The role Emilio Estevez will always regret not playing: “I killed the audition”
The Brat Pack were a defining part of 1980s Hollywood, encapsulating an era where teen-oriented stories, from the more innocent to those which were considerably more suggestive, dominated. John Hughes’ films were all the rage, and Emilio Estevez played a leading part in one of his most iconic, The Breakfast Club.
It came a few years after he’d starred in The Outsiders and Repo Man, following in the footsteps of his famous family members, including father Martin Sheen and brother Charlie. Building up a solid list of credits, Estevez became a Hollywood star, and while he doesn’t do much in the world of cinema anymore, he is still an indisputable icon of the Brat Pack era.
During this time, he actually auditioned for another coveted Hughes movie that he really wanted to land, but sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. The actor couldn’t believe it – he thought he had it in the bag, walking out of there with the belief that he was going to appear in a future hit. That’s until he was told he was unsuccessful.
Hughes changed the teen movie genre forever with his approach to filmmaking, giving adolescent characters more autonomy and focus than ever before. Looking back, it’s hard to ignore the glaring issues that came with many of his films, from racism to the undermining of hefty themes like sexual assault. ‘It was a different time’, people say, and while that’s true in a sense, people definitely should’ve known better by then not to load their films with such questionable ideas. Alas, that’s Hollywood.
Despite this, Hughes’ films are still adored by many, and they remain popular artefacts of a bygone era full of perms, high top trainers, and shoulder pads. Before Estevez landed the role of Andrew in The Breakfast Club, he tried his luck with a role in Sixteen Candles, which emerged the previous year with Molly Ringwald also playing a main character.
The film saw Michael Schoeffling play Ringwald’s love interest, Jake Ryan, while Anthony Michael Hall starred as the nerdy Ted. It’s unclear which character Estevez auditioned for, but he revealed that he was disappointed when he didn’t get a part, although he soon realised that this is just the nature of Hollywood.
“When you start out as a young actor, you don’t fully understand that there’s probably already an offer out to somebody and they’re just waiting for him to say yes or no. Like for instance, I auditioned for Sixteen Candles,” he told Vanity Fair.
“I killed the audition. I mean, I thought I wowed John Hughes and wowed the room. They were all laughing. I nailed this. And I was skipping down the hall at Universal Studios when I left and I thought, ‘You know, I’m going to be in this movie.’ And the casting director ran out and he’s like, ‘Hey, listen, man…”
The actor continued, “It was literally one of those heartbreak moments where he just puts his arm over my shoulder and he’s like, ‘Look, Emil, this ain’t going to happen.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? I killed it!’ He’s like, ‘Yeah. It’s just not going to happen.’”
Luckily for Estevez, the chance to work with Hughes came just one year later, so really, he needn’t have worried at all.
