In the early 1980s, films starring teenagers and very young adults proliferated. Recognizing this, this audience, hitherto neglected by Hollywood, invaded the theaters. Of this unprecedented genre of “teen films”, such Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Ferris Bueller’s crazy day), Or Pretty in Pink (Candy pink), new stars emerged. Some of them, including Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, and Rob Lowe, were nicknamed the Brat Pack: a nod to the Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra and Cie. Except that “ brat » means “spoiled child”. Having lived very badly with this reductive label, Andrew McCarthy made it the subject of a documentary: Brats. We spoke to him exclusively.
“At the beginning, I had few expectations from the project,” admits Andrew McCarthy, joined by videoconference on the eve of the unveiling of Brats at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Revealed in 1983 film Class (A classy college), as a scholarship student who falls in love with the mother (Jacqueline Bisset) of his rich best friend (Rob Lowe), Andrew McCarthy starred among others in Pretty in Pink, Heaven Help Us (In the name of heaven), St. Elmo’s Fire (St. Elmo’s Fire), Model, Less Than Zero (Snow in Beverly Hills), And Weekend at Bernie’s (Weekend at Bernie’s). So many films, several of which have become cult, primarily intended for adolescent audiences.
“What’s in the documentary is what happened during filming. When you see me calling someone, I’m really calling them: I haven’t done any reconstruction. I was thinking of doing just one day of filming, where I would contact everyone for the first time in, what, thirty years? »
Because, contrary to popular belief, the members, both official and unofficial, of the Brat Pack were not close friends in life: apart from publicized social events, each experienced their fame on their own, some better than others. Not Andrew McCarthy. In his autobiography Brat: An ’80s Storypublished in 2021, the actor who became a globe-trotting reporter, then a director (among other series Orange Is the New Black And The Blacklist), talks about his alcoholism from the age of 12, and his regained sobriety since 1992.
Moreover, during a revealing passage from Brats alongside Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy discusses his issues with his father, explaining how making peace with his father on his deathbed helped him, and how, on a smaller scale, he hopes to make even compared to the Brat Pack.
Moreover, when McCarthy reconnected with Estevez, the two men had not seen each other since the release of St. Elmo’s Firein 1985, so almost forty years ago.
Franchise and openness
Upstream, Brats offers a summary of the revisited period, the first half of the 1980s, with numerous extracts from films and reports, photos, etc. This brief review of the momentary hegemony of the teen film and its leading figures allows us to measure the extent of the phenomenon. Because that’s what it was all about.
Then, in 1985, in an article in New York Magazinejournalist David Blum (who agreed to meet Andrew McCarthy) coined the expression “Brat Pack” to describe a cohort of young actresses and actors “on the party » and not very serious about the job.
“The Brat Pack label was a seismic event in my life,” recalls Andrew McCarthy.
“For the documentary, I especially wanted to look at the way in which our relationship to the past and our perception of the past evolve over time. The truth of today is not the truth of tomorrow. There’s a quote from Eugene O’Neill that I love: “The past is the present. It’s also the future.” It fascinates me, the older I get. Last year I turned 60, and I look at the past in a different way than when I was 40. »
The “seismic” nature of the shock described by Andrew McCarthy is shared: in Brats, the main stakeholders describe the dizziness and frustration felt when reading what was, at best, a simplification of reality, and at worst, a falsehood. Interspersing the testimonies from the present, past interviews show young performers very eloquent in their rejection of the Brat Pack label. In vain.
“I was curious to hear from others about this club, this club we didn’t apply to be a member of…Was their experience the same as mine? I was transparent with everyone. I said, “I just want to come to your house and talk to you about what it did to you.” If, tomorrow, I came across someone with whom I made a film thirty years ago, I might not have anything to say to them. But as I tell Emilio in the documentary, given that he and I were members of this thing, this thing that happened to us and that affected our lives and partly defined our journey, we have a point of connection . During the filming, it was very easy, with everyone. This openness surprised me: ten years ago, no one would have said yes. I myself would not have made this film ten years ago. As we age, our relationship with the past changes. »
Transcend nostalgia
Among the best sequences, there is that of the reunion with Demi Moore, the actress having experienced the heights and rejection in Hollywood, before making a spectacular return to Cannes this spring in The Substance, by Coralie Fargeat. Fascinating and often funny, the conversation sees Moore “psychoanalyzing” McCarthy with obvious tenderness, despite the decades that have passed.
“It was quite incredible, the generosity around us… Everyone was very frank with me; everyone immediately let their guard down. We were therefore able to have an honest exchange about how we felt. I wasn’t keen on making the definitive Brat Pack documentary, you know. I just wanted to ask others: “What was your experience? Here’s mine.” »
Andrew McCarthy specifies at the same time that he was from the outset determined that his documentary would not turn into a “scratching of boo-boos” for those in the know, on the contrary.
“My wish was that, watching the film, the spectators would be able to nod their heads and say to themselves: ‘Yes, this is what I feel about a particular event in my life: I hated it at the time, but now I’ve come to accept it.” I hoped that this film would transcend simple nostalgia, and that by tackling something very personal, I would be able to make it resonate on a more universal level. »
An eternal affection
This “communicative” introspection occurs in this case quite naturally in front of Bratscaregiver identification.
In this regard, it was particularly easy to identify with Andrew McCarthy’s characters, because in all his roles (none of the bully or macho, of course), he exuded a unique blend of authenticity and kindness, with deep in the eyes, this note of sadness…
His characters always had, even when he played a popular student like in Pretty in Pinka marginal dimension.
There are therefore countless boys of my generation who have repeatedly identified with him, Brat Pack label or not. And since we all struggle with our own demons, seeing Andrew McCarthy confront one of his in Brats is inspiring.
So, after having previously identified with his characters, we now identify with the person.
“You make me cry…” murmurs the actor-director, who pauses before continuing: “I would tell you that with this documentary, I felt a responsibility. Because today I know that these films were important to a lot of people growing up. I was aware that this event which shook my existence, I also had to… honor it, with the truth of others, and with my own truth. I hated the Brat Pack label for a long time, but now I think it’s a beautiful thing. »
At this point in the interview, Andrew McCarthy’s eyes blur.
“You know, I was surprised by the affection we have between members of the Brat Pack. It totally caught me off guard, because at the time we weren’t close: we were young, scared, and competitive, and trying to figure out what was happening to us. To feel this kind of affection, like when Rob [Lowe] and I hug… Rob was the first person I auditioned with. All these decades later, when I arrived at his house, I was looking at him, and he was looking at me, and suddenly we were 19 again, and we were reliving that glorious moment… It was incredibly moving. The past which becomes the present…”
The documentary Brats will come out
on Disney+ on June 28.