A Hollywood icon for more than four decades, beloved actor Rob Lowe shares personal highs, lows and "profound" epiphanies from his journey from Midwest kid to Brat Pack idol to sober family man: "There's nothing in my life I would change."
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00:00Oh, what a shot!
00:04As my kids would say, how about the fit?
00:07This fit is so 19...
00:09Like, I know exactly by what we're wearing.
00:12This is 1978.
00:16I'm Rob Lowe, and this is my life in pictures.
00:21Oh my gosh.
00:23First of all, I remember that book.
00:25And I cannot believe how beautiful my mom looks.
00:28My dad has always been handsome, remains handsome, but how young they are.
00:31Holy moly.
00:33My dad would have just graduated from law school
00:35and just moved from UVA, where I was born,
00:38to my first house on Aberdeen.
00:40And I know it's my first house because I remember the fireplace behind me.
00:44So they would have just moved there.
00:46So this is in Dayton.
00:49One of my first memories would have been this book.
00:52It was like a felt book.
00:54It was made out of cloth of some sort.
00:57My mom always read me books.
00:59She got me into it.
01:01She was an English teacher.
01:03So she started my love of reading.
01:05And I don't have that many photos of my parents together,
01:08my mom and dad together, because they split up when I was four.
01:11So this one is a particularly sweet one for me.
01:14My parents' divorce changed my life,
01:18for obvious reasons, as does any child.
01:21And I'm thankful for it
01:25because it reminded me of the importance
01:29of what I've been able to accomplish with my wife and my boys.
01:35See, this photo means a lot to me, actually.
01:37It talks about my work ethic.
01:39Like, I have always been a worker.
01:42I just am.
01:43And I remember my paper route for the Dayton Daily News.
01:45It was in a new neighborhood I had moved in
01:48where there were a lot of people who didn't have a lot of money.
01:51And most of the people didn't pay me.
01:55Can you imagine not paying the paperboy?
01:56But they didn't.
01:57And my dad, God love him, who was an attorney,
02:00took me to small claims court on behalf of me
02:04to sue the people who weren't paying the paperboy.
02:08And, of course, nobody showed up.
02:10And the judge, I won in absentia.
02:12And I didn't want any money, but it was a great Pyrrhic victory.
02:15It was my foray into the legal system.
02:18But I loved my paper route so much.
02:20I wasn't good at collecting, obviously,
02:22but I was super good at throwing that paper.
02:25I could hit a door like no other.
02:28Oh, what a shot.
02:30As my kids would say, how about the fit?
02:34This fit is so 19...
02:36Like, I know exactly by what we're wearing.
02:38This is 1978.
02:41And there's my grandpa's.
02:42He got a new Cadillac every year.
02:44I remember this red one.
02:45It was the only red one he ever got.
02:47So we're up at grandpa's.
02:48And I'm definitely sort of feeling myself in this photo.
02:51I can see that. I remember that.
02:53I was like, yeah, I'm a young man.
02:55I'm out there.
02:56I'm making it happen.
02:57In Chablot, showing attitude, as always.
03:00A little winky face.
03:03My mom remarried, and we moved with our new family
03:06to Malibu, California.
03:09Not because I wanted to be an actor.
03:11Not because it would be close to Hollywood.
03:13That's just the way it happened.
03:16My father-in-law at the time
03:20had a practice in Southern California.
03:23He was a doctor.
03:24So that's how we ended up in Malibu.
03:26And I actually didn't want to go.
03:28I was young and 11 years old,
03:31and your friends are important to you in Ohio.
03:34So it was kind of, if you can imagine,
03:36the notion of moving from Dayton to Malibu
03:39wasn't a good thing for me.
03:41I wanted to be with my friends.
03:43But within a while,
03:45I saw Malibu, of course, for how amazing it is,
03:48and started acting.
03:49And this is a photo that I'm going to guess.
03:53First of all, it's hard for me to get beyond the hair.
03:55I don't know what is going on.
03:57Like, was there a curl?
04:00It looks like there might have been a curler involved.
04:02There wasn't.
04:03But it sure looks like I could add curlers.
04:06What is this haircut?
