The Breakfast Club icon Anthony Michael Hall who battled addiction reveals how he survived toxic Hollywood

Brat Pack star Anthony Michael Hall has lifted the lid on surviving the toxic Hollywood film industry after his formative years were blighted by addiction.

During his teen years in the 1980s, Hall, now 58, shot to national fame in John Hughes' high school movies Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science. 

He attracted particular attention in 1985's The Breakfast Club for his touching portrayal of a bookish teen driven to the verge of suicide by the academic pressure from his family - and joined a group of young actors known as the 'Brat Pack.'

However, his drinking problem derailed his acting career, forcing him to take a two year break after starring in 1988 film,  Johnny Be Good alongside Uma Thurman and Robert Downey Jr. 

Hall, who has since made a career comeback and is now starring on the FOX celebrity competition series Nation’s Dumbest, told Fox News Digital that 'having a thick skin' enabled him to continue his career amid adversity.

He said, 'Having a thick skin, and just being game and just wanting to work with the best people you can.   

'Just being persistent and tenacious. And thank God I was born with a hard head. But you have to have a thick skin.

'You have to really want and love what you do. So I think that’s it.'

Hall said his number one lesson he had learned in the industry was to 'stay humble, stay focused, keep your eyes on the road, and just keep moving ahead somehow. 

'There’s no guarantee of anything in this business, and it’s a tough business, but it’s really great business, so I’m very fortunate. 

'[I] feel very blessed. This is my 51st year doing this, and this was really a unique thing, because it was something I never expected.

'It really took me by surprise, and it was really lot of fun. So, it was about learning that lesson, too. Staying open to new opportunities, just being cool with it and having fun. So, we really had a great time, all of us. It was nice.

Anthony grew up in New York City, and began acting at age seven, starring in a slew of commercials for brands like Honeycomb and Bounty.

In 1980, at age 12, he was cast in the TV movie The Gold Bug and one year later, he played Huck Finn in Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

His other early acting credits include the 1982 Kenny Rogers movie Six Pack and National Lampoon's Vacation.

He then starred as The Geek in Sixteen Candles, which was followed by his role as Brian Johnson in The Breakfast Club.

Anthony did not slow down after that, acting in Weird Science and crime neo noir Out of Bounds, before he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for the 1985-1986 season. At age 17, he was the youngest cast member in the show's history.

After that, he starred in Johnny Be Good alongside Uma Thurman and Robert Downey Jr., before he took a two-year break from acting due to a drinking problem.

He later confessed, 'I was drinking vodka by the quart every day. I got in fights and punched people in the face.'

In 1990, after getting sober, he returned to the screen in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, followed by Six Degrees of Separation (which also starred Will Smith) and Pirates of Silicon Valley (in which he famously portrayed Microsoft founder Bill Gates).

He made his directorial debut with the movie Hail Caesar in 1994, which starred Samuel L. Jackson, Robert, and Judd Nelson.

In the late '90s, he also launched a music career, becoming the lead singer and songwriter for a band, called Hall of Mirrors, and started his own production company, entitled AMH Entertainment.

His more recent acting credits include USA's supernatural drama The Dead Zone, the 2017 Netflix movie War Machine (alongside Brad Pitt), ABC's The Goldbergs, the 2021 Halloween sequel Halloween Kills, the Amazon Prime series Reacher and Netflix's Wednesday.

In 2016, he was arrested and charged with felony assault with serious bodily injury after he got into a confrontation with a neighbor.

He pleaded no contest to assault with force likely to produce great bodily harm and was sentenced to three years of probation and 40 hours of community service.

He made headlines once again in 2020 after he had a shocking public outburst at a hotel pool in Texas, during which he went on an expletive-filled tirade and flipped off other guests.

'I am deeply sorry for my words and actions and ask for forgiveness from anyone who I may have offended,' the actor later said in a statement.

'As a result of a misunderstanding and miscommunication between myself and some hotel guests, the situation needlessly and regrettably escalated.'

He married actress Lucia Oskerova, 35, in 2020 and they welcomed a son, named Michael, in June 2023.