Nearly 40 years after starring in John Hughes’ iconic 1986 movie Fairly in Pink, Andrew McCarthy says his “miscasting” was all because of co-star Molly Ringwald. Sitting down for an ET rETrospective, the 61-year-old actor recalled how the The Breakfast Membership star, 56, helped him get the function of dreamboat Blane McDonnagh.
In Fairly in Pink, Andie (Molly Ringwald) is an outcast at her Chicago highschool who solely has two mates: her older boss (Annie Potts), who owns the document retailer the place she works, and her quirky classmate Duckie (Jon Cryer), who has a crush on her. When one of many wealthy and common children at college, Blane (McCarthy), asks Andie out, it appears too good to be true.
“That half was written for a square-jawed, massive, hunky, you understand, quarterback and Molly acquired me that half,” McCarthy remembers. “I auditioned and Molly stated, ‘Oh, that is who I might fall for. He is dreamy. He is poetic.’ And so John Hughes went, ‘Actually? That wimp?'”
McCarthy says that regardless of the legendary author’s misgivings, he “listened to Molly” and granted him the function.
“He listened to Molly, which is what John did. John honored, not simply on display however in actual life, John listened and revered younger individuals,” the St. Elmo’s Hearth star shares. “So, I used to be miscast in a method. I made what may [have] been a jerk have some sensitivity, so there was some empathy in direction of him.”
“Which is why on the finish we needed to reshoot the entire ending as a result of, you understand, the film’s a fairytale so you need to give the woman what she needs,” McCarthy provides, referencing how Hughes modified the movie’s authentic ending — which had Andie and Duckie ending up collectively — after take a look at audiences reacted poorly.
Hughes wrote a brand new five-page ending the place Andie and Blane get collectively as an alternative, which was shot a number of months after the movie initially wrapped manufacturing.
“John took younger individuals and their emotional life significantly,” McCarthy says of the late director, producer and screenwriter. ” And that is why individuals [are] nonetheless watching these films.”
McCarthy himself has picked up extra jobs behind the digicam in recent times on exhibits like Orange Is the New Black and The Sinner in addition to his new Hulu documentary function, Brats.
The doc, directed and produced by McCarthy, examines the Nineteen Eighties stars branded the “Brat Pack.” The time period applies to the teenager actors from the ’80s who seemingly ran Hollywood because of their slate of huge movies like The Breakfast Membership, St. Elmo’s Hearth, Fairly in Pink and extra.
Brats contains loads of footage from behind the scenes and interviews throughout the promotion of the long-lasting movies of the Nineteen Eighties that formed a technology.
McCarthy additionally sits down for a first-time dialog with author David Blum, who fatefully coined the time period Brat Pack in a 1985 New York Journal cowl story.
McCarthy jokes with ET that whereas he was excited to start the filmmaking course of on Brats, he feared being spurned by all these he reached out to.
“I used to be stunned as many individuals would need to converse to me [that] did, you understand, as a result of I believed the largest problem could be to get individuals to take part,” he quips. “I knew it was nonetheless so form of dodgy in some individuals’s lives.”
Whereas Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson turned down his invitation to seem within the documentary, McCarthy was capable of get Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy and Rob Lowe to reunite for the challenge. He additionally introduced in “Brat Pack”-adjacent stars like his Fairly In Pink co-star, Jon Cryer, and Again to the Future actress Lea Thompson.
McCarthy says that whereas some who tune in for the documentary may even see the ultimate scene as a tease for a possible sequel, he’s fairly assured one Brats movie is sufficient for the group of actors who spent the vast majority of their foundational years within the highlight.
“We’re preparing for half two,” he jokes, including that for the gang who got here collectively to unpack their trauma, “I feel as soon as was sufficient.”
Watch the trailer for Brats within the participant under:
BRATS premieres June 13 on Hulu.