June 20, 2024 • 10 mins
Bethenny looks back on the Brat Pack and the lesson she took away from Andrew McCarthy's new documentary Brats. The lesson? Let the Ocean Move.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
So I had Andrew McCarthy on this podcast. I loved
interviewing him. It was so iconic because for those of
you who are a certain age, the brat Pack was
so iconic. And it's funny because there's a new documentary
with Andrew McCarthy producing it and starring in it, and
it's called Brats, and he's going back and you know,
(00:35):
visiting cast not castmates, some castmates, but brat mates from
that era. And this New York Magazine article was extremely
damaging for all of them. And what happened was Rob Low,
Demi Moore, Amelio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Ali Sheety, and then
(00:58):
they were like extreme one, oh Judd Nelson, but there
were like extraneous ones, like you almost say that Matt
Dillon was adjacent. See Thomas Howell was brat adjacent. There
were just all these people that were in those movies
at that time. Anthony Michael Hall is probably a Jason
o'molly Ringwalld was in the brat pack. But it was
this whole generation of good looking, spirited actors, many manufactured
(01:24):
by John Hughes in some movies. But it was stane,
almost fire, and it was pretty in pink, and it
was a whole era and it was just now that
I watched this documentary a time I was that age,
so I didn't know that this was different than anything before.
But at that age, there were so many teen movies,
and I remember, as a little kid, this is true,
(01:46):
crying because I wanted to live in California so badly,
like I just And it's funny because my daughter, at
one point when she was younger, really wanted to live
in Florida because we went out to dinner with my
friend and her daughter, and her daughter like goes out
in boats with her friends and as this whole life and.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
She's having a nice time living in Florida.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
But my daughter is in her mind glamorizing it and
thinks like that this girl's having this whole crazy life
that she's not living. And when I was that age,
I was glamorizing California and like I was just going
to get to Beverly Hills, where my father actually lived
in California, and I did go visit, and then I.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Was just going to see all these people, which didn't
really happen.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And years later where I did end up moving out
to La I did go to the clubs that I
would see Tory Spelling, and I did see John Brownison
one time at Sue Plantation, and I did see you
know the girls from nine O two an hour I
was obsessed with and I was irrelevant to them.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
They didn't pay any attention to me. But you'd see
actors out.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I once saw Jared Leto at a cafe, kings Row Cafe,
and like, I was enamored by all that. It's interesting
now to be a person who is a public person
and realize that your life is still You're still a person,
and you're still sad, and like fame is just really
a gloss over. It's what other people perceive it to be.
(02:57):
It's not different for you necessarily. Our life is different,
but you still have blood running through your veins, and
you know sadness and depression and you can get sick
and all that stuff. So this group had an article
written about them as the it kids who are in
all these different movies, and the title was what grabbed
everybody in and it was New York magazine and it
(03:17):
was the Brat Pack And apparently it was supposed to
be an article that was written just about Emilio Estevez,
and it turned into a bigger thing, as articles often do,
and you learned the very valuable lesson that I have
also learned that the media is not your friend. The
media is the ocean. You want to have a good
relationship with it. You want to be able to ride
the waves when they come in. You want to be
able to respect the ocean, not think you can battle
(03:40):
the ocean, not think you can control the ocean.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It works for you.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Sometimes it's a beautiful thing. Sometimes I am grateful for
the media. But you don't fuck around with the ocean,
and you don't fucker out the media. You don't try
to manipulate them and think they're your friend and get
too cozy.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And it was a clever name.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
But the funny thing is that they all scattered and
scurried from each other, because that was before all press
is good press twenty twenty four. Being infamous as being famous,
being on reality TV and being a disaster makes you
successful and everything goes these days. Disruptive wins now. But
I guess people didn't realize disruptive one then. And I
(04:18):
guess scared money never wins, because it seems like if
they had just stuck together and been like, Okay, this
is what we are.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
We're leading into it. It's going to work out. Instead,
they all wanted.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
To be these thespians, you know, these Scorsesey thespians, and.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
They did say that, like people did.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Back out of certain rules with them. But like the media,
the entertainment industry is also the ocean you got to
sort of ride, and they should have danced with the
one who brung you because they were lucky to be
in that space. And reality TV is very much like that.
So many actresses that failed as actresses would have succeeded
as reality stars. And they're dancing with the one who
brung them. They're making money, they're successful. It didn't go
(04:53):
the way they wanted it to go. But these were
young kids that were.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Out partying and were in movies. They were young.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
There's an evan flow of things, and they were young actors.
And I'm sure not every single one of them is
Leonardo DiCaprio.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Maybe one is, or would have been.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Brablo found his way out, and Roblo found his way
out of a scandal and addiction in a terrible time
in his life. So I think Andrew McCarthy had a
similar situation. So I'm not belittling their circumstance by any means.
