Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy Step Out for 30th Anniversary of 'The Breakfast Club'

The princess and the basket case, together again!

Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy celebrated the 30th anniversary of their classic teen movie The Breakfast Club at a special South by Southwest screening Monday in Austin, Texas. And they reflected on just what’s changed, and what hasn’t, over those three decades.

Both actresses agreed that the film – now out in a special 30th anniversary edition Blu-ray – is timeless, even as many things about the high school experience have changed dramatically.

“The movie has this message that in spite of people’s differences, there is something unifying in the experience of growing up and trying to find yourself,” Sheedy, 52, told PEOPLE.

At the same time, she added, “I think things are much more complicated and much more difficult right now than they were in the world of Shermer High School. It’s a different world.”

“It’s surreal. I don’t know how this happened!” said Ringwald, 47, of being three decades removed from filming the movie, which she said was a remarkable time for her.

“I was really loving the work that I was doing,” she said. “[Director] John [Hughes] and I had a symbiotic, respectful relationship. I didn’t know I’d be talking about it 30 years later! But it was a great experience.”

Sheedy had similarly fond memories of the shoot.

“It was the first time I felt like I really belonged. It was a very special family,” she said. “I didn’t have a group like that when I was in high school at all. It was a really happy time in my life.”

Indeed, we are a generation removed from 1985. But it sounds like a new generation may discover the movie.

As Ringwald said: “My 11-year-old loved it!”

The film is being re-released in theaters on March 26 and 31.

• Reporting by AILI NAHAS