Andrew mccarthy talks brat pack documentary ‘brats’ | members only access

Four decades ago, Andrew McCarthy, 61, got famous overnight as part of the ’80s Brat Pack, along with actors Emilio Estevez, 62, Demi Moore, 61, Molly Ringwald, 56, Rob Lowe, 60, and Ally

Sheedy, 62. In hits like _The Breakfast Club_, _Pretty in Pink_ and _St. Elmo’s Fire_ (sometimes called “the Gen X _Big Chill_”), they defined their cultural moment and endured as youth

icons. Now 61 and a distinguished author and director, McCarthy still has in his closet clothes and skinny ties he donned in those movies. He hasn’t worn them in years, nor seen much of the

Pack. But in his wise, sweet, funny new documentary _Brats_ (on Hulu June 13), he tracked down his costars and talked about old times. He told AARP what he thinks now, looking back. _This

interview has been edited for length and clarity. _ In _Brats_, you interview _New York Magazine_ writer David Blum, 68, whose article dubbed you “the Brat Pack.” Why did it stick? It was an

iconically snarky article — and that phrase was such a good, witty, snarky phrase. It was supposed to be an article about how Emilio Estevez was becoming the next Orson Welles, writing,

directing and starring in movies at 23. And then it blew up [to include them all]. HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? I felt like we were standing on the beach and got slammed with a wave. It was a

really pejorative term used to slap us down, like — these punks think they’re taking over Hollywood? Not so fast! YOU REUNITE WITH ROB LOWE IN THE FILM. HOW DID LOWE FEEL ABOUT BEING BRANDED

AS A BRAT? He was one of the first to realize, yeah, the movie industry may think of it as a negative term, but the public is using it as a shorthand for a great affectionate term. I

didn’t. I just took it personally. Rob was always very business savvy that way. [embedded content] WERE YOU ALWAYS WAY TOO SENSITIVE BACK THEN? I was certainly oversensitive and very wary.

Yearning, then pulling back, so elusive. Being open and then being scared and defensive in the next breath. Isn’t that trait how you got cast with Lowe in _Class_ (1983), your breakthrough

role? A friend read about the open audition for _Class_ in the newspaper and said, “You should go, they want 18, vulnerable and sensitive.” I said, “That’s me, dude!” They rejected you at

first for _Pretty in Pink_, because they wanted a star quarterback type as Molly Ringwald’s love interest. So how come they cast sensitive you instead? Molly got me the part. At the audition

she just said, “That’s the guy you should hire.” The filmmakers were like, “Are you kidding me?” So it was just sort of by the skin of my teeth.