I'm just saying they now are coming back and revisiting
something that was very traumatic for them. But for me,
as a viewer of the movies and of the genre,
(05:30):
I didn't know that that was very inside baseball. I
thought brat pack was a cool thing to be part of.
Who cares your brats?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Whatever?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And it's like NEPO baby. Last week I did a video.
Bring came into my room and said to me, Mom,
what's a NEPO baby? I said, get a frickin' mirror. Why.
It was the first thing that came to my mind.
Is my daughter act like a NEPO baby? Is she entitled?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
No?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Literally, she has to work for everything she gets and
there's a process and nothing on a silver platter.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Did she fly first class to emiratesok me on the
Australia trip of Yes? Does she have beautiful things and
people know she is?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I mean she did not have a normal life. She's
a privileged, young, wealthy, successful woman's daughter. I'm not in
a bubble. I mean I am in a bubble, but
I'm saying my brain is not a bubble, I'm aware,
But the Nepo baby thing, it's like what it would
be perceived to be. That's what people would think she is,
and that's what I thought. They were a bunch of
the breath pack, no different than I thought everybody on nine, O,
(06:22):
two and O was the brat Pack. No different than
everybody on Nowhere's Place was the brat Pack. But they
were leaning into it, you know, just like people on
reality TV. So I guess I always like there to
be an overall message. Let the buttermel, let the ocean move.
(06:45):
You never know what something really is in the moment,
So I just feel like in life, not everything is
what it is in that moment. People panic, get hysterical,
and when things are going on in the moment and
things seem like something, you gotta ride it out. You
gotta hold that steering real type and not too tight.
You can't clutch it and you can't let go. That'd
(07:05):
just ride it through. So if I were in the
brat pack now and a big damaging article like that
came out, I don't think I would like be so
quick to just scurry. I think I would lean in,
laugh about it, make a joke about it be talented
and the cream rises to the top, because if you
really do think about it, a lot of them really
did dissolve dissolve. So I don't know that Scurrying was
(07:27):
the best.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Molly Ringwold was just in feud and you know, people
are getting a chance again, even like a Macchio. And
then also was a genre too. It was a time.
Everything has a time like that was a time for
teen movies, and there were times for vampire movies, and
there are times for euphoria type dark kids shows like it.
(07:50):
Just things things are cyclical, So.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I love that era.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
It was very, very influential in my life. It was
very profound. I remember crying that I didn't wasn't friends
with all those people they just made.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
There was a there was another movie that was a
little raunchy with Tom Moore in it called Private School
for Girls.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Like I just was so obsessed with James Spader and Andrew
McCarthy and Jimmy Moore and Rob like I just wanted
to It was like it was painful. I was like
that though, That's why I have to we have to
be compassionate with our kids when they are obsessed with things,
because don't you remember how real it was. My love
for Matt Dylan was real. My love for Matt Dylan
(08:33):
was deep, it was real. It's sustained. I remember to
this day. I wasn't flighty. I wasn't like into one
person then the other. Matt Dylan was my ride or
died for years. I also loved James Spader and Andrew McCarthy.
Andrew McCarthy was so cute and sheepish and sparkly, and
I quickly I had him on my podcast and I
got to watch brats. I'm like, I know him. What
the fuck that?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I'm like a.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Person that gets to like that caught up, meaning I
was so obsessed with them, and I caught up. I
got to I now my own podcast that like Andrew
McCarthy would grace his presence on like that sometimes freaks
me out, Like Tory Spelling has been on here a
couple of times.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
What it's Tory Spelling. I was so obsessed upset, not
with her, but with all of it.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I don't know, it's crazy when like you know, I
was the paon saved by the bell, just like looking
up to.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
All them and now I know them all and.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Some of the people in all of these different arenas,
I have.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
A bigger career.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Than they do, which is not it's not not humble,
it's just shocking. Like I guess that message is for you,
Like it's a marathon, not a sprint. Don't worry about
other people and what they're doing, and it could be you,
Like it's a whole.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It's like when you watch a horse race. The horses.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Some are beating the other by a nose, some go behind,
some come make a fun a far turn, some are
long shot, some go wire to wire, you know, like
Leonardo DiCaprio so far has gone wire to wire.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
He started as a kid actor. He's never waivered. He
just had it. You know.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Justin Bieber has had some personal issues, but he's pretty
much gone wired or wired too. You just don't know
how it's all going to end up. So the fact
that I would now be entertainment industry peers with the
brat Pack, and I glamorize all of that because they
were all so amazing and so iconic and represented such
(10:18):
an era. It is just interesting, so exciting to have
Robblow and Andrew McCarthy on this very podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I'm Not Worthy
So I had Andrew McCarthy on this podcast. I loved
interviewing him. It was so iconic because for those of
you who are a certain age, the brat Pack was
so iconic. And it's funny because there's a new documentary
with Andrew McCarthy producing it and starring in it, and
it's called Brats, and he's going back and you know,
(00:35):
visiting cast not castmates, some castmates, but brat mates from
that era. And this New York Magazine article was extremely
damaging for all of them. And what happened was Rob Low,
Demi Moore, Amelio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Ali Sheety, and then
(00:58):
they were like extreme one, oh Judd Nelson, but there
were like extraneous ones, like you almost say that Matt
Dillon was adjacent. See Thomas Howell was brat adjacent. There
were just all these people that were in those movies
at that time. Anthony Michael Hall is probably a Jason
o'molly Ringwalld was in the brat pack. But it was
this whole generation of good looking, spirited actors, many manufactured
(01:24):
by John Hughes in some movies. But it was stane,
almost fire, and it was pretty in pink, and it
was a whole era and it was just now that
I watched this documentary a time I was that age,
so I didn't know that this was different than anything before.
