The actress has been candid about her experience in show business.

Ferris Bueller’s Mia Sara stepped away from Hollywood — but still lives in L.A. for this reason

The actress has been candid about her experience in show business.

By Marina Watts

Marina Watts

Marina Watts is a news writer for with seven years experience covering entertainment, pop culture and celebrity news. Her previous work appears in PEOPLE, Bustle and Newsweek.

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July 3, 2026 8:30 a.m. ET

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Mia Sara in 2025; Mia Sara in 1986. Credit:

- Mia Sara's life in Los Angeles is less about acting and more about riding horses.

- The *Ferris Bueller's Day Off *star has been candid about her experience in Hollywood.

- As for what riding taught her, Sara said, "It's okay not to be the best at something. It's okay to do something just because you love it."

Mia Sara may still live in Los Angeles, but she's mostly horsing around.

The *Ferris Bueller's Day Off *star has largely stepped back from show business but still lives in L.A. after moving there 30 years prior for a very important reason: to ride her horses.

After working on some television pilots and smaller projects as a mother of a young son, Sara was ready to walk away. "I just thought, 'I've made kind of a wreck of a lot of my personal life and I just can't do this anymore,'" she said on an episode of *The Slice of Life Show by Pete Ferriero *podcast.

Mia Sara/Instagram

"I wanted to just have a life where I wasn't constantly striving and doing this thing that I found so, so, so painful," she added.

Sara rose to fame in the 1980s when she appeared in Ridley Scott's *Legend *alongside Tom Cruise, and then was catapulted into stardom as Sloane Peterson in *Ferris Bueller's Day Off*. Now, her quieter routine includes writing poetry and riding horses.

Mia Sara reflects on working with 'weird guy' Tom Cruise on 'Legend'

Mia Sara reveals why starring in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' wasn't a 'good experience'

Sara said she was "not scared" the first time she ever rode a horse, but "subsequently have had a lot of fear." She mentioned an incident that happened several years ago when the horse she was riding "ran off with" her at the end of a lesson. Sara came off the horse and "blacked out."

"I didn't have a concussion, but it, like, rewired my my chemistry. It just rewired my body," she recalled.

"And so then I've had years of dealing with anxiety," Sara said, before clarifying: "riding anxiety."

"That's why I decided, I'm either going to stop riding or I'm going to get my own horse. And so I got my own horse," she shared.

Mia Sara at 'The Life of Chuck' premiere in Los Angeles in June 2025.

Amy Sussman/Getty

Elsewhere in the interview, Sara mentioned that she recently learned from her father that her grandfather wanted to buy her a horse when she was little.

"I couldn't believe — I was like, 'Pop, why didn't you let him buy me a horse?'" He goes, 'I didn't want you to have a horse,'" she recalled.

Mia Sara/Instagram

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As far as what she's learned about riding horses, Sara said, "It's okay not to be the best at something. It's okay to do something just because you love it [and] that in itself is rewarding. And that really was hard for me in life."

Watch Mia Sara's full appearance on *The Slice of Life Show by Pete Ferriero* below.

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