Rob Lowe is embracing the famous Brat Pack label after previously slamming the nickname, saying it was “designed to belittle us.”
David Blum of New York Magazine first coined the term Brat Pack in 1985, when he compared a group of then rising stars in their 20s, including Lowe, to the famous Rat Pack. Though the cohort disliked the label, it became popular with fans, and its members are still known by the nickname almost four decades later.
During an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Tuesday, Lowe, now 60, explained that he now views the label in a more favorable light.
“All of us should feel lucky to have been given a name for what we contributed as actors and that fans still care 40 years later,” Lowe said.
The Brat Pack, who came of age in the 1980s with movies like “St. Elmo’s Fire,” “The Breakfast Club,” “About Last Night…,” “Sixteen Candles” and “Pretty in Pink,” defined a generation’s teen angst and became a pop culture touchstone.
Along with Lowe, the Brat Pack members include Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Demi Moore, Andrew McCarthy, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and Jon Cryer, among others. However, which actors fit into the group has not always been clear.
In Blum’s New York Magazine article, titled “Hollywood’s Brat Pack,” the journalist designated Lowe, Estevez and Nelson as members of the Brat Pack, though he named other young stars including Tom Cruise, Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage as potential members.
“This is the Hollywood ‘Brat Pack,’” Blum wrote. “It is to the 1980s what the Rat Pack was to the 1960s—a roving band of famous young stars on the prowl for parties, women, and a good time.”
During an August interview with People magazine, Lowe expressed his disdain for Blum’s story and the label.
“The article was horrible,” he said. “It was a hit piece, there’s no doubt about it. It was designed to belittle us, make us look small, with that journalistic trick of plausible deniability.”
In a 1987 Los Angeles Times article, Blum defended himself against the backlash that he received from the actors he deemed the Brat Pack in his New York Magazine story.
Blum wrote that the article originated as a profile on Estevez during the filming of “St. Elmo’s Fire.” He revealed that he came up with the Brat Pack moniker after spending a night out with Estevez, Lowe and Nelson.
“I wouldn’t call it an inspiration exactly. I did think it was pretty clever,” Blum wrote. “It also seemed like an excellent way to describe the actors I’d gotten to know ever so slightly through my reporting.”
He continued, “They had acted like — well, I might as well say it — brats, which is not to say that I would not have acted precisely the same way if I were 23 years old, famous and rich. I might have. I might have been worse. But these guys definitely fit the bill.”
Lowe told People magazine that experiencing the aftereffects of Blum’s article “was no fun.” However, he noted that the author’s portrayal of him in the story was not as negative as those of the other actors.
“I actually came out okay in it,” he said. “It was the one night I went home early. What a rarity. So somebody was looking out for me.”
In the New York Magazine story, Blum pointed to the murkiness surrounding which actors were considered part of the Brat Pack.
“Everyone in Hollywood differs over who belongs to the Brat Pack,” he wrote. “That is because they are basing their decision on such trivial matters as whose movie is the biggest hit, whose star is rising and whose is falling, whose face is on the cover of Rolling Stone and whose isn’t. And occasionally, some poor, misguided fool bases his judgment on whose talent is the greatest.”
Blum went on to claim that, unlike the Rat Pack’s Marlon Brando, James Dean, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, none of the Brat Pack members had accumulated years of acting study. He also noted that the Brat Pack actors were not college graduates.
In the WSJ article, Lowe recalled how he fell in love with acting at a young age after watching the musical “Oliver!”
When Lowe was 12, his family moved to Malibu, California, where he began filming movies using a Super 8 camera with Sean Penn’s late brother Chris Penn and other kids, some of whom would later rise to stardom.
“The group that was into acting included Chris’s brother Sean Penn and Charlie Sheen and his brother, Emilio Estevez. I eventually got to know them, and I made my own movies with Charlie,” “The Floor” host recalled.
He continued, “In classes at Santa Monica High School, I always sat in the front row and raised my hand with the answer. I was that guy. But I wasn’t in school plays. By then, I had an agent and was going on auditions.”
Lowe explained that his early career success led him to postpone college and reflected on how he learned his craft.
“At 15, I had already co-starred in my first network TV sitcom—ABC’s ‘A New Kind of Family.’ By my senior year, I was cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Outsiders.’ I had to choose between going to film school at UCLA or USC or making the movie,” Lowe remembered.
“I figured film school could wait,” he added. “Then came two movies a year and I never went to college. I learned to act by watching more experienced actors on sets and by doing the job. Later, I began working with an acting coach.”
During his interview with People magazine, Lowe said that being known as members of the Brat Pack “probably didn’t help our credibility … in the industry.”
While appearing on “Good Morning America” in June, McCarthy, who directed the Hulu documentary “Brats,” said that all the actors in the group “hated” the Brat Pack nickname at the time.
“Who wants to be called a brat when you’re a kid? Particularly when you’re a kid and you think you are a brat, so you don’t want to be called it, and you don’t want to be a member of a pack and all that, and we felt it affected our lives, you know?” he said.
During an interview with People magazine that same month, McCarthy said that while the nickname was popular with fans, it detrimentally affected the industry’s perception of the actors.
“It had professional ramifications,” the “St. Elmo’s Fire” star explained. “The public embraced us, but the business reacted to it in a negative way.”
In his New York Magazine article, Blum claimed that the Brat Pack members made disparaging comments about each other.
He wrote, “For actors so imbued with the ensemble spirit, the Brat Pack members are out for themselves. ‘Sean is crazy with all of his role preparations, becoming the character in every way,’ one says. And of Andrew McCarthy, one of the New York–based actors in ‘St. Elmo’s Fire,’ a co-star says, ‘He plays all his roles with too much of the same intensity. I don’t think he’ll make it.’”
“The Brat Packers save their praise for themselves,” Blum added.
In Susannah Gora’s 2011 book, “You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation,” Blum said that Lowe, Estevez and Nelson felt betrayed by his portrayal of them and the article led them to part ways with each other.
Sheedy told Gora that Blum’s article “just destroyed” the friendships within the group.
“I had felt truly a part of something, and that guy just blew it to pieces,” she said.
McCarthy’s documentary “Brats,” which was released in June, explored the impact that the Brat Pack label had on the actors’ lives and careers.
While most of the actors appeared in the documentary, Nelson, Ringwald and Hall decided not to participate in the film. However, Blum agreed to take part and was interviewed by McCarthy.
In a June article for Vulture, titled “I Called Them Brats, and I Stand by It,” Blum wrote “McCarthy’s cleverly edited film, even while purporting to portray the Brat Pack as put-upon by the phrase, manages to smooth over the fact that no real animus exists anymore between the Brat Pack actors and me.”
He continued, “At the end of our interview, McCarthy and I even hugged it out, sitcom style. At the Brats premiere, Demi Moore introduced herself to me, and clasped my hands in hers as though greeting an old friend.”
In his August interview with People, Lowe pointed out that though the Brat Pack nickname was negatively perceived in Hollywood, fans embraced the moniker.
“The public — at the end of the day, that’s all that matters — never got that memo. They’re like, ‘That sounds cool,’” the “Austin Powers” star noted.
“I think I realized that probably quicker than the rest of the [group of actors], that it was a good thing,” he said of coming to terms with the moniker.
Lowe also praised the “Brats” documentary, noting, “The Brat Pack is having a moment.”
“Andrew McCarthy’s documentary has a lot to do with it, and it couldn’t make me happier,” he continued.
“It was a seminal point for me becoming comfortable in the space I occupied as an actor, for lack of a better term, and the beginning of a real rocket-ship ride.”
