Molly Ringwald says she remembers thinking Blum’s piece was “sort of a stupid article, but even then, I felt like, it was a moniker that was going to stick. People were sort of looking for something and that guy found it—a way to categorize a whole bunch of actors all at once.”
Before the article ran, many of these young actors had been highly praised for their real dramatic talent. Many had studied with great acting teachers and were widely considered not just young and hot, but deeply gifted. But the “Brat Pack” article took the focus away from the actors’ talents. “The acting was so rich and layered and deep and vulnerable and open,” says actor Mark Feuerstein, who grew up watching those eighties youth films and is now the star of the TV series Royal Pains. But because of the phrase, he suggests, “those actors didn’t get as much credit as they deserved.”
Cryer remembers experiencing firsthand how the Brat Pack label prevented people from recognizing the actors’ talents. “One time it sort of came to me. I did a play with Judd Nelson and Justine Bateman in New York, called Carnal Knowledge, in 1989,” he recalls. “What was shocking was, it got terrible reviews, and they were completely undeserved.” (Sneered Newsday, “Judd Nelson was never much of an actor to begin with, but here he proves himself a cowardly non-actor.”) “People were just sharpening their knives for the Brat Pack,” says Cryer. “Judd actually was terrific in that show.”
And in some ways the word “pack” was as damaging to the actors’ careers as the word “brat,” because it meant they were seen not as individuals but just as elements of a larger whole—which was particularly problematic once the ensemble youth movie had run its course. “How do you break out of the ensemble?” asks USC professor Leo Braudy. “How do you become separate?” Tom Cruise was smart enough to be aware of the limitations of group pieces. He had appeared in some of the early ensemble youth films (such as The Outsiders and Taps), but, as David Blum points out, “Cruise was the first of them to say to himself, you know what—it’s better to be a star than to be hanging around with a bunch of other guys who are all trying to be stars in the same movie. He was the first one to spin off, and that turned out to be a brilliant decision.”
Though the New York article didn’t specifically portray the “Brat Pack” actors as being hard to work with on set, the party antics detailed in the piece may have helped inspire industry-wide rumors that the boys were unprofessional. “Someone gave it a name, so it stuck,” said the late entertainment exec Bernie Brillstein, who repped Rob Lowe, “but they were hard-working people.” Says Judd Nelson, “I didn’t think we were unprofessional at all. So that was a bad thing about it, because then serious directors would think, ‘Oh, no, he’s one of those kids.’ And I would be like, ‘What are you talking about? I’m not missing work, ever.’ But certain things—because you can’t change them’do become part of your experience,” says Nelson, decidedly. “You live and learn.”
Former New York magazine editor in chief Ed Kosner thinks the Brat Pack article had an entirely different effect on these young actors’ lives. “Hurt their careers? It made their careers,” he says. “The only thing anyone remembers about these people is that there was a ‘Brat Pack.’” And, it must be said that many actors mentioned in the article, such as Cruise and Sean Penn, went on to great things (although their personal lives weren’t delved into and detailed in a critical way in the piece).
Some may see the article and the ensuing media attention as being a highlight of many of these actors’ careers. Others see it differently, wondering, if the article had never run, if these gifted young actors had never been portrayed in such an unattractive light so early in their careers, if this group of friends hadn’t been given a catchy, catch-all label that prevented them from being seen as individuals, what could they have achieved? If the term “Brat Pack” had never come into existence, where would those actors be today?
“It is just odd,” says Judd Nelson, “because we would have been able to do a tremendous body of work.” Nelson, who, before the New York article ran, had been praised by critics for his riveting dramatic performance in The Breakfast Club, uses a sports analogy to describe what the label did to him and the other actors. “In baseball,” he says, “when you are up at the plate, you get three strikes.” But when he and his friends were called the Brat Pack, he says, “it was like we all had two strikes on us already. You can still get a hit with two strikes on you. You can still even hit a home run. But,” he says, “you can’t swing away.”
Says his Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire costar Ally Sheedy, “Sometimes there’s a well-loved group of people, and it’s really fun to blow it to shreds. I really don’t know what that’s about. I don’t know why that article had the power to do that.” But, she says quietly, “we just didn’t rebound from it.”
