WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1004 - Rob Lowe

Episode Date: March 25, 2019

Rob Lowe had several revelations over the course of his life. One is that there’s more fun in sobriety than in being under the influence. Another is that he should have had a sex tape scandal later in life when it actually would have helped his career instead of nearly killing it. And the latest is that he needs to keep doing different things to keep from getting bored, including hosting a game show alongside a giant robotic arm. Rob talks with Marc about these discoveries and the moments that led to them, including his early Brat Pack movies, his turn to comedic roles, and his three recurring nightmares, one of which came true. This episode is sponsored by Tacoma FD on TruTV, Stamps.com, Stay Free: The Story of The Clash on Spotify, and Happy on SyFy. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies

what the fucksters what's happening it's mark maron this is my podcast wtf welcome welcome to it welcome back hey it's you again what's happening i am uh as you can tell perhaps maybe maybe you can you know hear the difference i am doing this from uh uh what do we call it i'm on the road i've got my uh i've got my Zoom rig and my Beta 58s and my little cords, and I'm in a hotel room in Boulder, Colorado. I'm recording this on Sunday before the Monday that most of you will hear this. Maybe the people in the next room will hear it before you, perhaps the people in the hallway. I heard some of them out there

i don't know it seems okay sound seems okay today on the show i talked to rob low he came by the new situation over at the house came upstairs walked past the bedrooms into the back second bedroom there and uh we tucked in and did the thing he was actually the um the first person that i interviewed in that environment and i i think it went pretty well pretty together fella that rob low good talk nice to meet him yeah solid dude but i was in aspen and if you were following my story and my panic and my apprehension about my shows in aspen, I can tell you it turned out better than anticipated. And I learned some things too. I learned that the fears that I talked about

on the last show were there, certainly the PTSD from several sort of strained, difficult shows over the years at the Aspen Comedy Festival. But I actually realized it went deeper. It went deeper. and I think I might have touched on this a little bit but the the PTSD from my childhood and ski vacations with my family I think was more at the core of it and I didn't realize that until driving in just the

the only time my family would really get together and spend any time together for any period of time was on those ski vacations. And we didn't know each other that well. We were all in the same house, but kind of self-absorbed into our own thing. And when we all got together in the car, it could get pretty gnarly. Yeah, we'd listen to fun music. My dad had eight tracks. He had Hocus Pocus. He had Abbey Road. He had the soundtrack of American Graffiti. He had Buddy Holly's greatest hits. That was all pretty good. But when it really got down to it, in a hotel room, four people don't know each other that well. A couple of younger people that really have to defer to the older

people who are also nuts and selfish. It could get a little ugly. And I think I had forgotten just how bad those vacations were. Most of the days were ruined around a glove or perhaps a hat or why didn't we bring those socks that I like. My dad would go crazy over things like that, and usually before the ski day started, at least one of us was crying, whether it be my mother, my brother, or me, maybe all of us were crying, and then he'd find the socks, or he'd find the hat, or he'd get past it, and we'd hit the slopes. But not great memories. I do remember one ski trip where, I don't know, me and my family, me and my brother wasn't on it for some reason,

and it was me and my mother and father, and I declared that I wish they were more like my friend Eric's parents and then my dad yelled maybe you should go fucking live with Eric and then my mom was crying my dad was crying I was crying and I'm not sure that ever resolved itself now that I think about it but that was a ski trip but I'm okay I got to Aspen and I eventually, you know, made my way into town, walked around and realized what a ridiculous fantasy land it is. Just the class strata of Aspen is kind of, I wouldn't say disturbing, but extreme. I mean, you literally have some of the richest people in the world that have houses there that they visit maybe six days a year. So they're around. And

then you have some of the richest people in the world who go there to ski. And then you have locals and then you have, you know, kind of normal people that go there to ski. But the business, it is reasonably priced is not something that you hear in Aspen very much. It's like $9 for a cliff bar. Everything you buy, even if it's breakfast is $20. Again, not cheap, just noticing things. Oh, here's the other thing. I actually was walking down the street in Aspen. There was just a guy sitting in front of an office on the main street there where the bricked in area is. And I walked by him and as I'm walking by, he goes, you want to buy a house? and I walked by him, and as I'm walking by, he goes, you want to buy a house?

He said that he was a real estate agent on the street like a drug dealer. And I turned to him, and I said, is that really an impulse buy? And he goes, hey, sometimes, sometimes it's an emotional moment. You never know. It might happen. And I'm like, yeah, look, I don't have my checkbook, pal. Thanks for the offer. I wish you the best.

I hope you sell a house here on the street this afternoon. But the show, turns out, it was good. It was pretty fucking good, folks. I'd forgotten, as I always do, that however I freak myself out, once I get to sound check and I stand on that stage in whatever theater it is, part of me is like, oh, yeah, of course this is what I do. This is where I live. This is it.

