Andrew McCarthy has a new memoir out called Brat: An ’80s Story. In the autobiography, he talks about his time in the ’80s when he was a member of the Brat Pack. Therefore, there are a lot of backstories about the films he made, like Class, St. Elmo’s Fire, Weekend at Bernie’s, and Pretty In Pink. It was the last movie that made us fall in love with him.
Today, when he was on The Talk, he talked about how that almost didn’t happen. When he auditioned for the role, John Hughes was looking for an athletic type to play Blane. Therefore, he was unimpressed by the actor.
While the legendary voice of teens was not interested, Molly Ringwald was. She told Hughes, “That’s the guy,” because “he is dreamy, he is poetic.”
Thankfully for all of us, Hughes listened to his red-headed muse. She was right. It was his preppiness that won us over. I don’t think a football player would have had the same effect. I mean, what teenage girl didn’t fall in love with McCarthy, James Spader, and Jon Cryer after watching this coming of age film?
On the latter person, I do wish Hughes didn’t listen to Ringwald when she told him that Andy should wind up Blane over Duckie because of his lip size. As much as I liked Blane, I was rooting for the nerd to get his girl. However, if I was Andy, I would have gone for all three men because there was no way I could have picked just one.
Anyways back to McCarthy, pick up his book now to learn more stories like this one. I can’t wait to read what he says about Mannequin. That movie still holds up. Actually, all of his films from the era do. I don’t care what his kids say about them.
