{"id":357302,"date":"2026-03-31T19:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357302\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T19:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:27:08","slug":"andrew-mccarthy-on-40-years-of-pretty-in-pink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357302\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew McCarthy on 40 Years of Pretty in Pink"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHere is something Andrew McCarthy did not do before he agreed to star in Pretty in Pink<\/a>: read the script.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI needed a job and I needed the $50,000 they were going to pay me,\u201d the actor, 63, tells host Seth Abramovitch on this week\u2019s episode of It Happened in Hollywood<\/a>.<\/a> \u201cSo I read the script on the way out, on the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat he found next alarmed him. In John Hughes\u2019 original screenplay, his character Blane \u2014 the dreamy rich kid who wins working-class Andie Walsh\u2019s heart \u2014 didn\u2019t actually deserve her. By the end, he buckles under peer pressure and dumps her entirely. McCarthy landed at LAX and went straight for the phone.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI called my agent and said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to get me out of this movie. This guy\u2019s a jerk.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is one of several eye-opening revelations in a conversation that doubles as a love letter to a film that still makes teens and aging Gen X-ers cry. The occasion is the film\u2019s 40th anniversary, and McCarthy, now deeply affectionate toward a movie he once dismissed as \u201ca silly, tepid story about a girl who wants to go to a dance and makes a dress,\u201d is in a generous and funny mood.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe part was written for a \u201cbroad-shouldered, square-jawed, quarterback hunk type,\u201d he explains \u2014which he decidedly was not at 22. But when he auditioned, a certain someone in the room disagreed with the conventional wisdom.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMolly apparently turned to John and Howie and said, \u2018That\u2019s the guy.’\u201d Hughes, characteristically blunt, shot back: \u201cThat wimp?\u201d Ringwald held firm. McCarthy got the part. The rest is Brat Pack mythology.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen there is the matter of the ending \u2014 the one you know, with the OMD song swelling as Blane finally tells Andie he believes in her. It wasn\u2019t always that ending. The original version screened for test audiences in an Orange County mall, and the room turned ugly the moment Blane bailed on Andie.<\/p>\n

\n\tHughes spent weeks stewing before calling director Howie Deutsch with the solution. They had one day to reshoot. One problem: McCarthy was in New York doing a play, and had shaved his head to play a Marine.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf they knew we\u2019d still be talking about this movie 40 years later,\u201d he says, laughing, \u201cthey would have paid for a better wig.\u201d The bird\u2019s nest of a hairpiece he wore for the now-iconic prom climax is, he insists, so bad it almost works in the scene\u2019s favor. \u201cIt just made me look so sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the new episode, McCarthy and Abramovich also dig into how Hughes built the film\u2019s legendary soundtrack, wandering onto set each morning with a boombox and a stack of cassettes, playing songs for the cast while they waited for camera setups. <\/p>\n

\n\tThey talk about how the VHS revolution transformed these films into generational totems, how Ringwald\u2019s quiet steel defined the film\u2019s moral center, and what it means for a movie to become, as McCarthy puts it, \u201can obligatory rite of passage\u201d \u2014 the Catcher in the Rye of its era.<\/p>\n

\n\tFour decades on, Pretty in Pink still hits somewhere between the knees and the chest. So does this conversation. Some highlights:<\/p>\n

\n\tLet\u2019s start at the beginning. How did you even get this part?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe part was written for a broad-shouldered, square-jawed, prom-king type. I was decidedly not that at 22. I was this frail, overly sensitive kind of guy. But I had just done St. Elmo\u2019s Fire and there was a little buzz about that movie. So they said, \u201cHe\u2019s not right for this at all, but he can audition if he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI went in, John was sitting in the back slumped on the floor looking vaguely disinterested, and I read my one scene. They said thank you. I left thinking it was a waste of my afternoon. And then Molly apparently turned to John and Howie Deutsch and said, \u201cThat\u2019s the guy.\u201d And John \u2014 to his credit, this is very John Hughes \u2014 said: \u201cThat wimp?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMolly said: \u201cNo, he\u2019s not some boring jock. He\u2019s sensitive and soulful and poetic. He\u2019s the guy.\u201d And John, to his enormous credit, actually listened. He didn\u2019t just give young people lip service. He put his money where his mouth was. From the moment he hired me, he was fully behind me. But it was entirely Molly who got me that job.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou also hadn\u2019t read the script yet.<\/p>\n