Ironically, the article had the opposite effect on the career of writer David Blum. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he admits. “I can’t pretend that it wasn’t. It was a big deal. From the point of view of editors, they liked that I had come up with a phrase that had become a part of the language. It raised my profile as a journalist, and got me assignments.” But, his feelings surrounding the story are still quite “complicated,” and he still feels some sadness when thinking back on it. “I do feel a little funny that I got this jolt of success, or attention, for something where I called somebody a brat. It kind of felt weird. But you know, I’ve fortunately gone on to do other things.” Blum has been the editor in chief of the Village Voice and now teaches journalism at Columbia University. “So I hope that will not be the lead of my obituary. There are worse things to be known for,” he says, “but there are better.”
The truly heartbreaking aftershock of the piece was what happened to the deep friendships shared by these young actors, friendships forged while making movies that would stand the test of time, friendships that shone through in every frame of the iconic films they made together. After being termed the Brat Pack, says Ally Sheedy, “there was a feeling of not-connectedness anymore. Everybody sort of just disappeared on each other, just went their separate ways.”
“I think it is so strange,” says Judd Nelson. “Once there became this derogatory term, it was never the same. I haven’t really seen them in many years,” he says of the other actors. “And that is a shame. Because I thought I was going to be friends with these people my whole life.”
Today, almost everybody from the Brat Pack films is still acting. From performing in theater, sitcoms, and movies of all genres, to screenwriting and directing, they’ve pursued a wide range of dramatic opportunities. Despite the burdens of the Brat Pack label, almost all of them have enjoyed some moments of real critical acclaim, commercial success, or both. Along the way, they seem to have found personal fulfillment as well.
The woman Time dubbed the “princess of pink” in 1986 never lost her name recognition, her status as an icon, or her talent. Though appearing largely in straight-to-DVD films, esoteric European fare, and the odd Lifetime cable movie, in the 2000s Molly Ringwald became a theatrical star, playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret opposite Raul Esparza and headlining the national touring company of Sweet Charity. In 2008, she made a Hollywood comeback with her biggest success since Pretty in Pink, starring on the hit ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. “I did so much theater for so long,” she says, “it’s nice to be able to take a deep breath.” Ringwald only recently moved back to L.A., where Secret Life is filmed, after years of living in New York (and that stint in France). She says her years away from Hollywood, and the times over the years when acting wasn’t her top priority (she also focused on things like falling in love, becoming a mother, and writing), gave her a great sense of perspective. There was even a period when she considered quitting acting: “I thought about it,” she says. “[Acting] kind of went onto the back burner for a while. I had been working so intensely for so long…it became sort of less of a priority for a while, and it was great. I am really glad that
I made that decision. It was incredibly important for my development as a human being.” She married writer and editor Panio Gianopoulos, and they have three children. She recently wrote a book about being a fortysomething mother, no doubt anticipating that the “Ringlets” who adored her as a teen would want to catch up on her life after high school.
Her childhood flame Anthony Michael Hall had a long-running cable series of his own. Hall produced and starred in the cult USA Network series The Dead Zone, based on the Stephen King novel, which ran for six seasons. (On one episode of the series, Ally Sheedy guest starred as his best friend from high school.) Hall also has the distinction of being the Brat Packer to appear in the most successful movie, having had a small but important role as a television reporter in The Dark Knight. Years earlier, he’d turned in a critically acclaimed portrayal of Bill Gates in 1999’s Pirates of Silicon Valley. “It was like a crash course in business,” says Hall of preparing for the role. “I got so invested in learning about how [Gates] built the company.” Hall has an entertainment production company of his own now. His mother, Mercedes, can be seen performing at major jazz venues across the country.
