A version of this story originally appears in Entertainment Weekly’s Untold Stories issue, on stands now.
The reviews were atrocious.
JOEL SCHUMACHER[co-writer/director]: I lived in Georgetown during the period of Reaganomics.
Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Mare Winningham, Rob Lowe, and Andrew McCarthy in ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’.Credit: Getty
Every studio turned down the spec script.
He then went off and madeHoward the Duck.
I had no interest in that.
Everett Collection; Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
I wanted to play Billy, for sure.
It was Demi Moore.
DEMI MOORE[Jules]: There were so many of us coming in and out of these auditions.
Everett Collection; Tammie Arroyo/AP Images
It felt like it could really be something special.
“Let’s try him with her, and her with him.”
I was terrified and sat there like a lump on the couch.
Everett Collection; John M. Heller/Getty Images
I failed the interview, so they sent me back with the director’s assistant in his VW bug.
ANDIE MACDOWELL[Dale]: I was scared of [my costars].
They all seemed so cool to me.
She was just free and wild and spontaneous.
I felt like a fly on the wall, watching these exotic creatures.
SCHUMACHER:Mare Winningham was married with kids and pregnant during the making of the movie.
Everett Collection; Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic.com
One of the characteristics of Wendy was how chubby she was and how that gave her some insecurity.
It worked out in everybody’s favor.
LOWE:Nothing was shot at Georgetown.
Everett Collection; Jim Spellman/WireImage.com
The university wouldn’t let us because they thought the movie would be bad for their reputation.
So much for that idea!
University of Maryland let us shoot instead.
Everett Collection
PB and J and Ha Ha Ha
Each character faces unique struggles.
They would huddle together and talk, like “Buggala buggala buggala, ha ha ha.”
It was an inside-joke moment that made sense only to us.
Everett Collection; Ryan Miller/Getty Images
SCHUMACHER:I made a terrible mistake, and I’ve regretted and felt embarrassed by it.
Because [one of the next movies] she did was with Judd Nelson and she played a stripper.
[In 1986’sBlue City, Sheedy’s character goes undercover as a go-go dancer.]
LOWE:It’s always funny what images become the images you see over and over.
That was a photo for him that nobody thought anything of.
We all sort of looked like crap.
And it ended up being the poster for the movie.
MCCARTHY:My scene [with the prostitute] was one of those things that just worked somehow.
I think we shot it all in one night.
I never met that actress before.
She just showed up, we had good chemistry, and there it was.
They are funny scenes.
I asked, “How come you never come on to me?”
She says, “I thought you were gay.”
It was one of those lonely moments with a little comic flair.
LOWE:The spray-can scene was always in the script.
It’s not the worst analogy ever.
It’s probably better that I haven’t seen the movie recently.
I am sure I would find many more.
SCHUMACHER:That part was satirical and tongue-in-cheek.
She’s so fing dramatic all the time.
Demi did it fantastically but it was ridiculous.
Do you know how long it takes to freeze herself in a Georgetown apartment?
She’s not in the Antarctic.
NELSON:The music video we participated in is worthy of a cringe or two.
MCCARTHY:I felt okay with that movie.
It’s the most long-lasting.
It never ceases to amaze me the level of person who is obsessed.
I think it was probably a lot of people’s first guilty pleasure.
It was a game changer.
MCCARTHY:None of those [young adult] movies at the time got great reviews.
Young people could take ownership of us in a way that no generation ever did before.
SCHUMACHER:I resented the Brat Pack title.
We were on the cover ofNew Yorkwith a fabulous picture of the cast, but it coined the term.
NELSON:Acting inSt.
Elmo’swas clearly instrumental in my being included in, and branded negatively by, the fictional Brat Pack.
Being portrayed as professionally irresponsible has diminished my opportunities.
MACDOWELL:People say things to me about Kirby and Dale to this day.
And I yelled back, “Where is my Kirby Keger?”
LOWE:People love this movie, or we wouldn’t be talking about it 32 years later.
It is very kitschy and it’s extremely dated.
There is a lot of great stuff to hate-watch in it.