\n\tI read it on the plane to Los Angeles. I needed a job, and I needed the $50, 000 they were going to pay me. So I read it on the way out, and at the end of the original movie, my character Blane dumps Molly. Just ditches her completely because of peer pressure from his rich friends. I landed and called my agent and said: \u201cYou have to get me out of this movie. This guy\u2019s a jerk.\u201d They said, \u201cHoney, you read the movie?\u201d And I said, \u201cI just read it. \u201c<\/p>\n

\n\tSo what happened to that ending?<\/p>\n

\n\tThey shot it. They did a test screening in a mall somewhere in Orange County \u2014 300 people, no idea what they\u2019re watching. And apparently they were loving it, loving it, until I dump her and she goes to prom with Duckie. And then they turned on the movie viciously. Just hated it. Hughes spent weeks stewing. Didn\u2019t know what to do. Then he called Howie and said: \u201cI\u2019ve got it.\u201d I was in New York doing a play. John Cryer was doing a film. We had one day between us to reshoot. So they flew us back to Los Angeles. Small problem: I was playing a Marine in the play. My head was shaved.<\/p>\n

\n\tHence the wig.<\/p>\n

\n\tHence the wig. And I have always said: if they knew we\u2019d still be talking about this movie 40 years later, they would have paid for a better wig. It\u2019s just this bird\u2019s nest sitting on top of my head in the prom scene. It looks terrible. It kind of looks like my hair does now, actually. But here\u2019s the thing \u2014 and I mean this \u2014 the wig kind of saved the day. It just made me look so sad. So pathetic. When I walk up to Molly and say \u201cI believe in you, I didn\u2019t believe in me,\u201d I\u2019m wearing this tragic hairpiece and it just lands. So the wig gets its credit.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe parking lot kiss at the end \u2014 was that the first time you and Molly had kissed?<\/p>\n

\n\tI think we may have had a kiss earlier in the film \u2026 we might not have. But I\u2019ll tell you this: that shot was done on a soundstage, in the middle of the day. They pulled a car over to one end, put up some plastic plants, pulled the camera way back on a long lens, and just shot it. So all that magic, that moonlit parking lot romance, was a soundstage at noon. Still works though.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow was Molly to work with?<\/p>\n