Hall’s Breakfast Club castmate Judd Nelson had a long run costarring with Brooke Shields on the hit NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan in the mid- to late 1990s. In 1999, Nelson costarred in the urban drama Light It Up and starred in the NBC biopic Mr. Rock ’n’ Roll: The Alan Freed Story. Two years later, Nelson appeared in Kevin Smith’s cult classic Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. To this day, Judd Nelson works constantly, guest starring on television series such as CSI: NY and Psych and starring in genre films, most of which are made for cable or the DVD market. In the years since St. Elmo’s Fire, he has acted in more than forty films.
His friend Ally Sheedy arguably gave the most powerful performance of her career playing the heroin-addled lesbian photographer Lucy Berliner in 1998’s High Art. Her haunting portrayal earned her tremendous reviews and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress. It was supposed to be her comeback, but it didn’t give her career quite the jump-start it should have. “I’m telling you,” she says, smiling that ineffable Sheedian half-grin that is equal parts sadness, modesty, and hope, “people are missing the boat on me.” But she keeps working at it, taking on roles in independent films such as Life During Wartime, from the respected and envelope-pushing writer-director Todd Solondz (Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse), which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival within days of the premiere of her made-for-cable movie Citizen Jane. Sheedy feels that Allison in The Breakfast Club and Lucy in High Art are the two roles closest to her heart. “It’s hard for me to find those [kinds of roles],” she says. “It feels like I come upon them once a decade.” She and her ex-husband, actor David Lansbury, have a daughter.
Sheedy’s St. Elmo’s Fire costar Rob Lowe followed up his great comedic turn in Wayne’s World with a role in 1999’s Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, playing a younger version of Robert Wagner’s character. He also appeared in the follow-up film, Goldmember. Lowe joined the cast of The West Wing in the early 2000s, acting opposite Martin Sheen, the father of his boyhood buddy Emilio Estevez. In the mid-2000s, Lowe played the title character in the CBS TV series Dr. Vegas. He appeared recently in the Ricky Gervais/Jennifer Garner comedy The Invention of Lying, and he is currently starring with Sally Field on the ABC drama Brothers & Sisters. Rob Lowe is married to makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff, with whom he has two sons.
Lowe’s longtime pal Estevez came closest to fulfilling his youthful promise as a filmmaker in 2006, writing, directing, and acting in the ambitious ensemble piece Bobby, a fictionalized account of the guests of the Ambassador Hotel on the day leading up to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Among the cast were Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Laurence Fishburne, Sharon Stone, and William H. Macy, all working for scale—a testament to their respect for their director. But most interestingly, former fiancé Demi Moore played Estevez’s wife. The film was a deeply personal one for Estevez, who’s been passionate about politics his whole life, and he burst into tears when the movie received a seven-minute standing ovation at its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival. During publicity for the film, Harvey Weinstein, the movie’s distributor, told Estevez that his next film after Bobby should not be a “frivolous” one. Indeed, in 2008 Estevez announced that his next writing-directing effort would be a film based on a Los Angeles Times op-ed by a Salt Lake City librarian whose library doubled as a de facto homeless shelter. Estevez is engaged to journalist Sonja Magdevski and has two grown children from a previous relationship. He has also become a vintner, growing and bottling Pinot Grigio in a small vineyard at his Malibu home.
Estevez’s ex-fiancé Demi Moore famously split from Bruce Willis and married the actor and Twitter aficionado Ashton Kutcher in 2005. After G.I. Jane, Moore had taken a bit of a break from acting, but coproduced the Austin Powers films. The forty-one-year-old Moore made a buzzworthy bikini-clad comeback in 2003’s Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, and has worked steadily ever since, in films such as Mr. Brooks, opposite Kevin Costner. Her most recent film, The Joneses, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. She has three daughters from her marriage to Bruce Willis (with whom she is still close), one of whom is the actress Rumer Willis.
Some of Andrew McCarthy’s most memorable post–Brat Pack roles include turns in The Joy Luck Club (1993), Mulholland Falls (1996), and the TV series Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital (2004). But in 2008, McCarthy gained much attention as one of the leads on the NBC series Lipstick Jungle, based on the book by Sex and the City writer Candace Bushnell. He also directed some episodes of the series. He was to star in a Gossip Girl spin-off, tantalizingly set in the 1980s, but The CW decided not to go ahead with the series. He costars with Orlando Bloom, Colin Firth, and Patricia Clarkson in the upcoming film Main Street, based on the final play by Horton Foote. Aside from acting, McCarthy is a contributing editor for National Geographic Traveler magazine. He has a son from a previous marriage to actress Carol Schneider, and a daughter with his current partner, Dolores Rice.
