Andrew McCarthy said he credits his Pretty in Pink co-star Molly Ringwald for getting his role in the 1986 iconic film.
The actor, whose new Hulu documentary Brats dropped on Thursday, recently looked back at John Hughes‘ teen rom-com and how he got cast as heartthrob Blane McDonnagh.
“That part was written for a square-jawed, big, hunky, you know, quarterback and Molly got me that part,” McCarthy recalled to Entertainment Tonight. “I auditioned and Molly said, ‘Oh, that’s who I would fall for. He’s dreamy. He’s poetic.’ And so John Hughes went, ‘Really? That wimp?’”
The Resident actor continued, “He listened to Molly, which is what John did. John honored, not just on screen but in real life, John listened and respected young people. So, I was miscast in a way. I made what could [have] been a jerk have some sensitivity, so there was some empathy towards him.”
Pretty in Pink follows Andie (Molly Ringwald), an outcast at her Chicago high school, who must choose between dating her quirky classmate Duckie (Jon Cryer), who has a crush on her, or one of the rich and popular kids, Blane (McCarthy).
McCarthy said his character’s personality was another reason “why at the end we had to reshoot the whole ending because, you know, the movie’s a fairytale so you have to give the girl what she wants.” Hughes changed the movie’s original ending — which had Andie and Duckie end up together — after test screen audiences expressed their dissatisfaction with it.
The Orange Is the New Black actor previously shared that he actually wanted to quit the movie after reading the script with the original ending.
“I didn’t read the script until I was on the plane out to Los Angeles, and I was shocked that Blane turned out to be sort of spineless,” McCarthy told The New Yorker in 2021. “When I landed, I called [my agent] and said, ‘You’ve got to get me out of this movie! This guy’s a jerk. He’s just, like, a wimpy loser.’ And they said, ‘Honey, you read the script. You knew what it was.’ And I was, like, ‘Um … yeah, OK.’”