Revisited: The Power of Saying "Screw It" with Rob Lowe

A Bit of Optimism

In this episode, Rob Lowe discusses his decades-long career in Hollywood, focusing on how a 'healthy case of the fuck-its'—a willingness to ta

Key takeaways

• Rob Lowe attributes his career longevity to a lack of fear regarding professional pivots, such as moving from film to television.
• The modern audience places a premium on authenticity, valuing performers who are the same person on-camera as they are off-camera.

Main topics

• Career longevity in Hollywood
• The value of risk-taking

Notable quotes

I've always had a healthy case of the fuck-its.

Conclusion

The episode serves as an inspiring look at how resilience and authenti

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) So you decide to do a sock and dance for the opening of the Oscars. Speaker 1 (0:04) Can't dance, really. Speaker 2 (0:05) Okay, okay. Speaker 1 (0:07) I mean, I didn't get footloose for a reason. Speaker 2 (0:09) For a reason, right. And it doesn't go well, is what you're saying? Speaker 1 (0:12) It doesn't go well. It doesn't go well. There was an open letter to the Academy the next day signed by like Paul Newman and Gregory Peck. And like, this was an affront to our sensibility. How dare you? I mean, I looked out in the audience and I saw, it was the night Barry Levinson won 10 Academy Awards for Rain Man. Speaker 2 (0:37) And Speaker 1 (0:37) I literally saw him mouth, what the fuck? Speaker 2 (0:44) Didn't go well. To borrow a line from Heidi Klum, in Hollywood, one day you're in and the next you're out. But not for Rob Lowe. He has been a fixture since the 1980s and has had decades worth of iconic roles, from St. Elmo's Fire to The Outsiders to The West Wing to Parks and Rec. In an industry that chews him up and spits him out, how has Rob Lowe stayed relevant for so long? It's not just his good looks, and yes, he is very good looking. It's something else. The real secret to Rob's longevity is something more powerful. As he puts it, he's got a serious case of the fuck-its. He likes taking risks, knowing full well that they don't always work out. But the thrill of doing something new is exactly the thing that has helped him find opportunities where others don't. In addition to the movies and TV shows, he's also the host of the podcast Literally with Rob Lowe and is host of The Floor, which airs its fourth season on September 24th on Fox. This is a bit of optimism. Speaker 2 (1:59) How old were you when you got famous? Young, very young. Speaker 1 (2:05) The first time, because then it came and then went. Speaker 2 (2:09) Oh, really? Speaker 1 (2:11) Yeah, because I got famous as a teen idol. Right. And then it didn't work. Speaker 2 (2:17) And Speaker 1 (2:17) what was the thing that put you on the map? It was a sitcom called A New Kind of Family. And I was 15. And so, you know, you're the you're like the you were on the cover of Teen Beat. Yeah, all that all that stuff. Bop. Speaker 1 (2:33) Teen beat. Is there something about, like, maybe just because I'm just a fucking old pervert. There's something about. Oh, wait. I Speaker 2 (2:40) just put it together. Teen Speaker 1 (2:42) beat and Speaker 2 (2:42) bop. I never. Wait. I just put that together in this moment. The minute you said pervert, immediately I understood. Teen beat. I had never made that association. Teen beat? You've just. Are they kidding with that? Bop. But you were on the cover. That's worse. Chee bop. Speaker 1 (2:58) No, no, I Speaker 2 (2:59) get it. But you were on the cover. That's the worst part. Oh, yeah. Speaker 1 (3:02) You were the team. I was a cover boy at 15. Yeah. And then had an early midlife crisis at 16 and 17. Didn't work because they hired only 18-year-olds to play younger because of the child labor loss and how long you could work on a set. And I just didn't work for two and a half years and I thought my career was over. And then I got... The Outsiders, and that was a whole other level of fame. That's movie. That started it. Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:33) Because you, I have a friend, you're relatively grounded. I Speaker 1 (3:39) mean, I'll go with relatively. Speaker 2 (3:42) Relatively. Speaker 1 (3:43) Yes. Relatively grounded. Because I Speaker 2 (3:45) have a friend who has a theory that when people achieve fame, any kind of growth that they have ceases. Oh, I have that theory. It's true. Speaker 1 (3:53) Yeah. And so like child Speaker 2 (3:55) actors are screwed because they stop growing and they think everybody says yes to you is normal. Speaker 1 (4:02) Yes. Whenever I... That's 100 % true. Unless you do... a ton of work on yourself, you're frozen in amber. Right. The minute you get famous. Yes, that's true. It's absolutely true. Speaker 2 (4:15) So when people achieve adult fame, they're a little more grounded because they know where they came from, hopefully. Some forget it. Speaker 1 (4:21) Well, and they also have experienced just by virtue of time, they've experienced more life. Speaker 2 (4:29) But your career is kind of amazing because you have, and this is a credit to you, you have been able to remain relevant. For forever. I mean, you were part of the Brat Pack back in the day. Yep. Mid-80s. Mid-80s. Early 80s, yeah. You know, John Hughes and that crew. Yep. I mean, that's my childhood. I grew up watching all of your movies. And I think I watched the documentary. Brat Pack Talk? That Andrew McCarthy did. With Andrew McCarthy. And to your credit and Demi's credit, like you guys. Like didn't get sucked into it. It wasn't you've maintained careers and relevance up until now. He Speaker 1 (5:11) didn't let that Speaker 2 (5:12) define Speaker 1 (5:12) us. It didn't define you. Speaker 2 (5:13) What Speaker 1 (5:14) like Speaker 2 (5:15) was there a strategy to remain current? Like what what is it that makes one actor be able to survive for decades and another actor be a blip in time? No fault of their own. Just like they're super hot for a while and then they're just not. Sure. It's not that they're not talented. It's not that they're not good. It's not that they're bad people. It's not that they're hard to work with. It's just that they have their moment and then they don't. Speaker 1 (5:37) Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:37) I mean, actors are products, you know, to some degree. Same with Speaker 1 (5:40) singers. Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:42) So what is it? Was it luck? Was it something you did differently than other actors that helped you, that you're still working and people still love you and stop you on the streets and all the rest of it? Speaker 1 (5:55) I mean, not Speaker 2 (5:56) nostalgically. Speaker 1 (5:57) No, not nostalgic. In fact, the thing that I love the most is when like a group of 14 year olds come up. Speaker 2 (6:03) Yeah. Speaker 1 (6:04) Cause they've seen the outsiders and like, or they've watched parks and rec. Speaker 2 (6:08) Yeah. Speaker 1 (6:08) Or, you know, whatever being relevant is. Speaker 2 (6:12) So was it, was it something you did or was it, are you just like thanking your lucky stars every day that it kind of worked out? Speaker 1 (6:17) It's like anything else. You put yourself in a position to get lucky. Right. So one of the things is that I've, I've. I've always been a risk taker. And so if something's interesting to me, I'll do it. And so, for example, when I did the West Wing, that was at a time when if you had come from movies and God forbid you'd been in movies, but maybe you were in a sort of mini downturn, which I was, you definitely, if you did a TV series, you were admitting defeat. Speaker 2 (6:55) Right. Speaker 1 (6:55) And, and there were, I mean, I've talked to people. You Speaker 2 (6:59) could go from TV to movies, but you would never go to movies to TV. Never. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Speaker 1 (7:02) then, and I remember, you know, when, after I did it, guys like William Peterson, big movie crew to live and die in LA, he did CSI and Kiefer. Speaker 1 (7:14) said that I saw you on West Wing and was like, okay, maybe I'll do television. You did 24. So I'm not saying I blazed any trail, but when people see somebody do it, all of a sudden the stigma comes off of it. But I was able to do it because I just didn't care. And I was like, I've always had a healthy case of the fuck-its. And that really helps. And then the other thing is I'm naturally curious. So you Speaker 2 (7:42) want to do different things. I want to do different things. I've never done TV kind of thing. Never done Speaker 1 (7:45) a podcast. Right. You know, right. Never. But, you know, like when I wrote my first book, people were like, well, you can't write a memoir because that's another thing