There was some good press on me in Aspen. I mean, a guy for the Aspen Times. Actually, you know, things have been written about me here and there, but this guy kind of of did a good job he did a good job this guy andrew travers uh i talked to him and uh you never know but i got i was on the cover of the weekend section and in aspen you know 19 people live there so it actually means something and the article was good but you have still they told me there's a big walk-up crowd in the wheeler Opera House where I was performing, which I had performed in before different incarnations of myself over the years at the festivals. It's a beautiful little old theater built in the 1800s. It's got about 400 seats, and it's sweet. And I had only sold about half day before the show, but they said there's a lot of walk-up and ended up selling 75, 80%.

And it just turns out I get a text the day I got there that a comic I know was in town because he saw the article. He texted me. I was going to go up cold and just blow through an hour, 20, hour and a half on my own. But Ahmed Ahmed was in town. So I said, what are you up to, man? You want to do 10 before me? Kind of get him into shape. He said want to do 10 before me kind of kind of get him into shape he said sure so that was kind of a nice coincidence and the show was uh

it was great in a lot of ways at the altitude was kind of fucked up it kind of screwed with me a little bit kind of gets your brain a little screwy did I say screwy twice you want to buy a house uh but uh yeah but everything kind of clicked along you're always sort of out of breath there even if you're just walking up but two three stairs and i couldn't sleep that night because the altitude because you kind of feel like you're mildly drowning and you kind of wake up every 20 minutes so yeah but dreams man the dreams it was like it was like having a remote that you were flipping through, man. I traveled, man. I learned a lot about things that were percolating in the

back of my brain, boy, things were coming up. It's, it's sort of nice when, whether you have a fever or whether you're having trouble breathing because you're at an inhumane altitude that you get the opportunity to get a closer look at just what's teeming about in the old id. What's kicking around in the lizard brain and attaching itself to your regular life? Where are we at there? And if you can remember, make some notes for when you get back. But the show, all good good got up there killing killing went into some political stuff got one or two people one guy's like what happened to the jokes i'm like these are the jokes and you're near kind of you know everyone's laughing but you but you're the

only one talking another guy goes yeah it was funny before the political stuff and i was probably more diplomatic than i should have been i said look you know it's going to be done in a minute you can leave if you want i'll give you your money back because i got to tell you in about a half hour into the set it's going to get pretty gnarly for you you know it's going to get a little harder later in the show i'm going to mix it up but it's going to get a little rough i'll give you a heads up to let you know because i don't want to offend your delicate sensibility or your sort of faux victimness. But no one left. Yeah, they just wanted to make it known that they were there and have everybody be not

uncomfortable, because right when they opened their mouth, there was sort of a chorus like, no, boo. And I'm like, no, let's not, you know, let's not make that happen. I can manage this. I can bridge this gap. And we did. And I did a nice hour and 25 minutes set left i went back to the hotel couldn't sleep for about four hours watched

american sniper with commercials until the very end which i don't enjoy but i like when he kills the other sniper um yeah finally got to sleep it was a good good show. So all that belly aching on my behalf to you the other day, though it was true and the fear was real. It worked out. You want to buy a house? Huh? How about a house? So now now I'm in Boulder. I'm in Boulder, Colorado. it was quite an interesting drive uh beautiful beautiful drive but there was a couple of things that made it even more compelling but let me just lay a couple emails on you here we go this this is just from a guy named ed subject line i never thought of contacting you until dot dot dot please don't get dark please don't get dark like you just did on that episode with tall wilkenfeld you scare the shit out of me dude don't please don't get dark. Please don't get dark like you just did on that episode with Tal Wilkenfeld. You scare the shit out of me, dude. Don't.

Please don't do anything stupid. Your show keeps me positive, dude. Please don't get down. Please don't stop doing what you do. Please, Ed, relax. I wasn't that down. You're kind of an empath because I knew it was under there during that monologue. I knew there was a little tugging sadness, but I wasn't spiraling, pal.

And I'll try to keep out of a tailspin for you, Ed. Just relax, Ed, please relax. And thank you for your concern and your email. I appreciate it. So I'm getting ready to perform here in Boulder at the Boulder Theater. It was a beautiful drive, beautiful drive. But my buddy, Matt Sweeney, hit me to this, like there was a link to an drive but my buddy matt sweeney hit me to this like there was

a link to an npr thing of a record there's a link and i don't know if i'm pronouncing his name right mdo mdou is his first name makhtar is the second name and the album is called elana the creator and this is it's like some sort of saharan psychedelia so like i i hooked up the link on my phone and it's just music man it's just it's like it's like a rock album but it's uh it's i guess the guy plays something called a toreg style guitar it's a saharan style of music it's almost trance like but it's definitely got a rock sensibility. And it's just, you know, it's so rare that you hear something that kind of bends your sense of what electric guitar is, of what, you know, can or can't be rock music if it is rock music. But I didn't know anything about it, but the element of the Saharan kind of space. So I'm