But at that age, there were so many teen movies,
and I remember, as a little kid, this is true,
(01:46):
crying because I wanted to live in California so badly,
like I just And it's funny because my daughter, at
one point when she was younger, really wanted to live
in Florida because we went out to dinner with my
friend and her daughter, and her daughter like goes out
in boats with her friends and as this whole life and.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
She's having a nice time living in Florida.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
But my daughter is in her mind glamorizing it and
thinks like that this girl's having this whole crazy life
that she's not living. And when I was that age,
I was glamorizing California and like I was just going
to get to Beverly Hills, where my father actually lived
in California, and I did go visit, and then I.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Was just going to see all these people, which didn't
really happen.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And years later where I did end up moving out
to La I did go to the clubs that I
would see Tory Spelling, and I did see John Brownison
one time at Sue Plantation, and I did see you
know the girls from nine O two an hour I
was obsessed with and I was irrelevant to them.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
They didn't pay any attention to me. But you'd see
actors out.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I once saw Jared Leto at a cafe, kings Row Cafe,
and like, I was enamored by all that. It's interesting
now to be a person who is a public person
and realize that your life is still You're still a person,
and you're still sad, and like fame is just really
a gloss over. It's what other people perceive it to be.
(02:57):
It's not different for you necessarily. Our life is different,
but you still have blood running through your veins, and
you know sadness and depression and you can get sick
and all that stuff. So this group had an article
written about them as the it kids who are in
all these different movies, and the title was what grabbed
everybody in and it was New York magazine and it
(03:17):
was the Brat Pack And apparently it was supposed to
be an article that was written just about Emilio Estevez,
and it turned into a bigger thing, as articles often do,
and you learned the very valuable lesson that I have
also learned that the media is not your friend. The
media is the ocean. You want to have a good
relationship with it. You want to be able to ride
the waves when they come in. You want to be
able to respect the ocean, not think you can battle
(03:40):
the ocean, not think you can control the ocean.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It works for you.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Sometimes it's a beautiful thing. Sometimes I am grateful for
the media. But you don't fuck around with the ocean,
and you don't fucker out the media. You don't try
to manipulate them and think they're your friend and get
too cozy.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And it was a clever name.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
But the funny thing is that they all scattered and
scurried from each other, because that was before all press
is good press twenty twenty four. Being infamous as being famous,
being on reality TV and being a disaster makes you
successful and everything goes these days. Disruptive wins now. But
I guess people didn't realize disruptive one then. And I
(04:18):
guess scared money never wins, because it seems like if
they had just stuck together and been like, Okay, this
is what we are.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
We're leading into it. It's going to work out. Instead,
they all wanted.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
To be these thespians, you know, these Scorsesey thespians, and.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
They did say that, like people did.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Back out of certain rules with them. But like the media,
the entertainment industry is also the ocean you got to
sort of ride, and they should have danced with the
one who brung you because they were lucky to be
in that space. And reality TV is very much like that.
So many actresses that failed as actresses would have succeeded
as reality stars. And they're dancing with the one who
brung them. They're making money, they're successful. It didn't go
(04:53):
the way they wanted it to go. But these were
young kids that were.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Out partying and were in movies. They were young.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
There's an evan flow of things, and they were young actors.
And I'm sure not every single one of them is
Leonardo DiCaprio.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Maybe one is, or would have been.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Brablo found his way out, and Roblo found his way
out of a scandal and addiction in a terrible time
in his life. So I think Andrew McCarthy had a
similar situation. So I'm not belittling their circumstance by any means.
