| had happened to me on that stage was important. Yet I told no one the magnitude of my new feelings. If, as Tennessee Williams had written, a light had been turned on, then mine was a single candle’s flame, one I knew might be easily extinguished. My mother’s attitude toward my newfound theatrical impulses was one of pleasant support, while my father chose to ignore what he couldn’t understand. Stephen had by now gone off to college, Justin was too young to have an opinion on the matter, and Peter’s attitude was simply “It’s just Andy doing what Andy does.” His casual approval went a long way toward confirming the decision that was forming in me. The following year, when I announced to my parents that I intended to study acting in college, my father was quick to snap, “No son of mine is going to be a fucking thespian.” But by then my desire had taken deeper root. I was going to do what I was going to do. Though I was standing across the table from them on the screened-in porch, my dad went on as if I weren’t there. “He may seem sensitive, but that kid’s got steel in him.” My finest performance. I took this as a compliment my father very much did not intend. But what my dad could apparently see that others, including myself, could not fully identify at this point was a drive toward what I could imagine for myself, something that was |
a vintage suit jacket. In the winter he added a long camel-hair overcoat. I began to scour the shops on Eighth Street. I had the misguided notion that if I bought the already baggy clothes a size or two even larger, then my slight frame would gain some stature. They felt like the suit of armor I’d been searching for, and I slouched around the Village with more confidence. When winter hit, I added the oversize camel-hair overcoat as well. In a few years’ time, I would model my wardrobe for St. Elmo’s Fire on this style. The director, Joel Schumacher, who had been a window dresser and later a wardrobe designer himself, liked the eclectic juxtaposition of the fatigues and blazer and loved the overcoat but drew the line at the massively oversize cut. I would mine Eddie’s fashion instincts for wardrobe throughout my ’80s films. He occasionally wore a pair of bowling shoes that he had quietly procured when I was with him late one night at Bowlmor Lanes (now gone) on University Place off Union Square. I stole this idea for Mannequin, wearing bowling shoes throughout the movie. And the retro suits with narrow lapels and skinny ties I wore in Less Than Zero flew directly in the face of ’80s fashion and were right out of Eddie’s teacher closet. But my ultimate homage to Eddie was in Weekend at Bernie’s. Not only did I mimic Eddie’s summer-in-the-city long, baggy shorts, Hawaiian shirts, and purple Keds high-tops |
