Good question, who can really know? Obviously the guy is just as talented as he was back then. I think the article on the Brat pack really ruined his image in hollywood. You have a guy who is playing these characters he's nothing like, and then being portrayed as kind of douchy in this article. The only person who was portrayed somewhat decently in that article was Emilio Estevez.
Then he did a few films that didn't really go anywhere, but that's not really a big deal because that happens to actors all the time in their early careers. Even if they are at the height of their career, there are plenty of duds in the middle Back in the 1980s, there wasn't the enormous press machine we had today (the internet) that could break or make a person's career. There were magazines and television, which were seen by only a fraction of the population.
Finally, and I think this is what "killed it," there was the fact that most of the "brat pack" were actually kids when The Breakfast Club came out and he was already in his mid 20s (although remarkably convincing as a high school student.) It's tough to bounce back from that kind of press beating. When you're a teenager or even in your early 20s, people expect that you will grow out of an image. Nelson has obviously gone as far away from that image as possible (because he likely never was that image to begin with), but people will think what they want to think.
*Also, I would not say that his career has been killed because he's farther along in his career than most actors out there. Most never even make it to Hollywood, or on a major broadway stage. Acting is a brutal profession. I'd say Nelson is just one of those actors (actually all of them) who was never meant to fit into the stereotypical Hollywood image. I say this as a good thing becasue I don't think that kind of image is healthy, interesting, or worth anything. The guy has found his own niche in the independent industry.
As for Sheedy? I'm not really sure what she's up to other than tv work. She started on television and seems well suited for it. Again, another actress who was not going to fit into some stereotypical Hollywood image.
I'd argue that the same can be said about all of the actors from the Breakfast Club, including Emilio who seems to have found his niche as a director.
What made the Breakfast Club and these kids interesting to us was their inability to fall into stereotypical Hollywood images. They were different and more like their audience who did not feel like they belonged anywhere. I'd say that each of these actors have grown into whatever it was they were meant for.
But that's just my opinion. I never really cared for pop culture or major Hollywood films anyway. It's like soda pop or bubblegum, after awhile it starts to taste like the fake plastic it is.
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