The Brat Pack documentary bombshells: Demi Moore ‘desperate to fit in’ — and Molly Ringwald’s refusal
Don’t you forget about them.
“Brats,” the new documentary about the Brat Pack (now streaming on Hulu), covers the famous group of ‘80s stars, their memories about their heyday and their gripes with that moniker.
The circle of stars associated with the label are Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall and Andrew McCarthy. (The documentary mentions Tom Cruise and Matt Dillon as questionable members, and Jon Cryer, Timothy Hutton and Robert Downey Jr. are sometimes also cited as members.)
The core Brat Pack movies include “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty In Pink,” “Sixteen Candles” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.”
Directed by and starring McCarthy, 61, the documentary follows McCarthy as he seeks out his former peers – some of whom he hasn’t seen in several decades — and has frank conversations with them.
Here are the biggest revelations from the doc.
Demi Moore said filming was more important than living
Demi Moore, 61, was in “St Elmo’s Fire” at the beginning of her career in 1985. Moore has previously been open about her drug and alcohol addiction struggles, and her time in rehab.
When McCarthy visited Moore on-screen, he recalled their first meeting, when the film’s director, Joel Schumacher, “presented you like a creature you created.”
Reminiscing about the late Schumacher, who died of cancer at age 80 in 2020, Moore said, “He really stuck his neck out for me, it’s not like I had any box office draw.”
She admitted, “They paid to have a companion, a sober companion with me 24/7 during the whole shooting. They could have easily just found someone else.”
Moore added that while she was in treatment for addiction, “They said, ‘What’s more important to you, the movie or your life?’ I said ‘the movie!’ I didn’t have any value for myself… I was desperate to fit in, belong. My need to please was on high alert.”
Rob Lowe said the Brat Pack was a disaster
When McCarthy went to visit Rob Lowe, 60, Lowe said, “There’s always going to be some perception that bumps up against how you see yourself. No one liked [the Brat Pack label]. I don’t want to come off seeming like I’m so Pollyanna that I don’t realize or didn’t know at the time what a f–king disaster and how mean spirited and what an attempt that was to minimize our talents.”
However, he’s now at peace with the label.
“It pains me when I see folks who don’t see how much love is infused into the Brat Pack. It’s nothing but goodwill,” he said.
When McCarthy asked if the label will follow them “to the end,” Lowe replied, “it will, for sure. It should.”
Lowe continued, “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- to 20-year-olds, every summer movie that’s out is geared towards that audience. It wasn’t always like that. We were there at that time that it began.”
Lowe added, “It changed all of our lives… it changed what entertainment is.”
Emilio Estevez refused to be in a movie with Andrew McCarthy
When McCarthy went to visit Estevez, 62, McCarthy admitted that he hadn’t seen him since the premiere of “St. Elmo’s Fire” in 1985.
As the two men went down memory lane, Estevez admitted that he was so thrown by the Brat Pack label because “It created the perception that we were lightweights, that we didn’t take it seriously.”
As a result, he said, he turned down a movie with McCarthy that was “one of the best scripts that I had read in a long time.”
“They told me that you didn’t want me to do it, it hurt my feelings,” said McCarthy.
Estevez explained, “I didn’t want anything to do with any of us. If it were Judd [Nelson], I would have said the same thing. To be seen again in another film [with Brat Pack members] would ultimately and potentially have a negative impact…it almost felt like we were kryptonite to each other.”
When McCarthy asked if Estevez would eliminate the Brat Pack label if he could, Estevez said that was a “difficult question to answer.”
“You can only know the known,” he explained. “Was it something that we benefited from? Maybe. But in the long run, I think we did not. I think there was more damage done by it than good.”
When the Brat Pack met the Rat Pack
Onscreen, Lowe and McCarthy reminisced about a night they had out drinking with Liza Minelli, where they ended up at Sammy Davis Jr.’s house.
“You were pretty cool and savvy, and even you were like ‘holy s–t,’” McCarthy said to Lowe. “[Davis Jr.] was playing bartender. He was like, ‘I’ve got my eye on you cats, I love what you’re doing.’”
Lowe said, “That is when the Brat Pack met the Rat Pack. When I think of the Brat Pack, I think of nights like that, because that stuff routinely happened.”
Ally Sheedy thought McCarthy was “aloof” — but he had a crush on her
Sheedy, 62, and McCarthy starred in “St. Elmo’s Fire” together. “I had a little crush on you back in the day,” he told her in the doc.
“You did not!” Sheedy replied.
“I was so scared, I was so busy being aloof,” he added, to which she agreed, “Yes you were aloof!”
“Pretty in Pink” test screenings were “disasters”
When McCarthy went to visit “Pretty In Pink” director Howard Deutch, Deutch said, “The test screening was a disaster.”
He explained how the original ending of the 1986 teen drama does not have Andie (Ringwald) and Blane (McCarthy) end up together, even though Andie has fallen for him over the course of the film.
Deutch said at the test screening, there was “Booing like I’ve never heard in my life.” Viewers were also “screaming, booing, throwing things.” They got one day to reshoot the movie’s real ending, which sees Andie and Blane together.
Andrew McCarthy wore a wig in the final “Pretty in Pink” scene
McCarthy looked a bit different in the last scene of the iconic film — and for good reason. The actor wore a wig when Blane and Andie romantically kissed as “If You Leave” by Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark played in the background because of the reshoot.
“They wanted the fairy-tale ending,” McCarthy said, adding with a laugh: “It wasn’t a very good wig.”
Why Molly Ringwald wasn’t in it
Ringwald, 56, is one of the most iconic Brat Pack members, with her signature short red coif and her starring roles in “The Breakfast Club,” “Pretty In Pink” and “Sixteen Candles.” Her absence from the documentary is glaring.
“I asked Molly if she liked to speak,” McCarthy noted onscreen. “She said she’d think about it, but she’d like to just keep looking forward.”
He also noted how hard it was to track down his former compatriots and get them to talk to him.
“Judd [Nelson] is at some undisclosed location and not available and Rob is suddenly in Orlando… My wife said making this movie would be ‘good for my humility’ and now I understand what she was talking about,” he commented.
Judd Nelson was in it after all — sort of
Nelson, 64, refused to be in the documentary. “It seems strange to have that subject matter be something for edited entertainment,” Nelson, 64, told Us Weekly while attending the Children Uniting Nations 24th Annual Academy Awards Celebration & Viewing Dinner on March 10 in Beverly Hills.
“Also, like, [McCarthy’s] a nice guy,” he continued, “but I hadn’t seen him in 35 years. … And it’s like, I’m not going to [be] like, ‘Hey!’ No, dude.”
However, he’s sort of in it — in a one-sided phone call where the viewer only hears McCarthy. At the very end of the film, McCarthy’s phone rings, and he answers it saying, “Hello. Judd?!”
“Brats” is now streaming on Hulu.
