Jeffrey Jones made a rare public appearance on Friday, more than 20 years after a child porn scandal upended his professional and personal life.
The actor, who worked with Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Grey and Mia Sara in the 1986 cult classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off, was reunited with some of the film's cast members for a panel discussion at The Hollywood Show.
Jones, 78, played high school principal Ed Rooney, whose efforts to catch Ferris skipping school were foiled by the charismatic teen at every turn.
When discussing life after the film, Jones told the audience he had left Los Angeles, without going into detail as to why.
'I moved to live in the desert. I didn't want to be in L.A. anymore, but I got my family here, and so little kids get old fast. I'm driving back and forth,' he said.
The Beetlejuice actor, whose character was killed off as part of the plot of last year's long-awaited sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, was last seen in 2019's Deadwood: The Movie revealed, 'I'm getting a place now in L.A. I've given up because I can't keep going back and forth from Burbank to the desert.'
Jones was arrested in 2002 on charges of soliciting a minor for nude photos and possession of child pornography.
He pleaded no contest to soliciting a minor, and prosecutors dropped the child pornography charge. He was sentenced to five years of probation, one year of psychological counseling and two years of drug and alcohol abuse counseling.
The deal also required him to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and prohibited him from possessing any pornography.
'I am sorry that this incident was allowed to occur. Such an event has never happened before and it will never happen again,' he told reporters following his sentencing.
In 2004, he was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender when he moved to Sarasota, FL, and again in 2010 for failing to register when he moved back to Los Angeles. He plead guilty and was sentenced to 250 hours of community service and three years probation.
On Friday's panel, Jones spoke about what it was like for him to work with legendary director John Hughes, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 59.
When asked if Hughes collaborated with his actors, Jones answered, 'He certainly was. Yes, he was. He entertained,' according to People. Jones took some credit for one of his character's most embarrassing moments.
'Ed is trying to look into the house, and there was a window with a hose bed. So the shot was simply me standing on the hose bed trying to look into the window to see if I could find Ferris.'
'So I went to the ground people and borrowed a shovel, and they had some peat moss; I turned it into a swamp because I had nothing else to do. So it wasn’t a plot point particularly; it was just an attention to detail. That was the kind of thing that John liked," he explained.
Jones, 79, played principal Ed Rooney in the 80s classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Jones starred as Charles Deetz in 1988's Beetlejuice, but he did not appear in 2024's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Jones' career was upended when he was arrested in 2002. He pleaded no contest to teen solicitation and prosecutors dropped child porn charges
Jones also said Hughes stuck to his vision.
'Actually, John wanted what he wanted, and he got it,' he claimed, adding, 'But usually it was a fight. I mean it oftentimes was a fight because there was time and budget to consider, and John didn't really pay much attention to that.'
Also on the panel were Cindy Pickett, who played Ferris’ mom, and Jonathan Schmock, who played the Chez Quis Maitre D.
Pickett shared that an important line in the film was improvised. ‘The last line of the movie, “Life moves pretty fast,” he just threw that in. It’s not in the original script. He just threw that in. So yeah, he had the best time,’ she said.