In “Brats,” director Andrew McCarthy — a staple member of the ‘80s Brat Pack — goes on a journey to contact every member of the Brat Pack and hear what their experience with the nickname has been.
The documentary feels more like a self-soothing, validation-seeking journey for McCarthy, who still experiences “post-traumatic stress” from being boxed in as a member of an elite group of young ‘80s actors: The Brat Pack.
In 1985, journalist David Blum branded several rising stars “Hollywood’s Brat Pack” on the cover of New York magazine. According to Blum, the official Brat Packers include: McCarthy, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.
As young actors, Brat Packers starred in one or both of era-defining ‘80s movies “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.” Several members also appeared in “The Outsiders,” “Sixteen Candles,” “Pretty in Pink,” “About Last Night” and “Wisdom.”
When McCarthy first saw the cover he thought it was “terrible.”
“The article was scathing about all these young actors,” he continued. “From then on, my career and the careers of several other people was branded without any wiggle room as the Brat Pack.”
Nearly four decades on, the stars placed within the Brat Pack box still grapple with the nickname in different ways. Some believe the title derailed their career. Some packers have moved on. Others, not so much.
It also explores the rise of movies about young people, for young people during the 1980s, which created a breeding ground for young stars like McCarthy.
“If you were coming of age in the 1980s, then the Brat Pack was at or near the center of your cultural awareness,” McCarthy says. “We were who you wanted to hang with, who you emulated or envied, who you wanted to party with. But for those of us experiencing the Brat Pack from the inside, it was something very different.”
Here are a handful of the biggest reveals from “Brats”:
Estevez and McCarthy reunited after nearly 4 decades
In light of the Brat Pack article, Emilio Estevez withdrew from his fellow Brat Packers.
“I didn’t want anything to do with any of us,” Estevez told McCarthy. “Working together almost just felt like we were kryptonite to each other.”
“The assumption is that we’re all still friends,” said Estevez. But Estevez maintained such distance between other members of the Brat pack that he had not seen McCarthy since the 1985 premiere of “St. Elmo’s Fire.”
McCarthy asked Estevez if he wished the Brat Pack title never existed.
“Thats a difficult question to answer cause you can only know the known,” Estevez said. “What it something that we benefitted from? Maybe. But in the long run, I think we did not. I think there was more damage done by it then good.
“I think it created the perception that we were lightweights, that we didn’t take it seriously.”
Rob Lowe: ‘We were so lucky’
Rob Lowe never shied away from being part of the Brat Pack, though he considers the name inherently “mean spirited” and “an attempt to minimize our talents.”
“We were so lucky to be in the right place at the right time as the movie business was beginning the transition to where it landed and still exists — which is movies made almost exclusively for 18-20 year olds,” Lowe told McCarthy.
He continued, “Not only being in the Brat Pack, but being around at that time not only changed all of our lives but it changed what entertainment is.”
“It makes me sad when people don’t realize how much love is infused in the Brat Pack,” Lowe continued. “To be a part of something people talk about after thirty plus years is really special.”
Demi Moore had a sober companion on ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’ set
Demi Moore and Andrew McCarthy met for the first time on set of “St. Elmo’s Fire.” It was Moore’s first big film role, and she recalled director Joel Schumacher “stuck his neck out for me.”
The film was shot while Moore was working on getting sober.
“They paid to have a sober companion with me 24/7, during the whole shooting,” Moore told McCarthy.
She was grateful to Schumacher for having her back, because, “they could have easily just found someone else because it’s not like I had any box-office draw.”
Moore also touched on her own experience with the Brat Pack name; she felt it was “diminishing,” but also presented an “opportunity to rise above.”
“Why did we take it as an offense? Why did we take it as something bad?” Moore asked McCarthy.
“It’s because we were young. It definitely really irritated me, I felt a sense of it being unjust. I just felt like it didn’t represent us and I felt like it was a real limited perspective. It stayed with me for awhile ... but I don’t know if I took it as personal.”
They reshot the ending of ‘Pretty in Pink’
After shooting wrapped on “Pretty in Pink,” the cast and crew went back and “changed the whole ending,” McCarthy recalled while speaking with Howard Deutch, who directed “Pretty in Pink.”
“Test screening was a disaster. The original ending was she goes with John (Cryer) and you (McCarthy) have a date. And they go into a circle and they start to dance and it becomes a swirl of pink and its over — and booing like I’ve never heard in my life. Screaming. Yelling. Booing. Throwing things,” Deutch told McCarthy. “And they gave us one day to reshoot all of it, which you know is insane”
McCarthy was called back to set from a play he was acting in. For the role, he buzzed off his wavy locks.
To recreate his “Pretty in Pink” look, McCarthy had to wear a wig in the final scene.
“It was such a bad wig,” McCarthy said, adding it was “like a bird’s nest.”
He joked that the wig gave him “such a sad and forlorn look,” which made it easier to nail the final scene.
Lea Thompson ‘wished’ she was in the Brat Pack
Lea Thompson described herself as being “Brat Pack adjacent.”
“I wished I was in the club,” she told McCarthy. “I did. I did, I would have liked to hang out with you guys.”
McCarthy listed several other rising ‘80s stars he also considered Brat Pack adjacent — including his “Pretty in Pink” costar Jon Cryer.
“I am not in the Brat Pack,” Cryer told McCarthy. “I hope not.”
Tim Hutton is ‘Godfather of the Brat Pack’
In wake of earning an Academy Award for his role in “Ordinary People” in 1980, Tim Hutton paved the way for young actors playing young people on screen.
McCarthy dubbed Hutton “the Godfather of the Brat Pack” for taking McCarthy under his wing as a “little brother.”
Though Hutton was never an official member of the Brat Pack, he described the nickname as “kinda cheap.”
“It was making a comment on — in a really cynical way — young actors and young people with tremendous success, based on nothing,” Hutton said.
David Blum: ‘I didn’t dislike any of them’
In 1985, journalist David Blum was under contract with New York Magazine. Blum was invited to dinner with Emilio Estevez with the intention of writing a profile on the burgeoning star.
Several Brat Packers, including Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson were also there.
After the meal, Blum redirected his article to feature a group of young, rising stars. He called them the Brat Pack — but not because he thought they were brats, he thought the title was “fun.”
“All the way through the process, I didn’t dislike any of them,” Blum told McCarthy of his experience with the actors. “I thought they were all quite nice. It’s hard to explain but I didn’t think at the time, ‘ugh these brats,’ at all.”
“It didn’t cross my mind really that it was all that big a deal. ... But the phrase, definitely people dug in”
But to McCarthy, the nickname was a big deal, he considered Blum’s article “scathing” — “Didn’t you?” McCarthy asked Blum.
“I guess in retrospect, yes,” Blum responded. “At the time, no. I was proud of my creation.”
“To me, when I look back on it I feel more redeemed then ever,” Blum added. “I was not wrong, you were a bunch of talented and interesting people to write about during a point when Hollywood had finally decided that young adults should be in movies.
“I have no regrets and it’s lived on forever. But I hope its not the greatest thing I ever did. I really do.”