people do when it's over. Right. Or when they need money. Speaker 2 (7:59) Right. Speaker 1 (8:00) And I was like, well, it's neither for me. Yeah. And I don't care what people think because I think I have something to say. And now I'm on my third book. Speaker 2 (8:09) How did you develop the case of the fuck-its? Like, where did it come from? Like, was it instilled in you and your parents? Or did you, like, did you survive the career near-death experience and realize you survived so you'll be okay kind of thing? Speaker 1 (8:22) If you talk to my family, particularly my brothers, they'll tell you I always had it. Where are you in the pecking order? I'm the oldest. Okay. I mean, I think I've always had... Speaker 1 (8:35) a lack of fear. Speaker 1 (8:41) around like sort of ambition, audaciousness, lack of fear, whatever flavor you want to describe. It's that same ingredient I think I kind of was born with. Speaker 2 (8:51) So give me an example of something that at a risk you took and it didn't work out. And it was like, oh, well, give me one. Just give me one. I Speaker 1 (8:58) got a bad one. Agreeing to do a song and dance number to open the Academy Awards. Speaker 2 (9:07) Disaster. I wish you had talked to me before that. I could have advised you against that. Speaker 1 (9:13) What would you have said? Speaker 2 (9:14) Other Speaker 1 (9:14) than Speaker 2 (9:14) it's a horrible idea. It's a horrible idea. Okay, so can you sing and dance? Let's start there. Speaker 1 (9:21) I'm an actor who sings. Speaker 2 (9:22) Okay, so you're a double threat. I can Speaker 1 (9:24) sing as well as Russell Crowe. Let's put it that way. No disrespect to Russell Crowe at all. But not... I mean, Kiefer Sutherland tours a band. I think I could go up and do a duet with him. Speaker 2 (9:38) Okay, so you decide... I mean, I'm no Speaker 1 (9:39) Bacon Brothers. Speaker 2 (9:40) So you decide to do a sock and dance for the opening of the Oscars. Speaker 1 (9:45) Can't dance, really. Okay, Speaker 2 (9:46) okay. Speaker 1 (9:47) I mean, I didn't get footloose for a reason. Speaker 2 (9:49) For a reason, right. And it doesn't go well, is what you're saying? It Speaker 1 (9:53) doesn't go well. It doesn't go well. Speaker 1 (9:58) There was an open letter to the Academy the next day signed by like Paul Newman and Gregory Peck. And like, this was an affront to our sensibility. How dare you? I mean, I looked out in the audience and I saw, it was the night Barry Levinson won 10 Academy Awards for Rain Man. Speaker 2 (10:18) And Speaker 1 (10:18) I literally saw him mouth, what the fuck? It didn't go well. Speaker 2 (10:28) Okay, so you come off stage, you're fully aware of what happened. Speaker 1 (10:32) Here's the other part. You got to have, there's a reason why a lot of actors are egomaniacs and self-centered narcissists, because you have to have a little bit of that to inoculate yourself to the indignities. that happen daily in a career where you're marked to market every single day. Speaker 2 (10:54) Right. Speaker 1 (10:55) So that part of me was like, fuck Barry Levinson. What does he know? Do you know what I mean? And then so you go, you go backstage and then you sit there and you're in the green room and there's Lucille Ball telling you that Speaker 2 (11:11) you're a wonderful dancer and singer. She's making fun of you. Speaker 1 (11:14) No, she loved it. Oh, really? No, she Speaker 2 (11:17) legitimately. But she's also a comedy genius. Speaker 1 (11:20) God damn it. I always thought she liked it. You've totally rewritten my own history, Simon. Speaker 1 (11:28) The history I tell Speaker 2 (11:30) myself is that everybody Speaker 1 (11:31) hated it except Lucille Ball. Speaker 2 (11:33) Now Speaker 1 (11:34) it's just everybody hated it, including Lucille Ball. Speaker 2 (11:36) No, she loved it because she's a comedy genius. Speaker 1 (11:39) God damn it. Speaker 2 (11:40) She legitimately loved it. Young man. Speaker 1 (11:43) So Speaker 2 (11:44) Lucille Ball loved it. And then you read the open letter that it's an affront to the Academy and all our sensibilities. So is that a humbling? Or do you have a sense of humor about it? Like, this is what I want to understand, which is I want to understand, like, if there are these peaks and valleys and, you know, you have a healthy narcissism or unhealthy that... I've been Speaker 1 (12:04) diagnosed as a benevolent