driving through the Rocky Mountains, man. got you know snow-covered uh mountains all over all around me i'm going through tunnels and mountains and i'm just listening to this kind of trancy like i don't understand the language the guy's from niger and i don't know anything about him but just driving through those mountains it was sort of not counterintuitive but ironic that i'm listening to saharan kind of riffage, you know, in the elevated snow covered Rockies. But, you know, space is space, man. And when you get into that poetic space where shit just stretches out because of a of a groove or of a sort of riff that repeats itself, it's almost meditative, just moving in my rented Chevy Equinox through the Rocky Mountains, listening to music from a cat who's from a small village in central Niger,

just on fire with his tarry guitar sound, bringing the Saharan desert to my car as I move through my own poetic mental state through the Rocky Mountains. It's pretty great. And I think actually, it could work as a commercial for a Chevy Equinox, but that's not really where I was going. It did contain what was happening though, and it did keep us all moving.

So that was my experience heading into Boulder. So now here I am in the room talking to you. You want to buy a house? So Rob Lowe, think what you will. Have your ideas. Have your sense of him. But I was pleasantly surprised. He's currently hosting Mental Samurai on Fox, Tuesday nights on Fox. He's got a one-man show he tours around that I didn't know about.

Of course, I didn't know about his books. But, yeah, he tells me. He's got a one-man show he tours around that I didn't know about. Of course, I didn't know about his books, but yeah, he tells me. He tells me. I actually had a nice time talking to him. This is me talking to Rob. It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats, but meatballs, mozzarella balls, and arancini balls? Yes, we deliver those. Moose? No. But moose head? Yes. Because that's alcohol, and we deliver that too.

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A new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Whoa. You want to wear cans? Yeah, oh yeah. It makes me sound so much sexier.

Yeah. I'm already like it's a total difference. Yeah, right? Fuck yeah. Oh, it sounds pretty dead. And you're the first guy I've talked to in this setup. It's like a 1970s album. It is just dead.

You feel it, right? Oh, there's no presence at all. That's crazy. It is just dead. You feel it, right? Oh, there's no presence at all. That's crazy. It took a while. It took a lot of these platforms, a lot of these, whatever you call them, speaker walls. We could be doing a Steely Dan album. You know, it's funny you bring that up. You're a Steely Dan fan? Huge. Really? Yeah, huge. I know a lot of people don't get it. I just, I know a lot of people don't get it. I just, I didn't forever. And now, for some reason, I'm 55 and I put it on and I was like, that's kind of.

You listen to Hey 19 at your age and you're like, yeah, I get that. Young girl, really hot. I have nothing in common with. But all of it is very clean sounding. It sounds like they recorded it in space. Yeah, exactly. Where no one can hear you scream. It's kind of recorded it in like space. Yeah, exactly. Where no one can hear you scream. It's kind of relieving, you know?

Yeah. It's funny. I saw this interview with Springsteen. He goes, I hate those 70s songs. It's like the silence in them just makes me want to vomit. He said that? Yeah. Recently? Yeah.

He likes room, as they call it, in the trade. Well, that's right. And I think that those guys were anti-room. Very anti-room. Very anti-room. The clash of those guys. They went here like fucking spoons banging the commissary. I like that, though.

Not for you. Give me the deadened, sterile environment of Fleetwood Mac. Sure. Well, that, I mean, I can definitely get on board with Fleetwood Mac. So what happened? You came down here from Orange County? Santa Barbara. That's where you live? Yeah. And you've been there for 25 years. Now, yeah. Do you have a large expanse? I do. It's my only extravagance in life, really, is living way beyond my means in my home. So tell me, let's start here though because like i watched

the trailer for mental samurai and i know that's why you're here promoting and i don't usually pay much mind to prove to promoting things i like to do a longer interview yeah but i i'm just saying you get the offer for that yeah and uh what's the deliberation what happens is i get the offer yeah and i've had the over the years I've had offers to do game shows or as they like to call them now, what do they call them? Competition series. Yeah. Uh-huh.

That's a little more dignified, I guess. It's a little more dignified. It's like when they didn't call sitcoms sitcoms for a really long time. What did they call them? Half Hour Comedies. Oh, of course. Right. Yeah.

I love, I live for euphemisms. Yeah. I think they're genius. Most of them are put in place, so you'll do them. Yeah. It doesn't sound so bad. Like, do you want to randomly end this person's life expectancy? Yeah.

Murder them. Yeah. Right. I wonder, well, that's the thing about that fucking show i mean uh they may not be the game shows that we used to know because of the apparatuses involved yeah no it's it's it's an amusement park ride dude you've got people winging around in a machine and the and the arm it cost four and a half million dollars and it's a ride right that's part of it you could get sick and it's not fun if

you don't like rides and right well i mean because to your question the the the pitch was we're the people who make american ninja warrior i'm like i'm so down i love that show you do great okay and like that's the one where they obstacle courses correct right so like well we want to do an obstacle course for the mind ninja Ninja Warriors for the physical. Sure. This will be for the mind. Right. What does that look like? So I was involved in developing the whole concept with them.

