All of the student characters featured in The Breakfast Club are played by actors considered to be members of "the Brat Pack," a loosely defined group of young actors who rose to fame in 1980s coming-of-age films. While the Brat Pack label gained traction at the time of its coining, it has received criticism and sparked controversy.
The term "Brat Pack"—a play on the Rat Pack, an informal group of entertainers active from the 1940s to 1960s—was coined for a New York magazine cover story written by journalist David Blum in 1985. Titled "Hollywood's Brat Pack," the article was originally supposed to be a profile on Emilio Estevez. However, after Blum joined Estevez, Rob Lowe, and Judd Nelson for a night out in Hollywood, Blum decided to focus the article on a group of young actors who had recently appeared in popular films such as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and St. Elmo's Fire.
Although there are other actors associated with the Brat Pack label, the core members are considered to be Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. These actors were often seen as representative of the young generation's experiences and struggles during the 1980s. However, many of the actors associated with the Brat Pack rejected the label and its collective branding, which risked limiting careers through youth-oriented typecasting that may have prevented the actors from landing more serious roles. The Brat Pack label also bore negative connotations, with media stirring up scandals by reporting on the partying and personal difficulties of certain members of the group. It has also been reported that camaraderie among the Brat Pack members suffered because of the label, with the actors choosing not to associate with each other because of negative attention.
In later decades, members of the Brat Pack publicly expressed resentment for being negatively affected by the label's implied lack of professionalism. In a 2010 interview for a book about the subject, Blum himself expressed remorse, saying he shouldn't have written the article. As recently as 2020, Estevez aired his frustration with the lasting impact of the nickname, saying, "The Brat Pack will be on my tombstone."
