Opposite Molly Ringwald, he gave a performance that reinforced his status as a teen heartthrob. Fans responded to the softness and understated confidence he brought to the role, and his popularity surged.
By that point, his face was familiar to millions. He seemed to embody a quieter style of stardom, one based less on swagger and more on subtle appeal.
The Pressure Behind the Image
While his acting career was thriving, McCarthy was privately dealing with problems that few people around him fully understood. The success came fast, and he has said he was not equipped for it emotionally.
“I was completely unprepared for any form of success when I was younger. I didn’t know anyone who was successful in that way in show business, or famous,” he once said. “I also wasn’t temperamentally suited for it. Attention made me pull back.”
That discomfort with visibility did not disappear as his fame grew. Instead, it existed alongside the public image of a rising movie star.
In time, alcohol began to take on a much larger role in his life. He had used marijuana in high school and drank socially, but the situation became more serious as the years went on.
During a 2004 appearance on ABC’s 20/20, he looked back on that period with striking honesty. “For instance, in Pretty in Pink, people remarked, ”Oh, he’s so sensitive and lovely in that film. I was so hungover throughout that entire movie… I kept thinking, ’God, I have a headache. I am just dying here. I need to go lay down’. But on screen, I appeared a certain way,” Andrew shared with ABC’s 20/20 in 2004.
His description revealed the sharp divide between appearance and reality. To audiences, he seemed composed and magnetic. Off camera, he was already struggling.
He later explained what alcohol gave him at the time. “When I was scared, it provided me with a good dose of Dutch courage,” McCarthy confessed. “I felt confident, attractive, in control, and powerful — feelings I didn’t experience in my everyday life.”
A Difficult Turning Point
In 1989, he stopped drinking just before filming Weekend at Bernie’s. To protect that decision, he pulled away from much of his social life.
In 2020, he said, “I’m very at ease being by myself and have always felt that way. I notice that people go to great lengths to avoid solitude, which often leads them into trouble. I believe a lot of unhappiness stems from the effort to escape being alone.”
Still, sobriety did not come in a straight line. During the filming of Jours tranquilles à Clichy, a co-star casually offered him a beer, and that moment became a warning sign.
As he lifted the can, his hands began to shake. It was a visible reminder of how fragile the situation had become and how close he remained to losing control again.
The years that followed were, in his own words, “lost and painful.” At one of his lowest moments, he described waking with a severe hangover, suffering convulsions, and ending up on the bathroom floor in tears.
He also acknowledged having some contact with cocaine during the 1980s. “If you had it, I did it,” he said, while also noting that it mainly intensified his drinking.
Even then, he said he rarely used drugs while working. “I was anxious enough — I didn’t need to be adding cocaine.”
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