Actor Anthony Michael Hall on the ‘Random’ Item He Always Packs

Just like his character Rusty Griswold in the 1983 comedy classic “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” Anthony Michael Hall loves a good road trip, especially when outlandish antics are involved. 

Case in point: After touring through Texas on a series of drive-in appearances in 2020 reminiscing on his iconic 1980s movies “The Breakfast Club,” “Weird Science,” and “Sixteen Candles,” the Brat Pack member and his wife Lucia Oskerova packed up their their Pekingese and a couple of e-bikes and drove back to their Washington state home in their Range Rover SUV. Happening upon The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, they enjoyed their suite off the golf course on the 5,000-acre luxury resort in the Rocky Mountains so much that they extended their stay, so one day Hall took the car in to get serviced.

“On the way, I saw this neon green Porsche Carrera 4S and bought it on a whim!” the 57-year-old actor told Travel + Leisure of surprising his then-fiancée by returning to the hotel in the eye-catching vehicle. “I literally have never done an impulse buy like that in my life—it’s the most random purchase ever! But I love it. I’m married now, but the car is my girlfriend. It’s beautiful!” 

He arranged to have the Range Rover shipped back, and the pair ended up driving through Wyoming and Montana, including Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, in the bright green sports car. “I’ve gotta tell you, Rusty Griswold is a lot cooler than Clark Griswold because I did it in style!” he said of the epic road trip. “I felt like a proud Griswold.” 

That Vacation mentality runs deep for the Boston-born Hall, who now lives in the Los Angeles area and has relished wandering the world over his four-decade-long career. “A fun part of my job that a lot of people don’t express as much is the exploration,” he said. “You get a new job, you’re in a new place, and you can really have fun with it.”

More recently he spent time in Toronto, stepping in as a regular for the third season of the Amazon Prime action crime series Reacher, which just released its finale last month. He first stayed in the residences of the Metropolitan Hotels’ Soho Met Hotel, eating “practically every day” at its Pizzeria Moretti, which serves recipes inspired by Italian grandmothers. “I’ve been joking that I got a different kind of memo than the other Reacher guys,” Hall said. “They were on the workout every day memo and I was on the eat out every day memo!”

When the season picked back up after the holidays, he rented a house and had his wife and son join him, moving from downtown out into a more suburban area. “What’s cool about Toronto is you don’t have to get on the freeways. Using surface streets, you’re suddenly in some really cool areas,” he said of the “really fun” city. 

Canada in particular has special meaning for the star since he shot the USA Network show Stephen King’s The Dead Zone, which aired from 2002 to 2007, in Vancouver where he met his wife.

Another spot he’s made return trips to recently is his childhood hometown of New York City for Reacher promo appearances on The Kelly Clarkson Show and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (which he said was a “career high”), as well the the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. Hall was the youngest SNL cast member at 17 in 1985, calling himself just a “small part” of the sketch comedy show’s legacy.

That trio of appearances all took place at the Rockefeller Center’s iconic 30 Rock. “It’s an architectural wonder, with all the beautiful reliefs in the hallway—it’s just an exquisite, beautiful building,” he said. “I think a lot of people share that feeling that I get when I go back there.” 

During those visits he stayed at JW Marriott Essex House and Park Hyatt, especially loving the latter’s location by the Russian Tea Room and Carnegie Hall. “I grew up on the Upper West Side, but suddenly I was on 57th Street in the nicest hotel—it’s just really a pleasurable thing and a really nice experience,” he admitted.

With those kinds of business travel experiences, Hall also keeps his personal travels elevated, including his honeymoon to The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort, a getaway that his wife planned. “She did a great job, but she’s got expensive taste—but I do too,” he said. “When you get to that place, you don’t even want to leave!”

It was the perfect way to follow their wedding in one of their favorite cities, Miami. In fact, they got a double dose of Florida nuptials: First, an intimate Covid-era beach wedding in 2020 with just a judge and her tween daughter, who she brought along at the last minute, hiding behind a tree. “It was so beautiful underneath some ivy on the beach—and then it started to rain right after the vows,” Hall recalled.

Then they returned to their favorite Florida destination in 2023 for a full wedding ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Mary, with a reception at Fontainebleau Miami Beach. The biggest difference this time was that their son was in tow in a little tux. “I’m really proud of myself because I clearly waited a long time, so I did it right,” he said of getting married and becoming a dad in his 50s.

But time seems to stand still when it comes to Hall’s 80s classics, which he always enjoys looking back on. And he even has some travel suggestions for fans based on the favorite films.

For “National Lampoon’s Vacation” fans, he suggested set-jetters visit Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, which stood in for Walley World. “I’ll never forget riding this rickety roller coaster made of wood that should have been turned off and put to sleep years prior,” he said of the original rendition of the Colossus, which has since been renovated into steel. “I was the only one that fit with John Candy in that first cabin,” he said. “He was like the sweetest guy. He really was Uncle Buck.” 

He also shared that the iconic theme park ending of the movie was never meant to happen, since it was a Warner Bros. movie and couldn’t film at Disneyland, which Walley World was based on.

However, Rusty Griswold did end up at Disneyland, working as a security guard as an inside joke for fans in a 2019 episode of The Goldbergs. So Hall also recommended Disneyland for fans of the film, as well as Universal Studios Hollywood and Walt Disney World in Florida, especially now that he’s a theme park fan as a “new old dad.”

“The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles” were filmed in and around filmmaker John Hughes’ home state of Illinois in “these interesting suburbs like Skokie and Evanston,” Hall said. The famous high school where the life-changing detention session took place was Maine North High School, now home to an Illinois State Police district office, a fact Hall is keenly aware of since fans will send him photos every March 24—the film’s detention date. 

The Brat Packer loves that set-jetting has spawned an industry, with companies running tours visiting iconic filming locations, like On Location Tours’ Chicago Suburbs Movie Sites Tour, which stops at “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” sites. 

So it goes without saying that, for Hall, the location is as essential as the project: “I remember reading an article with Michael Caine years ago, where he said at this point in my life, I just pick projects based on where I’m going.” Hall has followed suit with his most recent project, the upcoming Kenan Thompson and John Ryan Jr.-produced “Halloween Store”, filmed in Hawaii. 

While the destinations matter, so does the journey. Hall doesn’t skip a beat when asked which Brat Pack member would make the best travel buddy, immediately pointing to “The Breakfast Club” costar Judd Nelson.

“Last year we did a signing in Pittsburgh and I traveled back home to L.A. with him. We had a layover at Chicago O’Hare—it was literally like Bender and Brian Johnson in the film,” Hall said. “We were just two dudes just walking through an airport, going to the bookstore, grabbing a beer and a burger. Judd’s always cracking jokes, so it was like traveling with Bender all the way!”