Andrew McCarthy Met the Man Who Coined the Term ‘Brat Pack.’ What Happened Next Surprised Him (Exclusive)

The 'St. Elmo's Fire' star spent nearly 40 years loathing the term — and by default, the 'New York Magazine' writer who coined it

It's been nearly 40 years since a 1985 New York Magazine cover story about actor Emilio Estevez and some of his acting cohorts that dubbed them "Hollywood's Brat Pack"

It was intended to be a play on words by the writer David Blum, inspired by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.'s Rat Pack of Hollywood's golden age, but it quickly became a catch-all phrase for any up-and-coming young star in the mid '80s — including Andrew McCarthy.

Related: Andrew McCarthy Explains Why He Hated the Term ‘Brat Pack’: ‘I Felt Unseen’ (Exclusive)

"It had professional ramifications," admits actor Andrew McCarthy, 60, who explores the Brat Pack phenomenon in Brats, a new documentary directed by McCarthy and streaming on Hulu starting June 13. "The public embraced us, but the business reacted to it in a negative way."

For a long time, McCarthy blamed Blum, who was 29 at the time, for ruining their careers. "There was a time I wanted to [smack him]," McCarthy says with a laugh.

In the film, he sits down with Blum for the first time since the article came out. He was surprised that Instead of feeling any animosity towards him, he felt a sense of camaraderie. In fact, he says he liked him.

"When I saw him, like I said in the movie, I go, 'I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually have affection for you,'" he says of Blum, who explains in the doc that the headline was meant to be clever, not cruel.

"It was like, 'I hated you for 30 years. Now I'm looking at you kind of going, 'Wow, dude, you're such a part of my life," McCarthy continues. "And I just think that's interesting about life — the way it's all perspective."

He continues, "When I wrote my book [2021's Brat: An '80s Story], it kind of dawned on me that I was looking at the one end of the telescope this whole time, but I turned it around and was looking at the telescope from the other perspective, and the world got very expansive. The Brat Pack had felt very narrowing to me up to that point."

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McCarthy says he now he embraces the term.

Related: Brat Pack Babies, Husbands and Wives: Meet the Families of the A-list '80s Favorites

"Do I wish I'd reacted so strongly to it. ? No. I mean, life happens the way life happens. I'm glad to have come to a place where it feels so warm and fuzzy," he says.

He jokes that when people now ask him about his body of work, which includes quintessential 1980s films for young adults like St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero, it doesn't bother him.

"It just makes me feel really old!" he says laughing. "I've been around so long."

And of course, in hindsight, he had a thriving career, and he jokes that "girls suddenly noticed me for the first time." He adds, "It was all crazy, but also a wondrous time of life."

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