The actor recalled being &34;thrust into the center of things&34; following the success of &34;St. Elmo's Fire&34; and &34;Pretty in Pink&34; Andrew McCarthy says he was 'a very unprepared public figure' during '80s fame The actor recalled being &34;thrust into the center of things&34; following the success of &34;St. Elmo's Fire&34; and &34;Pretty in Pink&34; By Raechal Shewfelt :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RaechalShewfeltauthorphotoc49d3a3b6aa442f588f2bbc0de804e09.jpg) Raechal Shewfelt Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at . She has been working at EW since 2024.

The actor recalled being "thrust into the center of things" following the success of "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Pretty in Pink"

Andrew McCarthy says he was 'a very unprepared public figure' during '80s fame

The actor recalled being "thrust into the center of things" following the success of "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Pretty in Pink"

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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March 26, 2026 10:04 a.m. ET

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Andrew McCarthy and Molly Ringwald in 'Pretty in Pink'. Credit:

Andrew McCarthy became a heartthrob in the '80s, thanks to his turns as *Pretty in Pink *crush object Blane and lovelorn *St. Elmo's Fire* writer Kevin.

Now 63, he recalls in his new book, *Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America*, that the level of fame that came with such high-profile projects was a surprise — and not necessarily a happy one.

"I was a shy kid with a small circle, yet never wanted for friends," he writes. "In my early twenties I became successful in the movies. 'Overnight,' my position in the world was forever altered. I was a very unprepared public figure. Someone who was content to slip along the edges, desiring to be special yet not craving overt attention, I was thrust into the center of things."

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This new position in the world was uncomfortable, to say the least.

"People came at me. I wrapped myself tighter around the friends I had before this burst of notoriety," McCarthy writes. "That I began to drink too much spoke to my innate alcoholism and not to my newfound fortune. I retreated, then withdrew. By the time this brush with fame had subsided and my drinking had been arrested, I was nearly thirty, and a more solitary version of who I was began to emerge."

Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez almost starred in another movie together after 'St. Elmo's Fire'

Jon Cryer reconciled 'Pretty in Pink' feud with Andrew McCarthy at 'The View'

McCarthy later realized that he was okay alone, which ended up being a good thing. As is the case for most people, friends were harder to come by as he grew older.

"I discovered I liked my own company and often sought out time alone," McCarthy recalls in his book. "When eventually I married, I saw that almost all my friendships with women had been based around flirtation and the possibility of our going to bed. That obviously had to change. And with men, I looked up to realize that my several close and longtime friends had moved away. Far away. On the rare occasion I did form a new connection, the motivation to nurture it was often lacking."

Andrew McCarthy in 2025.

John Nacion/Variety via Getty

With his paparazzi-filled days of teen idol-dom well behind him, McCarthy has gone on act in projects such as TV series *The Resident*, *Lipstick Jungle*, and *Good Girls*. But he's also written for publications including *National Geographic Traveler*, *Time*, and *The New York Times*.

He's also written several books, including 2021's *Brat: An '80s Story*, in which he discussed his time in the scorching hot spotlight as part of the decade's so-called "Brat Pack" of up-and-coming movie stars. Three years later, he followed the memoir up by writing and directing *Brats*, a documentary examining how that period of stardom affected McCarthy and fellow Brat Packers like Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, and Emilio Estevez.

In one poignant moment in *Brats*, McCarthy asked Estevez, his *St. Elmo's Fire* costar, if he would erase the Brat Pack label if he could. (The term was coined by *New York *magazine writer David Blum in a profile of Estevez.)

"I think that's a difficult question to answer because you can only know the known," Estevez answered. "Was it something we benefited from? Maybe. But in the long run, I think we did not. I think there was more damage done by it than good."

McCarthy said he "perceived it to be very harmful. Marty Scorsese, Steven Spielberg's not going to call up somebody who's in the Brat Pack."

*Who Needs Friends* is available in bookstores everywhere.

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Published: March 26, 2026 at 04:38PM on Source: MANUEL MAG

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