As Rob Lowe has been talking about his hope to produce and star in a sequel to “St. Elmo’s Fire,” the classic, 1980s coming-of-age drama, he’s also opening up about what it was like to be in his early 20s and working with a cast of other up-and-coming young stars in their first, big breakout.
One of Lowe’s “St. Elmo’s” co-stars was his longtime friend Demi Moore, and the “West Wing” actor has revealed in a podcast interview this week that he and Moore “briefly” had a fling around the time they were making the movie, one of the signature projects of the so-called Brat Pack era.
“Did you have a crush on her?” Kelly Ripa asked Lowe on her “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast. “Did you guys ever date? Did you all date each other? Was it like, just — was it a big romp?”
“I mean, Demi and I briefly — I’m not telling tales out of school — we briefly had a thing,” Lowe, 60, said after joking that it was a “big, big sex orgy” among the group of young actors on the “St. Elmo’s Fire” set.
Lowe also said, “Anytime you put young 20somethings, men and women, together, hookups are inevitable. I don’t think that has changed.”
The “9-1-1: Lone Star” actor suggested that his “fling” with Moore happened before she began a romance and then became engaged to their co-star and friend Emilio Estevez — and certainly before she began dating Bruce Willis, whom she married in 1987.
“And then Emilio and Demi, I think, were engaged and then we all were at her wedding to Bruce,” Lowe said before adding that it was the “biggest wedding I had ever been to up until then.”
In Moore’s 2019 memoir, “Inside Out,” the “Ghost” star mentions the possibility of a Lowe hookup, whom she refers to as her “old pal.”
“In his own memoir, Rob suggests that we had some kind of hot-and-heavy romance,” Moore wrote. “I can vaguely recall one ill-advised late night together, but I’m grateful to him for the complimentary descriptions of our youth.”
“In truth, I liked all my costars and remain close to some of them today,” Moore said, before writing about her romance with Estevez, whom she admired for his “quiet confidence” and his “sand-colored hair and piercing blue eyes.” Moore and Estevez were together until December 1986.
“St. Elmo’s Fire” followed a group of seven Georgetown University graduates, who are trying to find their way in the adult world and who regularly meet up at a bar called St. Elmo’s. The film also starred other famous members of the so-called Brat Pack: Andrew McCarthy, Mare Winningham, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy.
The Brat Pack was back in the cultural conversation over the summer with the release of McCarthy’s documentary, “Brats,” which chronicles the actors’ meteoric rise to fame in films like “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “The Breakfast Club” and reflects on how the Brat Pack moniker affected them personally and professionally.
In “St. Elmo’s Fire,” Moore played Jules, a party girl who develops a cocaine habit — a storyline she has said mirrored her own substance abuse problems at the time. Meanwhile, Lowe played Billy, a hard-partying saxophonist; Lowe has also been outspoken about his youthful struggles with drugs and alcohol, but said in a recent Entertainment Weekly article that he’s been sober for 34 years.
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Moore and Lowe starred together again in the well-reviewed adult romantic comedy “About Last Night,” which was based on a David Mamet play, “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.”
Lowe told Entertainment Weekly that he and Moore continue to text each other about a potential “St. Elmo’s Fire” reunion. Moore, who is currently garnering Oscar buzz for her role in the feminist body-horror drama, “The Substance,” told Entertainment Weekly at the Toronto International Film Festival that she’s met with studio personnel to discuss reprising her role as Jules.
“I have had a couple of sit-down meetings, and I think it would be great if we can come up with a story that I think holds up,” Moore explained.
Lowe told Entertainment Weekly that the sequel is currently “moving along,” adding, “It’s going a little more slowly than I would have liked. But that’s a good thing, because we’re trying to find the right writer and the right story. But all of the actors, everybody is on board. Everybody is excited.”