schoeffling has a big birthday coming up

The pair reunited at the Gotham Awards in New York City on Dec. 2 more than 11 years after 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' finale aired