Fuck Ferris, Cameron Frye is the one we ought to watch.

Let me tell you why Alan Ruck’s portrayal of hyper-anxious hypochondriac Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is super-important to survivors of emotional abuse.

I love Cameron Frye. Plain and simple. When I first watched John Hughes’ acclaimed 1986 hit “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, my attention was captured not by Matthew Broderick’s slick charm or witty one-liners — but by Alan Ruck tucked up in bed, surrounded by snotty tissues lamenting “let my Cameron go.”

You know the scene.

“I feel like complete shit.”

On paper, Cameron Frye is the ‘anti-Ferris Bueller.’ Described as uptight, depressive and a hypochondriac, he is thrown into his best friend’s hijinks (the titular pursuit of a Day Off) because Ferris needs a car. As the son of what we can assume is a wealthy but dangerously neglectful family, Cameron has access to his father’s prized 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder which is loved more than himself.

Cameron is essentially pressured into taking the car so Ferris can pick his girlfriend Sloane up from school, but is only able to do so after Cameron convincingly masquerades as her father on the phone to slimy Principle Ed Rooney. The trio successfully drive off to Chicago for their…