Andrew McCarthy

Episode notes

(Photo by Ben Gabbe/Getty Images)

The Brat Pack, as you might know, is a term for a group of eight or so actors who starred in about a dozen movies in the 1980s. There’s Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, a bunch of others — and Andrew McCarthy.

Among other roles, McCarthy starred in St. Elmo’s Fire and played Molly Ringwald’s love interest in Pretty in Pink.

Beyond the Brat Pack movies, McCarthy also performed in Mannequin, The Joy Luck Club and another 80’s classic, Weekend at Bernie’s. In the last couple decades, he’s been working more behind the camera: He’s directed episodes of Orange is the New Black, the Blacklist and Good Girls.

McCarthy always kind of pushed back on the label of being a Brat Pack actor. He wasn’t really into the whole “nostalgia” thing.

But eventually, something changed in McCarthy. In fact, he wrote a whole book about it: Brat: An 80s Story is a memoir that looks back on an era that changed his life forever. It talks about the strange position he and the other members found themselves in back then: barely old enough to drink on one hand, and being labeled the voice of a generation on the other.

Andrew stopped by the show for an interview with guest host Julie Klausner, the writer and actor. He talks about coming to terms with the Brat Pack label, what his kids think of Weekend at Bernie’s — and how he feels about being labeled a dreamboat.