I'm just saying they now are coming back and revisiting
something that was very traumatic for them. But for me,
as a viewer of the movies and of the genre,
(05:30):
I didn't know that that was very inside baseball. I
thought brat pack was a cool thing to be part of.
Who cares your brats?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Whatever?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And it's like NEPO baby. Last week I did a video.
Bring came into my room and said to me, Mom,
what's a NEPO baby? I said, get a frickin' mirror. Why.
It was the first thing that came to my mind.
Is my daughter act like a NEPO baby? Is she entitled?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
No?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Literally, she has to work for everything she gets and
there's a process and nothing on a silver platter.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Did she fly first class to emiratesok me on the
Australia trip of Yes? Does she have beautiful things and
people know she is?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I mean she did not have a normal life. She's
a privileged, young, wealthy, successful woman's daughter. I'm not in
a bubble. I mean I am in a bubble, but
I'm saying my brain is not a bubble, I'm aware,
But the Nepo baby thing, it's like what it would
be perceived to be. That's what people would think she is,
and that's what I thought. They were a bunch of
the breath pack, no different than I thought everybody on nine, O,
(06:22):
two and O was the brat Pack. No different than
everybody on Nowhere's Place was the brat Pack. But they
were leaning into it, you know, just like people on
reality TV. So I guess I always like there to
be an overall message. Let the buttermel, let the ocean move.
(06:45):
You never know what something really is in the moment,
So I just feel like in life, not everything is
what it is in that moment. People panic, get hysterical,
and when things are going on in the moment and
things seem like something, you gotta ride it out. You
gotta hold that steering real type and not too tight.
You can't clutch it and you can't let go. That'd
(07:05):
just ride it through. So if I were in the
brat pack now and a big damaging article like that
came out, I don't think I would like be so
quick to just scurry. I think I would lean in,
laugh about it, make a joke about it be talented
and the cream rises to the top, because if you
really do think about it, a lot of them really
did dissolve dissolve. So I don't know that Scurrying was
(07:27):
the best.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Molly Ringwold was just in feud and you know, people
are getting a chance again, even like a Macchio. And
then also was a genre too. It was a time.
Everything has a time like that was a time for
teen movies, and there were times for vampire movies, and
there are times for euphoria type dark kids shows like it.
(07:50):
Just things things are cyclical, So.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I love that era.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
It was very, very influential in my life. It was
very profound. I remember crying that I didn't wasn't friends
with all those people they just made.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
There was a there was another movie that was a
little raunchy with Tom Moore in it called Private School
for Girls.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Like I just was so obsessed with James Spader and Andrew
McCarthy and Jimmy Moore and Rob like I just wanted
to It was like it was painful. I was like
that though, That's why I have to we have to
be compassionate with our kids when they are obsessed with things,
because don't you remember how real it was. My love
for Matt Dylan was real. My love for Matt Dylan
(08:33):
was deep, it was real. It's sustained. I remember to
this day. I wasn't flighty. I wasn't like into one
person then the other. Matt Dylan was my ride or
died for years. I also loved James Spader and Andrew McCarthy.
Andrew McCarthy was so cute and sheepish and sparkly, and
I quickly I had him on my podcast and I
got to watch brats. I'm like, I know him. What
the fuck that?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I'm like a.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Person that gets to like that caught up, meaning I
was so obsessed with them, and I caught up. I
got to I now my own podcast that like Andrew
McCarthy would grace his presence on like that sometimes freaks
me out, Like Tory Spelling has been on here a
couple of times.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
What it's Tory Spelling. I was so obsessed upset, not
with her, but with all of it.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I don't know, it's crazy when like you know, I
was the paon saved by the bell, just like looking
up to.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
All them and now I know them all and.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Some of the people in all of these different arenas,
I have.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
A bigger career.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Than they do, which is not it's not not humble,
it's just shocking. Like I guess that message is for you,
Like it's a marathon, not a sprint. Don't worry about
other people and what they're doing, and it could be you,
Like it's a whole.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It's like when you watch a horse race. The horses.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Some are beating the other by a nose, some go behind,
some come make a fun a far turn, some are
long shot, some go wire to wire, you know, like
Leonardo DiCaprio so far has gone wire to wire.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
He started as a kid actor. He's never waivered. He
just had it. You know.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Justin Bieber has had some personal issues, but he's pretty
much gone wired or wired too. You just don't know
how it's all going to end up. So the fact
that I would now be entertainment industry peers with the
brat Pack, and I glamorize all of that because they
were all so amazing and so iconic and represented such
(10:18):
an era. It is just interesting, so exciting to have
Robblow and Andrew McCarthy on this very podcast.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I'm Not Worthy
Host
Bethenny Frankel
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com