Andrew McCarthy, superstar of the ’80s, talks candidly about the Brat Pack, which brought no luck to the young superstars who were part of it. The actor recalls somewhat embarrassing unpublished episodes.
If you were a teenager in the 80s, you will remember the Brat Packthat is, a group of young actors who, thanks to a handful of films, among which The Breakfast Club, Class, The beauty in pink and especially St. Elmo’s Firequickly became the idols of hordes of boys and especially girls, who adored the layered haircut of Rob Lowethe spectacular beauty of Demi Moorethe nice and sly air of Emilio Estevez and the good boy face of Andrew McCarthy. At some point, just as he was born, the Brat Pack it disappeared, together with the Reagan era, and only a few of that epic clan remained in vogue. The others fell into oblivion, bringing with them drug and alcohol addiction and finding it quite difficult to reinvent themselves.
If we tell you the story of Brat Packwhich took its name from a small modification of the expression used to refer to the artists of the group Frank Sinatra And Dean Martinthat is, the Rat Pack, it’s because there’s a long interview with Variety in Variety Andrew McCarthy in which that success and that experience are described as a kind of curse, and we who are nostalgic could not resist the pleasure of writing about it.
St. Elmo’s Fire and the glory of others
Before I tell you about Andrew McCarthylet’s clarify things a little Brat Pack. It was a journalist named who called those young Hollywood talents this way David Blumwho invented it when talking about in the cover story of an issue of New York Magazine St. Elmo’s Fire, which had just arrived in theaters. The article was only about Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe And Judd Nelsonwhile of McCarthy there wasn’t even a shadow. The actor remembers very well the moment when New York Magazine arrived on the desks of Paramount executives. At first he was very upset about him, also because in a photograph his shoulder could be seen, but then he was happy not to have been counted among those who Blum described how enfants terribles:
I remember we were rehearsing for Beauty in Pink and I remember sitting in that office and thinking, wow! The article described my colleagues as bad boys who just wanted to have fun at parties and have sex. Do you think it’s a good idea to bring a journalist along when you’re partying? Probably not, and I think each of us learned the lesson very early on.
Virginia Madsen and the humiliation of the torn blouse
Also in the interview with Variety Andrew McCarthy it recalled the air we breathed in the mid-80s. It was the era of Material Girl Of Madonna and a certain snobbery began to spread among kids from good families and the upper class. Maybe that was also why Classin which the actor shared the scene with Ron Lowe And Jacqueline Bisset, was so successful. Of that movie Andrew However, he remembers one unpleasant thing: a scene in which his character accidentally tears her blouse Virginia Madsen who then finds himself topless. In 2013, the actress spoke about how uncomfortable she felt in that sequence, insisting on the profound misogyny of the film. McCarthy he agrees with her.
It was very unpleasant because obviously at the time there were no intimacy coordinators on film sets, but it also involves a scene in which a girl’s blouse is torn off, leaving her breasts exposed and some boys have to react as if they were stupid fifteen year olds. This was the scene and therefore it had to be humiliating, and it certainly wasn’t handled with the right sensitivity. We also had to repeat it a few times, so I can well imagine how horrible it was for Virginia.
Despite the scene with Virginia Madsen, Class was a resounding success, earning more than triple its budget and thus paving the way for St. Elmo’s Fire. At that point the boys and girls of the Brat Pack they were all addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. Just got out of rehab, Demi Moore she was constantly accompanied on the set by a person who made sure she didn’t touch alcohol. Andrew McCarthyfor his part, had to stay away from Vodka, which he drank as if it were Coca Cola.
Pretty in Pink: Wig ending
For McCarty the adventure continued with Beautiful in pink. Without telling you in detail how the shooting of the film went, it is enough to tell you that the protagonist Molly Ringwaldwhich we reviewed in Riverdalehe thought that Andrew fperfect bones for interpreting Blanethe rich and polite boy with whom his character fell in love, so much so that he told John Hughes who found him sweet and poetic and therefore happily different from any braggart dandy. The producer did not agree and McCarty he said that he was told several times that he had to go to the gym because he was frail and had to become like Sylvester Stallone And Arnold Schwarzenegger. If it happened today, everyone would cry body shaming, just as a platoon of women would protest the sexism of the scene Virginia Madsen and above all for the lack of caution on set. Last but least, the actor recalls with horror that, when it was decided to change the ending, deciding that Beauty in Pink would choose Blanehe was working on another film and had very short hair, so he was given a wig:
They had a wig made for me and it was horrible and poor quality, and it looked like I had a nest on my head. I approached Molly with this messy-looking stuff in my head and whispered, “I love you,” but ultimately the movie was a fairy tale and in the end I had to give the princess what she wanted.
Beyond all limits and cocaine flushed down the toilet
The parable of Brat Pack ended with Beyond all limitsfrom the book by Bret Easton Ellis Less than zero:
There were a lot of drugs circulating on the set of Less than Zero and it was certainly no mystery. It was the 80s and that’s how it used to be. But just then Nancy Reagan began her Just Say No anti-drug campaign, and so we were forced to reshoot a third of the film and show kids flushing cocaine down the toilet. But no one ever flushed cocaine down the toilet! If you have to get rid of the cocaine quickly, you snort it all. The production didn’t want her on set and so the message of the film had to be: drugs are evil.
He also acted in the film Robert Downey Jr.who on that set began to use drugs during filming, falling into a spiral in which he remained for some time, even ending up in prison for 6 months. McCarthy described the making of that film, which went unrecognized by Eston Ellislike an ugly and dark moment: it was the end of a dream and a crazy carousel ride.
Andrew McCarthy he was haunted by memories of that time, which left a scar on his soul. Maybe that’s why he decided to dedicate a documentary to Brat Pack. For 30 years the actor, who has been sober since 1992, didn’t want to know anything about his former partying companions, then he decided to tell them and talk about himself. They are in the film, available yesterday on Hulu Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and other members of the group who talk about the good and bad of being part of the Brat Pack. They do this by addressing Andrew McCarthy, who thus rises to the role of confessor/psychiatrist.