Really? Yeah. So you were there on the ground floor when they were talking about the arm. Yeah, 100%. The ball that flies around that people are in. Totally. Yeah. Yeah.

Because I'm a producer on the show as well. So that's how it works. So that's how it works. You got a stake. I got a stake, Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm a producer on the show as well. So that's how it works. So that's how it works. And- You got a stake. I got a stake, baby. Yeah. And I'd also seen some of my pals like Alec Baldwin doing Match Game or Mike Myers doing

his thing or Amy Poehler doing her thing. And they all seem to be having so much fun. Alec Baldwin did Match Game? Alec Baldwin's been hosting Match Game for three years. Come on, Mark. Are you serious? Come on. I'm sorry, man.

Come on, bro. You've got to get out of this cat house. I know, I know. But deadened room. Have you talked to him about how he feels about it? I mean, you're saying that they're having a great time, but he's- Alec says it's the most fun he has. Really?

And by the way, it was everything I thought. It's so fun. The set, at least my set his is match game is very retro 70s he's got the long microphone there's a campiness to it yeah our thing is like this big amazing world and to walk on that set and get the butterflies of the the led towers and and to see people it's like going to Times Square. It's Times Square and it's yours. But like for me, like I hosted a game show once years ago and I was not into it at all.

You know, I had integrity. I was mad, but I was broke. You're just laughing at the idea of integrity. Yes, I'm laughing at the idea. You had integrity. How dare you? You're in show business and you had integrity i still do look where i'm doing my job i'm at home you know you're not

working for the man i'm not really not here no it's true but you know there was a lot of lean years though and when but when you know there's a there's a price to pay when you don't work for the man i know i was fortunate that the man didn't want to hire me anyway, so I did all right. It's perfect. But I could not wrap my brain around the fucking rules of the game. So I knew I was playing a game and that I had teams, but there was no stakes in this game. It was an improv game, so it wasn't a money game. Right.

So it was just like, and so the rules had a little play to them. But your game, there's that answer the question, don't answer the question, you lost the money. That's it. Yeah. And under a time constraint. And in a machine. And under a machine that's trying to kill you. So you're excited about it. Really? Listen, at this point in my life, there are fewer and fewer things that I haven't done. So when I get to do something that's really new where I literally don't know anything I mean and I and I say this with all humility yeah a lot of times on a set I'm the smartest guy in the room just I've been doing it forever right in terms of acting and all of it direct all of it yeah and so to go to a place where I literally know nothing right that's fun is really fun I guess that's true

like because I was looking at the uh the career arc here, and I mean, you really have not stopped working since the 80s. Since 1979. When I was 15 years old, I did my first sitcom or half-hour comedy. Really? Yeah, A New Kind of Family, ABC. I'm 15 years old. I got the David Cassidy hair going, Yeah. And that was really the beginning. Oh, so that, yeah, okay.

There it is, 79. Frightening. You were 15. Yeah. We're like the same age-ish. You 55? 55 this last weekend. Yeah, I turned 55 in September.

So, but you didn't grow up here, right? No, I grew up in Ohio. Really? In which part of Ohio? Dayton. That's the whole time that you grew up in Dayton? really in which part of ohio dayton that's the whole time that you grew up in dayton yep two fifth till 15 till 13 yeah and then what happened my parents divorced when you were 13 the yeah she my mom divorced twice once when i was five from my father and

then uh from my stepfather when i was 13 and then she came out to move us all out to L.A. And I was like, any 13-year-old didn't want to go. It was just you and your brother, Chad? Yep. And now, like, your real dad. Is he totally out of the picture? No, he's still in our lives, but he's still in Dayton, still practicing law at 80 years old. So, really? So, both exes are in Dayton.

Both of your moms, your stepdad and your dad are in Dayton. Yeah. And you like both of them. Yeah. All good. All good. I've been very blessed in that way. Are they both lawyers?

No. My dad is a lawyer. My stepdad is long since retired. What was that? What did he do? He literally invested in the earliest, like, what was it called? Photo, you know when you used to take your pictures to like a- Photomat?

Like a photomat. Yeah. He was one of the early investors in photomat and just took that money and like- And that was it? That's it. So he made his killing and he just- Yeah. And he knows how to live life?

Yeah, he's unbelievably cheap. And, you know, he's util cheap and and you know he's he's utilitarian and spartan yeah so he's made it go a long way oh that's well that's good so your mom's like she had enough of that yeah and uh she's like i'm fucking going to la coming to la i i did not want to even though i wanted to be an actor what was her plan her plan was was she wanted to go somewhere. I mean, she was done, done with the Midwest. Right. Right.

She's still around? No, she died young. Sorry. At 64, and thank you. So the LA for me was like a mixed bag. Yeah. Because I missed my friends. 13's a hard year to leave anywhere when it's beginning of adolescence.

