00:00Alec Newberry.
00:02Hi, Alec.
00:02It's Jules.
00:03I'm over at the Van Buren Hotel.
00:06Oh, God.
00:07What time is it?
00:08I don't know.
00:09But listen, I'm with these Arabs, and they've been forcing me to do coke all night.
00:13And I'm not sure, because I don't understand very much Arabic, but I'm sure.
00:18I think I heard the words for gangbang.
00:20Alec, you've got to come and get me.
00:21Demi Moore played the troubled but brilliant party girl Jules in the 1985 classic St. Elmo's Fire.
00:27But the actress nearly lost the role to a surprising star after she allegedly showed up drunk and high to
00:34a costume fitting.
00:35Screenwriter Carl Kurlander revealed on the Reality Life with Kate Casey podcast that the film's director, Joel Schumacher, had these
00:42harsh words for Moore.
00:44One morning, we got a casting 10 days before shooting, maybe two weeks.
00:49Susan Becker called up Joel and said that to me he had showed up drunk and high for a costume
00:54fitting.
00:55So Joel and Lauren Schuller met with the me.
00:59And what Joel told me he told her is, go kill yourself on someone else's movie.
01:03And Lauren Schuller, God bless her, worked out a plan with Joel saying, look, you can clean yourself up in
01:1110 days.
01:12You can be in this movie.
01:14The producers gave Moore an ultimatum, get clean in 10 days or you're fired.
01:20In the meantime, they were considering this pop icon who is still early in her career.
01:24And there was a singer named Madonna who did a song for that.
01:28And Joel had met Madonna.
01:30And he came back and he said, this girl is going to be the biggest star in the world.
01:34I can just feel it.
01:35And Joel was all ready to offer the part to Madonna.
01:38It could have been the material girl.
01:41Demi Moore ended up securing the role of Jules Van Patten in the star-studded cast opposite Rob Lowe,
01:48Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Mare Wiggingham.
01:55Moore also revealed in McCarthy's 2024 Hulu doc, Bratz, that the St. Elmo's Fire producers paid to have a sober
02:02companion with her 24-7 during the whole shooting.
02:06It really irritated me.
02:08They said, what's more important to you, the movie or your life?
02:11And I said, the movie!
02:13Andrew!
02:16Why did we take it as an offense?
02:18Well, could you call them Bratz?
02:19Because we were young.
02:21We were afraid we were Bratz, you know?
02:23She admitted that director Joel Schumacher, who had a long history with drugs himself,
02:27really stuck his neck out for me, because it's not like I had any box office draw.
02:31The substance star ultimately sought treatment after years of struggling with addiction, and she's been sober since seeking help in
02:382012.
02:42We'll be right back soon!
