section_path: Career/Beginnings and breakthrough (1980–1989)
section_name: Beginnings and breakthrough (1980–1989)
paragraph_text: Beginnings and breakthrough (1980–1989)
  
  Moore co-wrote three songs with Freddy Moore and appeared in the music video for their selection It's Not a Rumor, performed by his band, the Nu-Kats. She continues to receive royalty checks from her songwriting work (1980–1981).
  
  Moore appeared on the cover of the January 1981 issue of the adult magazine Oui, taken from a photo session in which she had posed nude. In a 1988 interview, Moore said she "only posed for the cover of Oui —I was 16; I told them I was 18." Interviewer Alan Carter said, "However, some peekaboo shots did appear inside. And later, nude shots of her turned up in Celebrity Sleuth —photos that she once said 'were for a European fashion magazine'." In 1990, she told another interviewer, "I was 17 years old. I was underage. It was just the cover."
  
  Moore made her film debut as the protagonist's girlfriend in Choices (1981), a sports drama directed by Silvio Narizzano. It did not garner much attention until after Moore became a household name, with home video releases heavily hyping up her appearance. Her second feature was the 3-D sci-fi horror Parasite (1982), for which director Charles Band had instructed casting director Johanna Ray to "find me the next Karen Allen ". It proved to be a minor hit on the drive-in circuit, ultimately grossing $7 million. Moore had already joined the cast of the ABC soap opera General Hospital several months before the film's release, playing the role of investigative reporter Jackie Templeton through 1983. During her tenure on the series, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in the 1982 spoof Young Doctors in Love.
  
  Moore's film career took off in 1984 following her appearance as the teenage daughter of a businessman (played by Michael Caine) in the sex comedy Blame It on Rio. In No Small Affair (1984), she played the love interest of an amateur photographer, opposite Jon Cryer. Sheila Benson of Los Angeles Times called her "the movie's revelation", asserting that she was " gamine, molten, wild, tragicomic and genuinely affecting." Her commercial breakthrough came with her role as an uninhibited banker in Joel Schumacher 's yuppie drama St. Elmo's Fire (1985). Having lobbied for her casting, the director urged her to go to rehab before shooting and hired a full-time sober companion during production. The film received negative reviews, but was a box office success and brought her widespread recognition. Because of her association with that film, she was often listed as part of the Brat Pack, a label she felt was "demeaning".
  
  Moore progressed to more serious material with the romantic dramedy About Last Night... (1986), in which she played one half of a Chicago couple, alongside Rob Lowe. It marked a positive turning point in her career, as Moore noted that, following its release, she began seeing better scripts. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and praised her performance, writing, "There isn't a romantic note she isn't required to play in this movie, and she plays them all flawlessly." The success of About Last Night... was unrivaled by Moore's other two 1986 releases, One Crazy Summer and Wisdom, the last youth-oriented films in which she would star.
  
  Moore made her professional stage debut in an off-Broadway production of The Early Girl, which ran at the Circle Repertory Company in fall 1986. Mel Gussow of The New York Times deemed it a "striking debut" and observed that she "has exactly the right combination of naivete and know-how, and is unabashed about the demands of the performance." In 1988, Moore starred as a prophecy-bearing mother in the apocalyptic drama The Seventh Sign —her first outing as a solo film star— and in 1989, she played the quick-witted local laundress and part-time prostitute in Neil Jordan 's Depression -era allegory We're No Angels, opposite Robert De Niro and Sean Penn.
  
  Moore co-wrote three songs with Freddy Moore and appeared in the music video for their selection It's Not a Rumor, performed by his band, the Nu-Kats. She continues to receive royalty checks from her songwriting work (1980–1981).
  
  Moore appeared on the cover of the January 1981 issue of the adult magazine Oui, taken from a photo session in which she had posed nude. In a 1988 interview, Moore said she "only posed for the cover of Oui —I was 16; I told them I was 18." Interviewer Alan Carter said, "However, some peekaboo shots did appear inside. And later, nude shots of her turned up in Celebrity Sleuth —photos that she once said 'were for a European fashion magazine'." In 1990, she told another interviewer, "I was 17 years old. I was underage. It was just the cover."
  
  Moore made her film debut as the protagonist's girlfriend in Choices (1981), a sports drama directed by Silvio Narizzano. It did not garner much attention until after Moore became a household name, with home video releases heavily hyping up her appearance. Her second feature was the 3-D sci-fi horror Parasite (1982), for which director Charles Band had instructed casting director Johanna Ray to "find me the next Karen Allen ". It proved to be a minor hit on the drive-in circuit, ultimately grossing $7 million. Moore had already joined the cast of the ABC soap opera General Hospital several months before the film's release, playing the role of investigative reporter Jackie Templeton through 1983. During her tenure on the series, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in the 1982 spoof Young Doctors in Love.
  
  Moore's film career took off in 1984 following her appearance as the teenage daughter of a businessman (played by Michael Caine) in the sex comedy Blame It on Rio. In No Small Affair (1984), she played the love interest of an amateur photographer, opposite Jon Cryer. Sheila Benson of Los Angeles Times called her "the movie's revelation", asserting that she was " gamine, molten, wild, tragicomic and genuinely affecting." Her commercial breakthrough came with her role as an uninhibited banker in Joel Schumacher 's yuppie drama St. Elmo's Fire (1985). Having lobbied for her casting, the director urged her to go to rehab before shooting and hired a full-time sober companion during production. The film received negative reviews, but was a box office success and brought her widespread recognition. Because of her association with that film, she was often listed as part of the Brat Pack, a label she felt was "demeaning".
  
  Moore progressed to more serious material with the romantic dramedy About Last Night... (1986), in which she played one half of a Chicago couple, alongside Rob Lowe. It marked a positive turning point in her career, as Moore noted that, following its release, she began seeing better scripts. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and praised her performance, writing, "There isn't a romantic note she isn't required to play in this movie, and she plays them all flawlessly." The success of About Last Night... was unrivaled by Moore's other two 1986 releases, One Crazy Summer and Wisdom, the last youth-oriented films in which she would star.
  
  Moore made her professional stage debut in an off-Broadway production of The Early Girl, which ran at the Circle Repertory Company in fall 1986. Mel Gussow of The New York Times deemed it a "striking debut" and observed that she "has exactly the right combination of naivete and know-how, and is unabashed about the demands of the performance." In 1988, Moore starred as a prophecy-bearing mother in the apocalyptic drama The Seventh Sign —her first outing as a solo film star— and in 1989, she played the quick-witted local laundress and part-time prostitute in Neil Jordan 's Depression -era allegory We're No Angels, opposite Robert De Niro and Sean Penn.