Andrew McCarthy on why Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson aren’t in Brat Pack doc

Andrew McCarthy is shedding light on why Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson are not featured in his Brat Pack documentary, Brats.

“I mean, they both are in the film in a sense that there’s a lot of clips and interviews and things,” the director told Entertainment Tonight. “The Brat Pack is an ongoing relationship, you know what I mean? And some people are at different places in their lives to want to or not want to talk about it. I think that just informs it even more. I mean, that’s my takeaway from it.” 

While Ringwald and Nelson may not have sat down for interviews like their fellow Brat Pack stars, the two appear in the film through the use of archival footage taken at the height of the cultural phenomenon in the 1980s. And of course, they do come up in conversation.

In the doc, when Pretty in Pink star Jon Cryer asks McCarthy if he’s spoken to Ringwald, he replies, “She said she’d think about it, but that she probably would just like to keep moving forward.”

McCarthy also notes that he had plans to connect with Nelson while he was out in L.A. “trying to talk with some of the gang,” but he was “at some undisclosed location and not available” that weekend. Nelson, however, does pop up at the very end of the film in an interesting way. When McCarthy’s phone rings, he picks it up and goes, “Judd?”

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A rep for Ringwald did not respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s multiple requests for comment.

In the end, McCarthy was able to catch up with a mix of both Brats and Brat-adjacent stars  — including Cryer, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Lea Thompson, and Timothy Hutton — to reflect on their meteoric rise to fame following the release of films like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and St. Elmo’s Fire, and how the Brat Pack title affected them both personally and professionally. 

“I was surprised as many people would want to speak to me [that] did, you know, because I thought the biggest challenge would be to get people to participate,” he admitted. “I knew it was still so sort of dodgy in some people’s lives.”

Moore previously told EW that her only regret when it came the the documentary is that McCarthy conducted individual interviews rather than bringing the whole group together again. 

“I had such a great time sitting down and talking with [McCarthy.] I’m sad there wasn’t an opportunity where we were all sitting in a room together, talking,” she said. “That’s my only wish. It’s something very unique to all of us that we experienced.”

Brats is available to stream now on Hulu.