04:08I'm 15.
04:09I've got my first big starring role.
04:11I was so excited.
04:13I mean, the adrenaline of it.
04:15The wide-eyed, know-nothing,
04:17whole world in front of you.
04:19I remember it like it was yesterday.
04:21And I remember it as being a whirlwind.
04:23Listen, I was the kid who at 10 years old
04:27was in a hotel and saw that Liza Minnelli was checking in
04:30and went to the front desk and said,
04:32is that Liza Minnelli?
04:33What room is she in?
04:34And they told me.
04:36And I went up, knock, knock, knock.
04:38Hi, I want to be an actor.
04:39I mean, I was like Mr. Chutzpah.
04:43Just turned 18.
04:44I had my 18th birthday on the set in Tulsa.
04:47And there's the group.
04:48I mean, wow.
04:50Those are my guys, my homies.
04:51This is my fraternity.
04:53These are my frat brothers.
04:56And now with time and with so many generations growing up
05:00and accepting the movie and it being a part of their lives,
05:03and now it's a musical that's won the Tony,
05:06and the movie has become a whole other thing.
05:11It's not in the category of the godfather,
05:13but it does remind me that I asked Francis, who directed it,
05:16what's it like when you make a movie
05:18that becomes something other,
05:21that generations after generations love?
05:24And he was able to talk to me about that,
05:26and now that's what The Outsiders has become.
05:28Every year there's a new crop of seventh grade boys and girls
05:32that fall in love with it.
05:34And to be a part of it is really special.
05:36Emilio and I, he really helped me navigate
05:39where this was all going,
05:40A, because his dad was Martin Sheen,
05:42and Martin had made Apocalypse Now with Francis.
05:45So can you imagine the ability to get cast in a movie
05:49that Francis Ford Coppola's making,
05:51and walking down the street, four doors,
05:54and talking to your best friend's dad
05:56about what it's like to star in a Francis Ford Coppola movie?
05:59That's what I was able to do.
06:00To have a best buddy going through the ups and downs
06:03and rejections and highs and lows
06:06of being a young actor in Hollywood
06:09is super good to have.
06:11I see it with my son John Owen.
06:13He and Patrick Schwarzenegger are best buddies,
06:15and it reminds me very much of me and Emilio,
06:17where they compare what projects are getting made,
06:20and, you know, it makes me feel like I'm living full circle.
06:27I don't know what makes me more nostalgic,
06:29a picture of the Brat Pack or a picture of Lohenbrau.
06:32I don't see that anymore.
06:35I didn't know the Brat Pack drank Lohenbrau,
06:38but they sure the hell did.
06:40The Brat Pack is having a moment.
06:43It really is, and it couldn't make me happier.
06:47I love this movie.
06:49It was a seminal point for me
06:51becoming comfortable in the space I occupied as an actor.
06:55It was the beginning of a real rocket ship ride, it felt like.
06:58It started with The Outsiders,
07:00and then this really, like, superpowered it.
07:03And I love that it's, I don't think it's so much
07:05being rediscovered as re-celebrated for some reason right now,
07:08and Andrew's biography has a lot to do with it.
07:11When the term Brat Pack came out, the article was horrible.
07:16I actually came out okay in it. I read it again recently.
07:19And I actually, it was the one night I went home early.
07:23Like, what a rarity.
07:26So somebody was looking out for me,
07:28but it was a hit piece, there's no doubt about it.
07:31It was designed to belittle us, make us look small.
07:34With that journalistic trick of plausible deniability.
07:39And so that was no fun.
07:42But in the industry, for a long time, I think, probably,
07:45it didn't help our credibility.
07:47But the public, at the end of the day, that's all that matters.
07:51They never got that memo.
07:54They're like, that sounds cool.
07:56And I think I realized that probably quicker
07:58than the rest of the people that it was a good thing.
08:01I'm super happy to be the parliamentarian of the Brat Pack.
08:05Emilio might be the president, but I'm the parliamentarian.
08:08And I say parliamentarian because it's the only student government role
08:12that I, election I ever won.
08:14It was an incremental process to occupying that place
08:18and the culture that I did in the 80s.