\n\tShe was the most equal among equals. I had enormous respect for her as an actor and as a professional. I was the new guy, really. She and John had already made a few movies together, she had this whole established thing with him. And I was sort of the interloper.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, Molly has said this publicly so I\u2019m not talking out of school, but she had a bit of a crush on me at the time, which I didn\u2019t reciprocate. Not because I didn\u2019t like Molly \u2014 I did \u2014 but because I was so scared and insecure that I kept pulling back. My fear manifested as aloofness. She thought I was dismissing her when really I was just trying to get through my days because I was the new kid here and I didn\u2019t want anyone to see I was insecure.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut here\u2019s what\u2019s interesting: that friction offstage \u2014 her feeling a little rebuffed, me being a little guarded \u2014 it actually fueled the onscreen tension in ways that were completely accidental and completely right for the movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou also cut a lot of your own dialogue from your scenes.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was really into Montgomery Clift at the time. Studied him obsessively. He would cut his own dialogue whenever he could \u2014 just look, react, let the face do it. So in that early scene where I first walk into the record store and Molly looks up, that scene originally had lines. And I just said, can we cut them? Can we just cut everything? And Molly said, \u201cYeah, actually, good idea.\u201d And John said, \u201cYeah, sure.\u201d So we just took all the dialogue out. And it became this moment of two sensitive young people being sensitive in each other\u2019s vicinity. Which is, I think, more powerful than anything we could have said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a scene where you essentially go on the first internet date.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe library scene. Yes. And at the time we were shooting it, I remember thinking: \u201cThis is insane. This is like science fiction. People are not going to be dating on computers. This would never happen.\u201d Which is just absolutely incredible in retrospect.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was John Hughes like on set?<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was not directing the film, Howie Deutch was, so he didn\u2019t have all the clock pressure that a director has. He was just there, sauntering around in this sort of loose, slouchy way. Very chill.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe would show up in the morning with a boombox and a stack of cassettes. Just sit down with us while the crew was setting up and play songs. Go: \u201cWhat do you think of this one?\u201d And we\u2019d listen and say, \u201cYeah, yeah, that\u2019s good. Or \u201cNot sure about that one.\u201d And that\u2019s what became the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. People just sitting around a boombox going yeah or no.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne day he sauntered over while I was on set and tossed a script at me. Said, \u201cTake a look at this.\u201d I read it overnight and came back the next day and said, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s really good.\u201d And he goes, \u201cReally?\u201d It was called Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off. So full disclosure: I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever actually seen Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off. My resentment [at not being cast as Ferris] was so strong that I just never went.<\/p>\n

\n\tLet\u2019s talk about the Brat Pack. The documentary you made, Brats, was really fascinating as a piece of media criticism. How much did that label actually damage your career?<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have to put yourself in the time. There was one movie everyone went to Friday night. The culture was looking in the same direction. And this article comes out in New York magazine \u2014 a piece about young Hollywood actors who are just a bunch of partiers who want to be famous and don\u2019t respect the work. And it catches on overnight because the phrase is just perfect, linguistically. Brat Pack. Two words, instant meaning.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m barely in the article. Someone\u2019s quoted saying \u201cAndrew McCarthy? He\u2019ll never make it.\u201d That\u2019s my only mention. Molly wasn\u2019t in it either. The original \u201cBrat Pack\u201d was Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, Tim Hutton. We weren\u2019t even the Brat Pack. But the thing metastasized. And suddenly, inside the industry, if you\u2019d walked into an executive\u2019s office on Monday before the article, it was \u201cAndrew! Sit down! What can I get you? What do you want to make?\u201d And by the following Monday it was, \u201cSorry to keep you waiting \u2026 have a seat \u2026 What do you got?\u201d An overnight shift. Completely real.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the audience didn\u2019t feel that way.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe audience didn\u2019t care at all. They embraced the term immediately and with total warmth. Because to them it just meant: those are our people. Those are the ones who understood what it felt like to be young and confused and in love and terrified. The label just gave them a word for something they already loved. I didn\u2019t understand that for a long time. For years I pushed all of it away. And now \u2014 and I mean this \u2014 it is nothing but love. When someone comes up to me about these films, they\u2019re not really talking to me. They\u2019re talking to their own youth, and I am the avatar of that. And I have come to understand that as the greatest professional gift of my life.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the Brat Pack thing hadn\u2019t happened, I\u2019d just be some actor who made a bunch of random \u201980s movies. Instead I\u2019m part of this iconic movement. Which is a beautiful thing to be part of. It just took me about 30 years to see it that way.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tIt Happened in Hollywood<\/a> is available now wherever you listen to podcasts. McCarthy\u2019s new book, Who Needs Friends<\/a>, is a \u201cdeep exploration of the challenges and rewards that men experience in forming bonds with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here is something Andrew McCarthy did not do before he agreed to star in Pretty in Pink: read…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,188759,111,139,69,3800,160625],"class_list":{"0":"post-357302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-it-happened-in-hollywood","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcast","15":"tag-thrs-original-podcasts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}