What part of the town were you in? We moved to Point Doom in Malibu, which my mom chose because it had the cleanest air quality in all of Southern California. That's way out there, man. Way out. And in those days, living in Malibu in the mid-70s was like being in the ice storm meets Lord of the Flies meets Boogie Nights, but directed by people on Blow. So you're just out there. It's all like, it's just you and Bob Dylan and the people that are-

Bob Dylan was secretly buying all of the tract homes when I moved out there. Yeah. And then knocked them all down and built his mansion with like an- The dome? With an onion on the dome. The dome. Yeah, exactly. So did you see Bob Dylan around?

Bob Dylan would come to my brother's soccer games. Because he had a kid in the game? Yep. Jacob or the other one? It was Jacob. Yeah. So you just see Bob Dylan sitting there? You'd see Bob Dylan there

smoking a joint. You'd see David Carradine from Kung Fu on acid walking the Pacific Coast Highway. Hanging around. You'd see Mick Fleetwood at the Trankus Bar. That was the community? And then firefighters and

dentists and accountants and really sort of upper middle class working people. So you're stranded there with your brother and Bob Dylan and Mick Fleetwood. Are you older or younger? I'm the oldest. Right. So, and you're depressed. And slowly getting over it.

Because let's face it, it's Southern California and it's gorgeous and the ocean's there. And I think I was probably happy to be there within a year yeah and when you wanted to be an actor from early on yeah i think i did my first community theater i was eight oh yeah do you remember it yeah it was oliver oh really all the little kids in it were you oliver hell no i couldn't get the lead yet you were just my first thing one of the kids with a bowl please sir, sir, I want some more, whatever it was. My accent is still bad. Yeah, you can't do that one, I guess. No.

You can do a lot of other things. Yeah, but that's not in the card. English accents, no accents for you. I've thrown down some accents in the past, but English accents are scary. There's a lot of different kinds. That's the problem. Like, what kind of accents have you done? Well, when I did Kennedy, I did Kennedy.

Oh, that's right. And that was one of the big ones because everybody, that's such an iconic accent. Did you get flack? No, I got a Screen Actors Guild Award for that baby. Oh, that's... So that one went really well, but... Because that's a tough one.

That's an easy one to... Really want... You'll end up sounding like you're on The Simpsons. Right. It's an easy one to mangle. How are you? Yeah. well yeah go get the car you know uh so did you have to study with a coach or did you just like walk in what's what's great about the internet is there's so much footage available of an of of a public figure i just listened to hours and hours and hours and hours of him speaking.

Did you learn things? I learned so much. How are you still a Republican after that? He would have been a Republican today. I don't know. Dude, John Kennedy today, 100% his politics, he would have been a Democrat. What's happening? You think he would have been a Republican?

What is the word I'm looking for? Mentally, spiritually, morally, he would have stayed a Democrat, but his policies today, absolutely. His fiscal policies and his military. And even, listen, he was not Johnny on the spot with civil rights. That took him. No one was. But to my thing of like Democrat, Republican, it took him a while to get there. Sure.

But I learned a lot about Kennedy. And little things, here's my pet peeve when critics talk about accents. Yeah. Or people are like, I thought it was inconsistent. Meanwhile, John Kennedy said the word decade two different ways in his own life. Yeah. So John Kennedy was inconsistent with this one. We will go to the moon within the decade.

Yeah. And then he would say decade. Yeah. So it was decade, decade. Well, maybe it was just a bad day. Had a little brain fart. I know. Meanwhile, you got to pick one way to say it

when you're playing them. You didn't have two opportunities to say decade? No. You could have said both ways. Right. But how did you get in? What was the first sort of, how did you get in how what was the first sort of uh how'd you enter acting did your mom take you to auditions was it that kind of thing

i saw a play i don't remember which one it was and there were kids in it and i told my mom i wanted to do that that was back in ohio and that was back in ohio and she was like okay and i think i'm sure she thought it was no different than a kid saying you know i'd like to go to baseball camp this summer right but the difference was i was deadly serious about it and meant it from day one i don't know what to attribute it to and my parents were i think the sort of perfect mix of really supportive yeah but also not in any way stage parents right they were just sort of drop them off, fuck it. Yeah, totally.

Take the bus. Well, from Malibu, you know how far. I would take the bus. Hit this. Come on, man. At 13, I would take the bus from Malibu

into Hollywood and Vine. They just let us do that shit when we were kids. To audition, 100%. They were like, just take the bus. Yeah. To think of it today.

So that's like three hours and you're walking into like, you know, Sodom hours and then you're walking into like you know sodom yeah you're walking into some guy is like hi yeah and uh you know that you do the scene did you have to deal with that um no they yes and no i mean it was like you know hollywood is full of fucking creepy dudes and creepy girls, creepy people. I think you had a window there where you were considered one of them. Yeah, listen.

Listen, if you don't do your time in the barrel, you don't have a long career. Oh, the time in the barrel joke. Oh, boy. Yeah, everyone's afraid of their time in the barrel. It's coming for everyone. Oh, no. Yes. Come on.