08:21And it was a lot.
08:23I'm super grateful that I can say that I had that in my life.
08:27Very few people get to be that person.
08:32I just saw this recently.
08:34It was so ahead of its time.
08:36This movie is, I'm really proud of this movie.
08:39What I really like about the movie
08:41is it's such an amazing Los Angeles movie.
08:45There's movies about New York.
08:47Manhattan, Annie Hall, all the Woody movies.
08:50The Sidney Lumet movies, Pacino movies, Dog Day Afternoon, Marathon.
08:54Bad Influence, I think, would be one of the great L.A. movies.
08:59It's such a snapshot of the underground club culture
09:03and hipster life in Los Angeles.
09:06And it's so dark and funny.
09:11Really funny and weird and super sexy and violent.
09:15That's not a very common combination.
09:19I was just about to get sober.
09:21Just about to get sober.
09:23This was the last hurrah.
09:25I was 26.
09:26The only thing that bears repeating about Bad Influence
09:29is this is where I fell in love with Cheryl.
09:32She was my makeup artist on this movie.
09:35And we were best buddies.
09:37And this was the beginning of, right here,
09:40a journey that continues 33 years.
09:45I was dating Cheryl, attempting to be monogamous.
09:50A young drinking movie star trying to be monogamous is not easy.
09:56And, of course, I screwed it up.
09:59And Cheryl, God bless her, said,
10:01I'll always be your friend, but I can't.
10:04And, again, I had an epiphany,
10:07like I did when I was 8 years old and saw the kids on stage
10:10and I said, I want to be an actor.
10:12I had an epiphany that if I couldn't make it work with her,
10:17I couldn't make it work with anybody.
10:19I couldn't make it work with her without getting sober.
10:23This, of course, is on my wedding day.
10:25And this is our first dance to the love theme from Out of Africa.
10:31Again, there's that thing of what I felt then and what I feel now,
10:34looking back on it.
10:35And I remember vividly, I feel like I had the best wedding day.
10:41Cheryl Lowe is a closer.
10:43And when I proposed to Cheryl Lowe,
10:45I just wanted to propose to her.
10:47That was it.
10:48I had no designs on when or where or nothing.
10:53That was big enough.
10:54I barely could get myself to.
10:57By the time that evening was over,
11:01she had me committed to a wedding date.
11:04A month later, one month later, we were doing this.
11:08So talk about whirlwind.
11:10And what was great about it was we didn't get caught up
11:13in getting a big place to do it or fancy anything.
11:17It was very quiet.
11:18It was at a friend's house.
11:20Nobody even knew they were coming to a wedding
11:22because we didn't want word to get out.
11:24It was just for us, and I have nothing but great memories.
11:26I had no stress around it.
11:28It was just an amazing day,
11:30and I'm really grateful that I was able to be present
11:32for my own wedding and that day
11:34because I know what it's like when friends have big weddings
11:37and there's nothing wrong with it,
11:39but it becomes another thing.
11:42And this was a very good day.
11:45Sober in love, carving out a brand-new life,
11:47and, like, actively, aggressively
11:50walking down that path
11:53and feeling great about it, for sure.
11:58I was getting ready to go to our friend's house
12:02where we got married,
12:03and I was putting on my suit I was married in.
12:06The phone rang, and I picked it up,
12:08and it was Lorne Michaels.
12:09The studio was questioning whether I should...
12:12They wanted to pay me what they should pay me
12:15to star in a movie called Wayne's World,
12:18starring two unknown actors,
12:20and there was a big rhubarb about it.
12:22And Lorne said,
12:23um, I think it would be helpful if you came to dinner
12:26with the head of the studio tonight.
12:27I said, Lorne, I'm getting dressed right now to go get married.
12:30He went, well, then I guess dessert is out of the question.
12:34We got married, went to Cabo San Lucas for our honeymoon
12:38in the days when there was no phone.
12:40There were no phones.
12:41It seems like we're in the 1800s,
12:43but there were no phones.
12:44The reason I know that is because they had to fax
12:47the offer to do Wayne's World the day I got there.
12:51And we had to turn around and come home,
12:53and we never really had our proper honeymoon.