His St. Elmo’s castmate Andie MacDowell went on to star in such romantic comedies as Green Card, Groundhog Day, and Four Weddings and a Funeral. She acts regularly in film and television and is one of the faces of L’Oreal. MacDowell has found that living in North Carolina, far from Los Angeles, has been deeply beneficial to her. In L.A., people kept asking her what projects she was working on. In North Carolina, she says, they ask what her three kids are doing.
Mare Winningham has acted steadily in TV and film in the years since St. Elmo’s Fire, including a turn as Ellen Pompeo’s stepmother on Grey’s Anatomy and a part in the recent Jim Sheridan drama Brothers. In 1996, she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the film Georgia. Winningham and her ex-husband, television technical advisor William Mapel, have four children.
No member of this group of young actors disappeared as absolutely as Sixteen Candles heartthrob Michael Schoeffling (aka Jake Ryan). Schoeffling worked steadily throughout the 1980s, and played Winona Ryder’s boyfriend in the Cher vehicle Mermaids. But after being the male lead in a Disney horse-diving movie costarring Gabrielle Anwar (1991’s Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken), he left Hollywood in favor of a simpler life with his wife, former model Valerie Robinson, the girlfriend he was phoning at night from his hotel room during the Sixteen Candles shoot. They have two grown children. Says Haviland Morris, who played his girlfriend, Caroline, in Sixteen Candles, “I think that he, of all of us, has been the most reticent to speak about any of this. He was the nicest, most soft-spoken guy. He always enjoyed acting, but hated the Hollywood thing.”
Not unlike Schoeffling, Ferris Bueller star Mia Sara is also removed from the spotlight, and has happily entered a sort of semiretirement. She still acts occasionally and is not reclusive, but, she says, “frankly, I don’t really have the resilience for this business.” Looking back on it all, she says, “I wish that I ha
d been smarter, and I wish that I had better advice. I wish that I had been doing it for the love of acting. But I really wasn’t. I really just needed a ticket and a room. I miss the camaraderie of working on film sets more often in my semiretired state, but I really miss hotel rooms, even really bad ones. They are so fun,” she says, grinning. Sara has a daughter with her husband, Brian Henson (co-CEO of Jim Henson Productions, founded by his dad), and a son from her former marriage to actor Jason Connery (son of Sean). “The other day,” Sara reveals, laughing, “my son said, ‘Mom, do you ever think it’s sad that your career has met such an early demise?’ I said, ‘Uh, thanks babe.’ He doesn’t understand why I’m not working, and it’s like, ‘Well, actually it’s so I can spend more time with you, as well as some other things.’”
Her Ferris Bueller costar Alan Ruck is a popular character actor. In recent years, he’s been seen in the movies I Love You, Beth Cooper; Ghost Town; and The Happening. On television, he’s had guest starring roles on shows including Boston Legal, Ghost Whisperer, Psych, Greek, and Medium, and on the stage he even took over the role his former costar Matthew Broderick made famous, Leo Bloom, in the musical The Producers. Ruck is married, and has two children from a previous marriage.
In 1999, Matthew Broderick appeared in another noteworthy teen comedy, Election. In Alexander Payne’s brilliant high school satire, Broderick plays a Dean Rooney type of character, trying to stymie the ambitions of a student he does not like. Two years later, Broderick starred on Broadway in The Producers, the most Tony-honored musical of all time. Dividing his time between Broadway and the movies, he appears in largely independent fare such as You Can Count on Me, Margaret, and Diminished Capacity. He also provided the lead voice in the animated children’s movie The Tale of Despereaux. After receiving a Tony Award for Brighton Beach Memoirs, Broderick won another one for his 1995 performance in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He and his wife, Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, have three children.
You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation Page 37
