Andrew McCarthy Joins The Family

Best known as a high school heartthrob in the iconic film Pretty in Pink, now 53-year-old Andrew McCarthy says there’s nothing pretty about his new role as Hank Asher, a convicted sex offender in ABC’s new drama, The Family.

A veteran film and TV actor, accomplished travel writer and director, McCarthy talks about the edgy role that propelled him in front of the camera for the first time in five years.

The story unfolds when a family, led by political matriarch Claire Warren (Oscar-nominee Joan Allen), is shaken when their presumed dead son suddenly returns after a decade-long disappearance.

Adam Warren’s homecoming to Red Pines, Maine, is initially met with astonishment and joy, but suspicions soon begin to emerge about his true identity. The boy’s reappearance unearths long-buried secrets and strains an already-fragile family. As the election for governor heats up, Claire and her family struggle with the emotions and questions surrounding Adam’s return in an addictive twist of plots. 

Adam’s return has major repercussions for McCarthy’s character, Hank Asher, who was convicted of abducting and murdering Adam and is now set free after 10 years of imprisonment.

“What’s interesting about this story is the secrecy, “McCarthy says. “The truth about what happened is different for every person. As the show evolves, it’s clear that there’s something people are hiding, and everyone has different versions of the truth. It’s very dark for a network program.”

Once he heard about the series, McCarthy says he was most interested in playing the part of Hank because “I’d never seen this guy on TV before. He’s a pariah, a sexual predator, or so it seems. He’s a wounded creature.”

McCarthy’s role as Hank isn’t the only thing that attracted him to the new series.

He says he’s impressed with everything: the actors, the writing, the plot. “There’s real mystery, real character, and the characters reveal the mystery. The writer slashed tons of dialogue, leaving us a lot of blank space to deal with. This kind of thing is really unusual for TV, especially network.”

“The actors are wonderful and that’s not always the case,” McCarthy says. “Joan is an actor’s magnet. It’s just a great group.”

He has also had the opportunity to direct some of the episodes, another appealing reason to join the cast. “If you’re good at something, people trust you, and it’s fine. [The other actors] have been receptive to me as a director and it’s been fluid and easy. It’s not like I was an outsider figuring out what the hell is going on.”

Hank Asher is a huge departure from McCarthy’s roles in the hit 80’s films like Pretty in Pink, in which he starred with Molly Ringwald as her heartthrob love interest, and Saint Elmo’s Fire, where McCarthy and other now-famous stars including Demi Moore and Rob Lowe played recent college graduates finding their way in the adult world. The group of actors earned distinction as the “brat pack” in the late 1980’s.

The film Weekend at Bernie’s, in which McCarthy played a young insurance company employee who gets caught up in a murder mystery, has become a cult favorite. In those films and many others, McCarthy played upbeat or charming characters, for which he is best known.

“I had to let go of my vanity,” McCarthy says of his latest role. “Hank is dark, unsavory. I wanted to do this because it’s different. He’s not easy to like,  but I have empathy for him,” he says.

“He’s a real [messed] up guy with great self-loathing, and that’s a really compelling character to act, to play that kind of conflict,” McCarthy continued. “[Hank’s] not evil, he’s complicated. He’s isolated, lonely and he wrestles with his desires, mightily.”

Playing a pedophile as a lead character on network television would be considered a career risk for many actors, yet McCarthy embraces the challenge. “I had nothing at stake, I’m not protecting my career, I have nothing to lose. I have a day job,” he chuckles.

As one who has been behind the scenes for decades, McCarthy has directed dozens of  TV shows, including the edgy Orange is the New Black and The Blacklist. He both acted and directed in the TV series Lipstick Jungle. “When you’re directing, you’re a responsible grownup,” he says. “Acting is subjective, whereas directing is objective.”

And writing is both, he asserts. McCarthy says the writing chapter of his career happened largely by accident.

“I traveled for years and wrote stuff in notebooks for myself before I ever met an editor. Travel changed my life and it was worth sharing that experience with others,” he says. Acting, writing and directing “are all based on storytelling. I feel most like me when I’m doing this.”

He’s an editor-at-large for National Geographic Travel Magazine and wrote a travel memoir, The Longest Way Home, which became a New York Times bestseller in 2012.

“The first time I ever acted, I thought, ‘There I am.’ I revealed to myself where I wanted to go.” Travel inspired those same kinds of feelings, he says.

After acting, directing, writing, and taking on network TV’s first ongoing role as a pedophile, what’s next? “Ten years ago, I didn’t know I’d be a travel writer, so I don’t know what I will look back on in 20 years,” he says. “No matter what I do, I’ll always be ‘That guy from Pretty in Pink.”

The Family premieres Thursday, March 3 on ABC at 9:00 pm EST.