12:55Believe me, I've had to make up for it.
12:58Look, I grew up watching Saturday Night Live
13:01as it unfolded.
13:02I watched it in 75 when it came out,
13:05watched it every year.
13:07I'm as big aficionado of SNL as anybody.
13:10I'd hosted once, and we all had such a connection,
13:13Lorne, Mike Myers, and I,
13:15that this is what this was born of.
13:17But to be accepted into the clique,
13:19that's the clique.
13:20I mean, that's really the clique,
13:23and it remains one of my great things
13:26that I'm happy about,
13:27because if you'd have told 11-, 12-year-old Rob
13:30watching SNL that one day he'd be a part of the family,
13:33I would never have believed it.
13:36Becoming a dad was the best thing I ever did.
13:39It's the best thing that's ever happened to me.
13:41It remains the best thing that's ever happened to me.
13:43It's been the thing that I think I've been best at.
13:48And by the way, there's no perfect way.
13:50We all f*** our kids up in some way.
13:52I've learned that.
13:53But I feel very, very, very good
13:56that I was at a place in my life
13:58where I could devote all my energy to it.
14:00I feel for dads who have to be on the road
14:02or building a business
14:04or in a bad relationship, whatever it is.
14:07I mean, I worked at it,
14:08but I also got really lucky that the stars lined up
14:12for me to be a dad.
14:14And, man, did I love it.
14:16I still love it, and I look back on this.
14:18I mean, these were such great times,
14:20and I look back at these two little guys,
14:22and I can't believe that they were ever that little.
14:25And yet when you're going through it,
14:26you feel like it'll never end.
14:28It's pretty fun.
14:31At the moment I had the boys,
14:32I consciously went into TV,
14:35and that was a time, it was pre-peak TV.
14:38And it was still a time where movie stars
14:42didn't really do TV, or if you did TV,
14:44it was like some kind of indictment
14:46that your career wasn't going great or whatever.
14:48But the script for West Wing was Aaron Sorkin,
14:51and it was great, and I knew it was great.
14:53And I wanted to be close to my family
14:55and not go on location anymore.
14:58And I'm looking at this photo of Martin and I,
15:01and, I mean, where do you want me to begin?
15:03That's Emilio's dad.
15:04That's the dad that we hid from when we were drinking.
15:07That's the dad that we'd hitchhike,
15:10and then he would be the only one who would pick us up.
15:13I mean, that's the dad that we would go
15:15to the Malibu chili cook-off together.
15:17And now here I am playing Sam Seaborn
15:20to his president Bartlett, and the world has come.
15:23But he's from Dayton, Ohio!
15:25When we talk about Ignorance is Bliss,
15:27I wasn't really aware that Dayton, Ohio
15:29isn't exactly the road to Hollywood.
15:32But who'd have known that eventually
15:35I would be on a show called The West Wing
15:37with two other Daytonians,
15:39Allison Janney and Martin Sheen.
15:40So I guess it is the road to Hollywood.
15:42So there's a lot to unpack, as they say here,
15:46but it always just, more than anything,
15:48when I see a picture from The West Wing,
15:50it just fills me with pride.
15:53Leslie Knope and Chris Traeger from Parks and Recreation.
15:56This just fills my heart because I love this cast so much.
16:01I'm having dinner with Pratt tonight.
16:02I mean, we're all extremely close.
16:05And looking at Amy Poehler, what a genius she is.
16:09What an amazing woman.
16:10Great mother and great director.
16:12And everybody on that cast,
16:14every single, up and down that call sheet,
16:16whether it's Aubrey or Rashida or Aziz or Pratt,
16:20everyone has created a ginormous career for themselves.
16:24And you'd never be able to put a cast like this
16:27together again.
16:28And I was super lucky to be a part of it.
16:31And I love that this is a show that never goes away.
16:37Like The West Wing, it's always there.
16:41This might be my favorite photo ever taken of me.
16:44This is one of my favorite parts I've ever played
16:47for a lot of reasons.
16:49One is, as a competitive actor,
16:53starting from The Outsiders, where I was one of seven,
16:56and you want to fight your way in,
16:58you want to make your mark.
