MY LIFE IN 10 Pictures
“We are all wonderful, beautiful wrecks. That’s what connects us.” —Emilio Estevez
1 1983 STAY GOLD
“[Director Francis Ford Coppola] likes to create a gladiator mentality,” said Emilio of making The Outsiders. “[You’d] auditioned for this specific role and [then watch] Patrick Swayze do it or Rob Lowe do it or Tom Cruise do it . And it was like, ‘Oh God, he’s so much better than me, I’m never going to get this.’ It created a real sense of competition... And it was exhausting.”
2 1984 YES MAN
While humbled that pics like Repo Man “continue to have this shelf life,” Emilio readily admits “that was not part of a plan. When you’re an actor, it’s like somebody says yes after hundreds and hundreds of rejections…. You’re like, ‘Yes, I’m in, I’ll do it!’”
HE COULD HAVE traded in on father Martin Sheen’s fame, but Emilio Estevez embraced Martin’s given name of Ramon Estevez to forge his own path in life. Besides, he once quipped, “I saw the name ‘Emilio Sheen,’ and it looked terrible.” Of course, he’d truly make a name for himself in other ways — as he went from being known as one of Hollywood’s “Brat Pack” in the ’80s to becoming an indie filmmaker, often casting his dad as well as troubled brother Charlie Sheen. “We’re a very close, very real family,” he said. “And I think every real family has real problems.” So after highprofile relationships with model Carey Salley, actress Demi Moore and singer Paula Abdul failed, it’s no surprise he’d choose to stay out of the public eye between projects, keeping him “unapologetically optimistic and earnest.” It’s also given Emilio, who turns 60 on May 12, more time with his own family, especially his and Carey’s adult children, Taylor and Paloma. As he once explained, “Film is an illusion. Fame is ephemeral. Faith and family are what endure.”
3 1985 PACK MENTALITY
“Brat Pack will be on my tombstone,” bristled Emilio at the tag put on him and his costars after making The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire the same year. “I had worked so hard to not be labeled. I had problems with being a parenthetical actor. I was Martin’s son. I was Charlie’s brother. Later, I was Paula Abdul’s husband .... You get very tired of those labels.”
4 1987 ON WATCH
“I used to go into work on my days off just to watch him,” he said of Stakeout maker John Badham. “He used to direct Richard Dreyfuss and I with a stopwatch. And he would say, ‘You know, you guys did that in 45 seconds. It could be a lot funnier in 30.’ And he was right!”
5 1988 GUN SHY
Though he “always wanted to blow people away in a movie,” Young Guns had a sobering effect. “There were a lot of killings where the people cheered. The first reaction is elation because the audience is responding. And then the second reaction is ... ‘Boy, how sick that is.’”
6 1992 BAD BREAK
“Being a husband is just as important as a career,” said Emilio before his twoyear marriage to Paula Abdul, which ended when she felt it was important to have kids and he didn’t. “[That] was heartbreaking for us both,” shared Paula.
7 2000 PAY OFF
While brother Charlie deftly played his on-screen sibling in Rated X, Emilio confessed that growing up, “we were at each other’s throats. I was brutal. I was the older brother. I had to set the example. My parents were harder on me than [him] .... I wanted to make him pay.”
8 2010 FAMILY WAY
“When you work with family, you know what buttons to push,” shared Emilio about directing his father in The Way. “There were times [on it] when my dad looked at me, not as his director, but as the 12-yearold boy he remembers... I could see it in his eyes. We had massive fights.”
9 2018 PUBLIC LIFE
“I didn’t get into this business to be rich or famous. I got into this business because I love moviemaking,” said Emilio, who’s eschewed the spotlight to write, direct and star in pics like The Public. “Independent filmmaking was a choice. Nobody put a gun to my head and said, ‘You have to do this.’”
10 2021 CHANGE BACK
Emilio felt the timing was perfect to reprise his role from 1992’s The Mighty Ducks for the TV series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. “I’ve been in that independent film world wilderness for the last 25 years. And so, to come back into more mainstream fare feels like a real full circle plan...[if] an accidental plan.”