narcissist. Is that a diagnosis? Well, that's what Rashida Jones says. And I think she's actually a learned woman. Speaker 2 (12:13) Okay, so you're a benevolent narcissist, which means that you can take these situations and do you actually... Does it hurt or is it funny? Speaker 2 (12:23) Both. Simultaneously? Speaker 1 (12:25) Yes. Speaker 2 (12:26) So is that the reason that you've been able to maintain a career for so long? Is because you have a, as healthy as your ego is, you also get that it's a joke, it's Speaker 1 (12:38) a Speaker 2 (12:38) game. 100%. Like you're a caricature of yourself at times. Speaker 1 (12:41) Well, that's why when... Speaker 1 (12:45) Like one of my favorite things that I've ever done was the Comedy Central roast of myself. Speaker 2 (12:51) Right. Speaker 1 (12:51) It's brutal. Speaker 2 (12:52) Why do people agree to that? Speaker 1 (12:53) Well, see, that's just the thing. It's like, so I told Cheryl, I said, they've come to me. Your wife, Cheryl. Speaker 2 (12:59) My Speaker 1 (12:59) wife, Cheryl. They came to me like four years in a row. And I was like, I'm not doing that. And then I remember Justin Bieber did it. And he is a huge star. I was like, you know what? If Justin Bieber can do it, I can do it. Competition. Right. Speaker 1 (13:17) Right. Right? It's everything you've said about me. And Cheryl goes, I won't let you do it. You're going to be humiliated and nationalized. That ship has sailed. That's what I said. I remember I said to her. And she goes, well, are they at least going to pay you? And I go, yeah, they're going to pay me over a million dollars. She goes, oh, you're doing Speaker 2 (13:39) it. Speaker 1 (13:41) Everybody's Speaker 2 (13:42) got a price. Speaker 1 (13:43) Everyone has a price. What's Speaker 2 (13:43) the Speaker 1 (13:43) price of humiliation? Turns out it's about a Speaker 2 (13:46) million dollars. It's about a Speaker 1 (13:46) million dollars for about five hours work. Speaker 2 (13:48) Yeah. I would put up with a lot for that. Speaker 1 (13:52) I mean, who among us? So, but that said, I've never had more fun. Never. Never. It was so fun. And they eviscerated. Our good friend Maria Shriver I invited. And she sat there and. You can watch it on Netflix to this day or wherever the hell it is. The look of horror on Maria Shriver's face as I'm getting dissected. Speaker 2 (14:22) I wish Speaker 1 (14:23) I had watched this as prep. It's... Speaker 2 (14:27) so brutal. But it's... So where did you learn that? Did that come from being punched in the face a few times and learning? Like, was that natural or did you... What I'm getting at... I'll tell you what it is. What I'm getting at is can the rest of us learn? You are, you know, black belt jujitsu, you know, your ability to weather the punches. And the question I'm asking, the reason I'm going down this path is can the rest of us learn to withstand humiliation and... I don't want to say... you know, failures, but sort of like... Failures. Humiliations and failures. They Speaker 1 (15:01) wrote an open letter, Simon. Paul Newman wrote an open letter. Speaker 2 (15:04) Okay, so how did the rest of us learn to build the muscle of humiliation, to withstand humiliation and failure? Because ultimately it's good for... Growth. Growth, mental health, and career longevity. So I want to know where it came from. Speaker 1 (15:19) I mean, I think it's competitiveness. Like, I'm down, but I'm not out. Right? You see it with athletes all the time. Literally, they're down by X amount of points or... Speaker 2 (15:30) But what's going through your head when you're down? Because the difference between a great athlete and just a very talented athlete is the mental game, not the physical game. Speaker 1 (15:38) Well, it's like somebody in shoot... They say what makes great shooters is they forget the last bad shot. Speaker 2 (15:42) Yeah. Speaker 1 (15:44) So, I mean, they literally are impervious to the fact that they've gone 0 for 18. Yeah. They get the ball. They're not going, oh, what if I go 0 for 19? They're not. I mean, that's a real thing. I've been talking Speaker 2 (15:55) about this thing recently. I heard this guy talking about... he wanted to understand what makes the best tennis players the best tennis players. And what he discovered is that the top five are always in the top five. And like the next 20, 25 are like circulating in