Yes. All right, so you you're 13 and you're taking the bus to hollywood from malibu but no no one's teaching you acting no one's doing nothing you're just going out on what casting calls you have no agent you just i got it i got an agent a really tiny you know commercial agent their big other client was vince farragamo you know, commercial agent. Their big other client was Vince Ferragamo, you know, good looking quarterback guy. And it was just you and him? And a young 13 year old girl who originated the role of Annie named Sarah Jessica Parker.

Wow. We were the big clients. And you're about the same age? Exactly. Oh, wow. So she came out, so she was the big star he had. Big.

How'd you get the agent? My dad had represented someone in a divorce. Yeah. Out here. In Dayton. Yeah. Who had come to Hollywood and become an agent. And he cold called her and she said, yeah, I'll meet Rob.

And one thing led to another and it was sort of a fluke. But you didn't get her. You got she knew i got that agent oh she she was working for an agent yeah yeah oh that's wild yeah and he just started sending you out didn't get you set up with classes or anything um no and the other thing is i wouldn't because i was a you know i was 13 i wouldn't have really living in malibu i wouldn't have really had the time to come all the way in for school and auditions. And I'm pretty much 100% self-taught. I mean, I studied in the sort of middle of my career. My wife said to me, you know, you might want to think about acting lessons. I was like, oh, great.

Thank you. That's really wonderful. What was like, oh, great, thank you. That's really, that's wonderful. Was this a few years ago? In 2002 or something? But it literally was like in the 90s, like the middle of my career. And I thought, you know what, fuck it. I've never taken a proper acting class. Yeah.

And I'll do it. And it was great. I really, I learned a lot. I was playing a deaf mute in Stephen King's The Stand. Yeah. It's a sort of really renowned book and a renowned part. And I'll never forget going- Is that the Plague book?

Yes. Yeah. Which incidentally they're remaking. Yeah. And I'm deaf in one ear anyway. Yeah. So my idea- How did that happen?

They think I had the mumps when I was a kid and totally undiagnosed. So as long as I can remember. Okay. So my idea was to do something with the ear that I could hear with. Yeah. To really, you know, go methody, whatever. And then I met this acting coach and he was like, yeah, sure, you could do that. But if you want to work with me, what you need to realize is you do hear and you can talk.

So you need to play the character as a person who can hear and can talk and fools everybody into thinking that they can't. I was like, wait, I'm sorry, what? He's like, the less lying you're doing as an actor, the better you'll be. Isn't it all lying? It's all lying. Like he said, he says, I represent the guy who plays the dead body in, what was the first Quentin Tarantino movie? Reservoir Dogs.

Oh, yeah. So in Reservoir Dogs, they kill a guy and his body lies in the background. Right. That was his big client. Yeah. He goes, and I told him, you will be alive. You're not dead. You can't play dead.

That's impossible. Right. So what you have to play is a man pretending to play dead in this movie. Uh-huh. I was like, okay. That doesn't even make sense. It defeats the guy's original argument. The less pretending you're doing.

But he's alive. Right. You can't pretend he's dead okay so that was the exception and he said he got good he actually got reviewed as a dead body come on it's looking amazing so he wouldn't let you stick something in your ear no wouldn't wouldn't have it and you didn't do it you didn't end up doing that you didn't end up sticking something in your i did not i took his advice for that role and did it did it pay off i got really good reviews so when you start getting the movies that you're known for like i i don't even i i can't even like was the outsiders was the big one right yeah probably i mean it was coppola who at that time was probably the most famous and infamous director around. Why was he infamous, you think? He was infamous because he was coming off of a moment where he was the first director to buy his own studio.

Oh, yeah, that's right. So he's doing that weird Technicolor thing. And he's also doing the movie One from the Heart, which was on the cover of Time. And Rumblefish, right? That was after Outsiders. Right. But so it was, you know, he went Godfather 1,

Godfather 2, youation, all of these great movies, and then One from the Heart, which was sort of one of the big boondoggles. Yeah. And so he was very controversial. Right. It was his big idea, and it failed. Yeah. To do it all on the soundstage. Right.

Right. And he was the first guy to be able to edit on the spot because he had TV monitors hooked up. 100%. Right, so he could see the shots over again immediately. 100%. First video monitor hookup I ever saw

was the auditions for The Outsiders. But that was really kind of defined that the whole generation of you guys. Totally. Like you were all in it, kind of. Totally, and spoiled us for for i thought all movies were going to be made the way francis made the outsiders why was it great because he's francis ford coppola and he does it his way and he's he had a vision he's a true auteur yeah i mean he

won an oscar for writing um patent yeah so he he's a real auteur and there really aren't that many auteurs in our business anymore. Right, yeah. I mean, there's Chris Nolan. There's a few. I mean, there's a lot of indie auteurs, but big movies, they seem to be less about the auteurs.