16:59And it's finding that balance of being a team player,
17:01giving your all to everybody else,
17:03being there to support other actors,
17:05and then stealing every scene you possibly can.
17:11That's what this is.
17:12I'm Michael Douglas playing Liberace,
17:14two-time Oscar winner,
17:16one of the greatest leading men who ever lived.
17:18Matt Damon, arguably our greatest living actor.
17:22And I gotta go in there with three or four scenes
17:25and try to be memorable,
17:26and this is the result.
17:29No small roles, it's true.
17:33Daisy!
17:35Oh my God, this is, I love this.
17:37This is what it looks like
17:38when I'm going to work every day.
17:40So I've graduated, I used to stay,
17:43I used to have to drive myself.
17:45Now finally, I get driven.
17:48Now finally, I get driven.
17:50And this is me in the morning,
17:53rolling up to the set
17:55with my sweet little Daisy.
17:58And this is my happy place.
18:01I am such a dog dad.
18:03Look at Daisy, she is such a little movie star.
18:05She really is.
18:06This is what happens when Cheryl and I
18:07become empty nesters.
18:11This is from Unstable,
18:12and I just have such pride in Johnny
18:15and his ability to create a show like that.
18:18And again, the notion that my kid grew up
18:21to write a show and a character for me.
18:25Ted Sarandos says it's his favorite character
18:27I've ever played.
18:28I'm like, come on, Ted,
18:29you're just saying that because it's on Netflix.
18:30He goes, no, he says,
18:31I think this is the role you were born to do.
18:33I go, well, my son did write it, so.
18:35I love this, and this is such a perfect example
18:37of the kind of stuff I'm doing.
18:38I'm probably showing how to relax his lower face
18:41for a closeup.
18:42Something super technical and dad-like.
18:44It's a dream personally and professionally.
18:47So personally, you want your kids to succeed.
18:50You know, the notion of him producing,
18:52writing, starring at 28 is fantastic.
18:56And then professionally, for me,
18:59what I didn't expect that is the greatest gift
19:02is that I no longer have to sweat the details
19:06on the show because our taste,
19:09our point of view, our worldview
19:12is exactly simpatico.
19:14So in season one, I did a lot of the editing,
19:17things like that.
19:18In season two, I was able to say,
19:21if you're happy with that cut,
19:23I'm sure I'll like it,
19:24and know that that's the case.
19:26The other thing is his work as an actor
19:28in season two is next level.
19:31Because you forget.
19:32Like, I've been doing this,
19:33I look at early movies of mine
19:35and I can see myself learning
19:37and trying new things
19:38and maybe getting better here and there.
19:41Any actor grows and any character grows
19:44and the growth that Johnny shows
19:45in season two is tremendous.
19:50We were in the Caribbean,
19:51walking on a deserted beach
19:53and saw this boat.
19:55And I know a good photo op when I see it.
19:59I have no idea why the boat was there.
20:01I have no idea why it says low.
20:03But I was like, boys, we're taking a photo op
20:06in case we ever do an album.
20:07I think this would be,
20:08if we ever do like the Bacon Brothers
20:10kind of vibe, but with the Lowe family,
20:12this is our album cover.
20:13It's funny, Matthew and I have so many
20:15businesses that we're doing together.
20:17Matthew's currently working for Eldridge
20:19and they own the Dodgers
20:20and they own Chelsea.
20:21And I was on the phone with him four times today
20:24with different things.
20:25So I get the creative show business
20:27with Johnny and the business branding
20:30investment opportunity with my other son.
20:33And I spend almost an equal amount of time
20:36with them professionally.
20:39And then personally, we've always been close.
20:41And Matthew's my skier, fisherman,
20:44outdoorsman, history buff.
20:47And that's the stuff that we share together.
20:53Having such a long, great marriage,
20:56being sober 34 years,
20:59having two healthy, productive, amazing boys,
21:03going into my sixth decade,
21:05working at this level.
21:06I know how rare that is.
21:08If I'd have gotten the wishes that I had wished
21:10for myself when I was younger,
21:11I would have sold myself short
21:14for what I actually got.