Acting for America: Movie Stars of the 1980s

Michael J. Fox and the Brat Pack: Contrasting Identities

99 ★★★★★★★★★★ ✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩✩ 5 Michael J. Fox and the Brat Pack Contrasting Identities ROBERT EBERWEIN Michael J. Fox. Courtesy Photofest. The Breakfast Club: Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall. Courtesy Photofest. Copyright Universal Pictures, 1985. St. Elmo’s Fire. Standing: Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe. Seated: Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Mare Winningham, Andrew McCarthy. Courtesy Photofest. Copyright Columbia Pictures, 1985. Construction of these actors’ identities occurred in a somewhat different manner than that seen with the others discussed in this volume . Having had varying levels of success earlier in the decade, the actors to be examined here all achieved major stardom in the summer of 1985. Michael J. Fox, already well known for his role as Alex P. Keaton, the archconservative , Ronald Reagan–worshipping son of liberal parents on sitcom television, had a box office triumph as Marty McFly in Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future, the number-one film for the year (nearly $198 million). By the end of the summer Fox had solidified his position as a bankable star with Teen Wolf ($33 million) and become an iconic figure of adulation and even affection for fans and the media. The engaging youthful teenagers he portrayed in both films became the starting point for the parallel developments of his offscreen identity as a boy growing into manhood, an actor maturing into more adult roles, and a model of unthreatening and gentle masculinity. In contrast to Fox were the eight actors who found themselves saddled with the media-imposed collective identity of the “Brat Pack.” Five were already familiar to audiences from their appearance in John Hughes’s successful The Breakfast Club (1985, $45 million; sixteenth in earnings): Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. Estevez, Nelson, and Sheedy joined Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, and Demi Moore the same year in another solid hit, Joel Schumacher ’s St. Elmo’s Fire ($37 million, twenty-third in earnings). These actors came to be known as members of the Brat Pack after David Blum coined the term with specific reference to Estevez, Lowe, and Nelson, as well as actors who had appeared in Taps (1981): Tom Cruise, Timothy Hutton, and Sean Penn (“Hollywood’s Brat Pack,” New York, 10 June 1985, 43). By the end of the decade, while Fox was still a major star, the media had moved from treating him as a kid to presenting him as a grown-up man, happily married to Tracy Pollan, and a new father, as well as a talented , versatile actor. One theme in his coverage that had first appeared in 1985 still prevailed as the decade ended: Fox was not like anyone in the Brat Pack. Only two of the eight actors considered members of that mediaconstructed group were continuing to have successful films: Estevez in Young Guns (1988) and McCarthy in Weekend at Bernie’s (1989). Beginning in 1985, one of the constant themes dominating media coverage of the Brat Pack was their mutual denial of the collective identity that had been imposed on them. 100 ROBERT EBERWEIN ★ ✩★ ✩★ ✩★ ✩★ ✩ Fox: From Boy to Man The Canadian-born Fox, one of five children of a career army man, quit high school and came to the United States in 1980 to be an actor. His first career break occurred in 1982 when he got the part of Alex Keaton on “Family Ties,” the NBC comedy that ran from 1982 to 1989 and began the process of making him a star. Among his awards for this series were three consecutive Emmys from 1986 to 1988 as “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series,” and the Golden Globe in 1989 for “Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series.” Obviously the conservative teenager who supported Ronald Reagan appealed to the president, who said “Family Ties” was his favorite television show in 1985. Taking the part of Marty McFly in Back to the Future was an even more important moment in Fox’s professional life. Although executive producer Steven Spielberg initially wanted him, his work on “Family Ties” precluded taking the part, which was given to Eric Stoltz. When the latter’s work was deemed inappropriate for the part after filming began, Fox replaced him, even though this meant enduring a grueling schedule that had him working on the television show during the day, filming Back to the Future at night—usually...