Right. But there were definitely a few around. They're still around. Yeah. But in those days, everybody wanted to be an auteur. Right, well, he was one of the guys, right? He was one of the new generation of hotshots. But in those days, everybody wanted to be an auteur. Right. Well, he was one of the guys, right? Yeah. He was one of the new generation of hot shots.

But so working with, like, I just want to look at that, hold on, that cast real quick. Yeah, yeah. So it's C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, you, Diane Lane, Estevez, Cruise, and Leif Garrett. Leif Garrett. Leif Garrett. Right there. Teen Idol.

They literally, I found out later, they literally cast a lot of it by who was on the cover of Tiger Beat magazine. Is that true? That is, I just found this out a few years ago. Had you been yet? In an autobiography. I had been from A New Kind of Family. How many episodes did you do of that?

Was that a long running show, A New Kind of Family? We did 13. It was opposite 60 minutes. Literally, it was a death minutes literally it was like it was a death slot sunday night sunday night and we were we were i remember there were 62 um shows on the schedule because we were always 60 second we're literally the lowest rated show on network television but you learned some tricks oh are you kidding me yeah i learned the whole the whole thing and then you

know the outsiders came along and the rest was history and you were friends with those guys yeah really close with all of them like when i see you know if i see tom cruise we're like it's like running into a fraternity brother you know like it doesn't matter how much time's gone by you immediately know them on a level that very few people do. So like all you guys, well I mean specifically, well see Thomas Howell, Dylan, Ralph, well Swayze was a little older, right? He was substantially older. Yeah, and Tom, you're all sort of on the same trajectory. That was the momentum.

And then you started doing the big, what became defined as those Brat Pack movies. Yep. Now, was like, were you just out of control? I mean, Klass. I remember Klass. That's the other guy. What was that guy's name?

Andrew McCarthy. Yeah, what happened to that guy? He is around. I think he does a lot of writing, travel writing or something, somebody was telling me. Isn't it weird that, you know, how people make do and it doesn't quite work out?

Listen, everybody's got to hustle. It's true. Everybody. Yeah. But you had a pretty amazing run there of movies. The class was good. That was what, Jacqueline Bessette, right? Mm-hmm.

Hotel New Hampshire. Who was in that one? Jodie Foster. Wow. Nastassja Kinski at her most beautiful. Yeah. Directed by Tony Richardson. Right. The great director. And Bo Bridges. Wilford Brimley. akinsky at her most beautiful yeah directed by tony richardson right um you know the great

director and beau bridges wilford brimley wilford brimley was the best i i remember meeting him and he's like we're driving to the set yeah and it was the first time i'd ever met a real true character actor right like a like a ringer yeah and i'll never forget he's like son what do they call you in this movie i said what do you mean what do you like what do they call my character yeah he goes yeah well they call me jono he goes well then that's what i'll call you jono and i realized he'd only read his part right and he dies like 30 pages into the movie yeah and i remember thinking and now i'm now fast forward x amount of years later i get an offer i only read my part fuck it you do i i think we were up for the same

part you're kidding no i it's a rumor i guess we could put it to rest right now tell me this rumor i was the i'm the i play the uh the manager in glow the, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Oh. And I was told that they didn't know who they were going to go with, but they were thinking you. Did it make it to you? It did not.

Ah. Yeah, damn. It would have been a spicier conversation. Oh, I would have loved it. I would have loved it. Do you know the show? I do know. Of course I know the show.

Yeah, that's me. Okay, I'm going to have to watch it. I mean, I'm aware of it, and I've seen the billboards yeah and i know people love it yeah yeah i i'm the you know the cranky slightly uh that sounds genius sort of jaded downtrodden oh genius little coked up uh failed director oh god damn this sounds like right up my alley i know you blew it fuck yeah you couldn't really turn things around jesus you wouldn't be hosting the arm show you're probably making a lot more money with the arm with the giant ball with the uh what do you call it the machine ava ava like like you know ava ava bring the

contestant up here well what do you do oh yeah do? Oh, yeah. I talk to Ava. She talks. She talks. Oh, yeah. She asks the questions. So, but what kind of ride is it? What kind of device is it? Is it? It was designed for NASA to test the astronauts. Oh, no shit.

So, it's an existing machine. It was an existing machine that we found. Because the big struggle was if we can't find something to legitimately put our players under duress, we don't have a show. And we found this device. So that thing can get going pretty good. I think it goes to, it's like Spinal Tap. It goes to 11 and we can't do it any farther than a two or it'll kill someone.

So do people sign releases? Oh, yeah. Hell yeah. Have there been any accidents with Ava? No, because we have so many fail safes to prevent the thing from going wild. All right. So you do these great movies that everyone loves, St. Elmo's Fire. You didn't get The Breakfast Club, though.

