What the Hell Happened to Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore & Judd Nelson?

http://lebeauleblog.com/2014/11/22/what-the-hell-happened-to-emilio-estevez/3/

Estevez followed up The Breakfast Club by appearing in Joel Schumacher’s coming-of-age drama, St. Elmo’s Fire.

The movie focused on a group of friends who have just graduated from college. They relationships are tested as they try to adjust to adulthood. Estevez played a waiter who romances a hospital intern played by Andie MacDowell. Andrew McCartrhy played Estevez’s roommate, a writer with a secret crush on Ally Sheedy’s character. Sheedy and Judd Nelson play a couple of yuppies in an upwardly mobile relationship. Rob Lowe played a former frat boy who is struggling with family life and Demi Moore played the party girl of the group. Mare Winningham played the friend who helps all the others out.

Several studios passed on St. Elmo’s Fire. According to Schumacher, “the head of one major studio called its seven-member cast ‘the most loathsome humans he had ever read on the page.'” Finding seven young stars proved a challenge. Hundreds of actors were interviewed. Sheedy, Estevez and Nelson were recommended to producer Lauren Shuler Donner by John Hughes. Schumacher said he had to fight the studio over the casting of Estevez, Nelson, and McCarthy.

St. Elmo’s Fire received mixed to negative reviews. But it was a box office hit all the same. Although I have never sat through the film all the way through, I can feel St. Elmo’s fire burning in me.

(If you’re a Gen X-er, that song is now stuck in your head. Sorry about that.)

Just before the release of St. Elmo’s Fire, New York Magazine ran an article titled Hollywood’s Brat Pack. The author, David Blum, was planning to write and article about Estevez. Estevez invited the writer to hang out with him, Judd Nelson and Rob Lowe one night at the Hard Rock Cafe. After watching the young actors party, Blum decided to change the focus of his article from Estevez to the entire group of young actors. He coined the term Brat Pack as a derogatory comparison to the Rat Pack of the 60s. As the groups leader, Estevez was the Frank Sinatra of the group.

The tone of the article was sneering. Blum lingered on embarrassing details like Nelson dancing by himself or the lengths Estevez would go to in order to avoid paying for a ticket to see Ladyhawke. He gripes that the young actors have not studied their craft and points out that none of the core members of the Brat Pack graduated from college. The article portrays them all as privileged and oblivious. In short, it sounds like an old person complaining about “kids these days”.

When the article was released, it sent a shockwave through the group. Estevez in particular felt betrayed. He had trusted Blum. But his trust was misplaced. Blum was jealous of the young actors and sought to punish them for their carefree lifestyle. The article and the Brat Pack label attached a stigma to the young Hollywood actors. Previously, they had been viewed as talented performers who would go on to have long careers. But after Blum’s article, they were viewed as a bunch of frat boys.

The impact wasn’t just professional. It also fractured the group’s social dynamic. According to Sheedy, “The article just destroyed it. I had felt truly a part of something, and that guy just blew it to pieces.”

Even Blum came to regret coining the term Brat Pack. In 2010, he admitted that he shouldn’t have written the article.

In 1985, Moore officially joined the Brat Pack with St. Elmo’s Fire.

The movie focused on a group of friends who have just graduated from college. They relationships are tested as they try to adjust to adulthood. Emilio Estevez played a waiter who romances a hospital intern played by Andie MacDowell. Andrew McCartrhy played Estevez’s roommate, a writer with a secret crush on Ally Sheedy’s character. Sheedy and Judd Nelson play a couple of yuppies in an upwardly mobile relationship. Rob Lowe played a former frat boy who is struggling with family life and Demi Moore played the party girl of the group. Mare Winningham played the friend who helps all the others out.

St. Elmo’s Fire had the good fortune to come out just four month’s after John Hughes’ similarly themed high school coming-of-age drama, The Breakfast Club. Although the two films are not linked in any meaningful way, St. Elmo’s Fire was regarded as a kind of follow-up film. It was another ensemble coming-of-age film this time focusing on recent college graduates.

Several studios passed on St. Elmo’s Fire. According to director, Joel Schumacher, “the head of one major studio called its seven-member cast ‘the most loathsome humans he had ever read on the page.'” Finding seven young stars proved a challenge. Hundreds of actors were interviewed. Sheedy, Estevez and Nelson were recommended to producer Lauren Shuler Donner by John Hughes. Schumacher said he had to fight the studio over the casting of Estevez, Nelson, and McCarthy.

At the time of filming, Moore had a drug problem like the character she played in the movie. Schumacher became frustrated with her when she showed up to work high. He made her go into rehab to finish the movie.

While The Breakfast Club received positive reviews, St. Elmo’s Fire received mixed to negative reviews. But riding the wave of the Brat Pack movement, it was a box office hit all the same. Although I have never sat through the film all the way through, I can feel St. Elmo’s fire burning in me.

(If you’re a Gen X-er, that song is now stuck in your head. Sorry about that.)

Before I move on, let’s pause a second and explain the Brat Pack to those who are too young to remember it. Because the truth is, they haven’t had anything quite like it. In the mid-80’s, coming-of-age comedies and dramas were quite popular. These films prominently featured a group of young actors and actresses.

Some members of the Brat Pack are open for debate. But if you appeared in either The Breakfast Club or St Elmo’s Fire, you were either a member of the Brat Pack or you were Mare Winningham.

Nelson followed up The Breakfast Club by appearing in Joel Schumacher’s coming-of-age drama, St. Elmo’s Fire.

The movie focused on a group of friends who have just graduated from college. Their relationships are tested as they try to adjust to adulthood. Estevez played a waiter who romances a hospital intern played by Andie MacDowell. Andrew McCartrhy played Estevez’s roommate, a writer with a secret crush on Ally Sheedy’s character. Sheedy and Nelson play a couple of yuppies in an upwardly mobile relationship. Rob Lowe played a former frat boy who is struggling with family life and Demi Moore played the party girl of the group. Mare Winningham played the friend who helps all the others out.

Several studios passed on St. Elmo’s Fire. According to Schumacher, “the head of one major studio called its seven-member cast ‘the most loathsome humans he had ever read on the page.'” Finding seven young stars proved a challenge. Hundreds of actors were interviewed. Sheedy, Estevez and Nelson were recommended to producer Lauren Shuler Donner by John Hughes. Schumacher said he had to fight the studio over the casting of Estevez, Nelson, and McCarthy.

St. Elmo’s Fire received mixed to negative reviews. But it was a box office hit all the same. Although I have never sat through the film all the way through, I can feel St. Elmo’s fire burning in me.

(If you’re a Gen X-er, that song is now stuck in your head. Sorry about that.)