Director Joel Schumacher “stuck his neck out for me” when casting the movie, said the actress
Demi Moore gets frank about navigating stardom at a young age in a new documentary.
Andrew McCarthy’s BRATS, which had its premiere at the Tribeca Festival, is a reflective documentary about the famous Brat Pack. It features interviews with notable 1980s stars like Moore, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Jon Cryer, Lea Thompson, Timothy Hutton, and more.
McCarthy, 61, reconnects with Moore and many of their co-stars from the 1985 classic St. Elmo’s Fire. It has been over 40 years since the term Brat Pack was coined in a New York magazine story by David Blum.
“I was so fearful of failing, fearful of losing, and so desperate to fit in, belong,” says Moore, now 61, about filming St. Elmo’s Fire. “My need to please was definitely on high alert.”
To support her, a round-the-clock “sober companion” was arranged: “They paid to have a sober companion with me 24/7, during the whole shooting,” she reveals.
McCarthy responds to her disclosure with surprise. “Did they? I didn’t even notice,” he says.
Director Joel Schumacher, continues Moore, “stuck his neck out for me” when casting the movie, co-written with Carl Kurlander. The film was about a group of college friends hanging out at a Washington, D.C. bar. “They could have easily just found someone else,” she says.
“Because it’s not like I had any box-office draw. You know, we were all just beginning. I didn’t have anything to really warrant him sticking by me.”
Moore has openly discussed her struggles with drug and alcohol abuse. She addressed her struggles both during her breakthrough in Hollywood and later in life, including her marriage to Ashton Kutcher, in her 2019 memoir, Inside Out. That same year, she told The New York Times that she had maintained years of sobriety.
In her BRATS interview with McCarthy, Moore recalls “going to treatment” at a rehab facility where the staff objected to her starting work on St. Elmo’s Fire. “They said, ‘What’s more important to you, the movie or your life?’ And I said, ‘The movie! What are you talking about?’”
At the time, she adds, “I didn’t have any value for myself.”
Moore and McCarthy also discuss their feelings about the term Brat Pack being commonly used in the media. “I just felt like it didn’t represent us and I felt like it was a really limited perspective,” says the Ghost star.
“The fact that that term came out and it tried to diminish us was also an opportunity to rise above, to say, ‘No, I am much more than that.’”
Following its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, BRATS will be available for streaming on Hulu starting June 13.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
