How Andrew McCarthy got Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and the 'Brat Pack' together for a movie

PASADENA, Calif. − The Brat Pack is a good thing, right?

At least it is to generations introduced to the actors labeled with that infamous moniker after their 1980s heyday − Andrew McCarthy, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore and company. Their films, from "St. Elmo's Fire" to "Sixteen Candles" to "The Breakfast Club," are considered classics that continue to be enjoyed as each generation reaches adolescence.

Many of them are still rich and famous and still working actors. There's no downside, right?

"It’s some silly little term, the 'Brat Pack,'" McCarthy told reporters at the Television Critics Association Press Tour. "Now it’s an iconically affectionate name. ... At the time it was not."

McCarthy, now a director and producer, is revisiting the term and what it meant for himself and his friends when a 1985 New York Magazine article coined it as a riff on the "Rat Pack" of Frank Sinatra's day. In "Brats," an ABC News Studios documentary due on Hulu later this year, McCarthy checks in on his bratty fellows to talk about what the article (and label) did for their careers.

"To the outside world, to that generation, you wanted to be us," McCarthy reflected at the Television Critics Association press tour Saturday. "For us, it just wasn’t that way. One of the things I explore in the film is (the disconnect between) what was projected on us by society and what we feel on the inside. ... We often felt isolated and alone and not seen. All of us in life want to be seen."

So "When the 'Brat Pack' term happened, I felt like I lost control of the narrative," he said.

So what was the big problem with it, other than the infantilization of the actors?

"It represented a seismic cultural shift," McCarthy said. "Movies were suddenly about kids. ... Some people loved that, and some people thought we were brats."

McCarthy and his peers felt bogged down by the label, and felt that it prevented them from getting the serious roles they wanted with serious filmmakers. And even in the nearly 40 years since, these stars can't shake the label, so much so that some declined to participate in the new film.

"I asked Molly if she wanted to talk in the film," McCarthy said. "But she wanted to look forward." Nelson was similarly uninterested. "Judd didn’t want to talk," he said. "Judd said, 'the Brat Pack didn’t exist, so I don’t want to talk.'"

But McCarthy still nabbed a group of heavy hitters to revisit their young adulthood, including Lowe, Estevez and Moore.

"I hadn’t seen Rob in 30 years. I hadn’t seen Emilio since the premiere of 'St. Elmo’s Fire,'" McCarthy said. "I was surprised how much affection we all have for each other. Rob and I weren’t particularly close when we were young. ... We were kind of competitive." But in the documentary, "we hugged and then we stepped back and hugged again."

The biggest effect of the nostalgia trip? Not waiting 30 years between conversations.

"I personally stayed in touch with everybody; I’m personally texting with Rob all the time," McCarthy said. "I just texted Demi the other day ... It was nice to be back in touch with these people I haven’t seen in so long. And just to bring up my past into my present."