That wasn't you. It's funny. I auditioned for The Breakfast Club, and I did not get it. Clearly, John Hughes had no use for me. He didn't like you. I could have literally been in i mean how many john hughes movies could i have been in honestly probably every every one of them right as a slightly bad guy anything yeah i would have said yeah

how about never my how about my phone never rang from john hughes ever was is that a a resentment that you have i i'm holding a deep-seated even when he died i was just i was just resentful uh-huh but about last night that was from the that was from the nanite play right yeah that's that's that's probably my favorite of that era that was a big movie yeah it was yeah these were all sort of like these were because we're the same age you always seem to have been there in my childhood but then like okay so here i guess the big question is so all these guys that you started out with like well tom cruise specifically and other people kind of leveled off but he became a huge star now did you feel you were on the trajectory of that yeah i mean for for sure i

think i i think we probably all if you would have asked us then felt like we were all on the trajectory even judd nelson but taking different paths, felt like we were all on the trajectory. Even Judd Nelson? But taking different paths. Oh, I remember vividly being on the set of St. Elmo's Fire and the studio president showing up and stiffing all of us and going to Judd and taking him into the corner and offering him like this big movie. And we were all like, wow.

And that was The Breakfast Club? It was Blue City. Oh, yeah. That one. Turned out it wasn't a big movie, but I remember like he was the guy that like, the studio was like, yeah, he's the man. He's who we're betting on.

He's got the intensity. The sad thing about me, you know, bringing up these people in sort of a condescending or dismissive way is that they're all people and they might listen to this and I'll probably have to talk to Judd. Listen, I think you've been very even-handed. Have I? Yes. Because like I've been in this a long time, but I, you know, I've sort of, it's been a real slow build for me and it was just the right speed and I'm fine.

But I always wonder like, you know, how people, you know, shoulder the burden of just sort of disappearing or public failure, but they never seem to go away. Well, because nobody really ever does. They're always working. We're just not aware of it. That's right. That's what it is. And what you have to learn is if you're going to have a long career, there are going to be periods for everyone.

I don't care who it is. You name a person and I will tell you their fallow period. Yeah. And I will tell you their- You have a big board at home? Yeah, I do. Just to compare yourself to? No, it's-

I went down, but that guy went way down. No, no, you must not ever compare yourself to others. You know this, but- But you had to learn that, didn't you? You have to learn, keep your head down, do your own work, and the seasons will change. I'm not sure I ever really had an epiphany about it i think it's just something that's gradually become apparent but let's like deal with this so you're you're fucking you know you're doing good things are like you know everything's going your way and then like this videotape shows up and there you are naked and you know fucking listen let me see if i can get

this straight i'm a 20 year old i'm not judging you i there was a little judgment i thought no no i mean like who hasn't made a tape exactly by the way here's my own the real fuck up was that i didn't wait 20 years later to do it where it would have helped my career yeah you you were you were ahead of the curve man on on public controversy over a sex 1 billion percent ahead of the curve but but like i have to assume that like i can't even imagine the panic and horror and you know stress that you must have went through did you i mean by the way it's 30 years ago i know so. So it's hard for me to remember a lot of it. But my notion of it was it was all like happening so fast. Yeah.

And that it was just sort of putting one foot in front of the other. Right. But you felt the backlash. Dude. Yeah. I turned on the nbc nightly news and you're like today in america actor rob woe is that and they like they do that was like that's tom brokaw leading the news and literally and another news in chionaman square violence is

erupting and it was like the guy standing in front of the tank that was the second story yeah and the first one was a pixelated you yeah it was me 100 oh my god but like here's here's the thing it's like between that and some of the other things that have happened in my life like i would have no memoir to write. Yeah. And I'd have no one man show that I'd take out and have a blast with. Have you done either? Without those things, I would have none of those. But are these, did I miss the memoir? Two bestsellers, baby.

Yeah? Yep. So you laid it out there. New York Times bestsellers. And the one man show? And the one man show sold out all over the world. I'm in the middle of doing it right now. Are you really?

Yeah, I did. I just played Royal Festival Hall in London. I've done that room. Yeah, right? It's a big- It's 22, 2400. Yeah, and it's beautiful, right? It's great.

They have the giant organ there. Yeah, exactly. I'm going back there in a couple of weeks. Are you kidding? Nope. Yeah, I loved it there. I loved that place. So the one-man show is new. I've been doing it for about a that that place um so the one man show is new it's

i've been doing it for about a year yeah so it's new um i'm playing vegas for the first time which is exciting because it's like i feel like this the notion that i would have a billboard over the over the vegas strip playing you know something i never would have thought of and what's it called uh story is i only tell my live, because that was the first book. Okay. Oh, really? So you're just dishing with some humor, raconteuring. It's an evening of stories, 100%. Yeah?

But you've got to read the books because it's- I feel like I didn't do my homework. No, no, no, no, no. You would love them just because it's like a style of celebrity memoir that doesn't exist anymore. Like I was- Like drinking stories and whatnot? I mean, it's like David Niven wrote the high watermark. It's a very dirty one, right?

The moon's a balloon. Right. But it's really, it's very insightful. It's hilarious. And like it gives you all of the insight behind the curtain you want. And yet no one gets hurt. It's not exploitive. Right.

And it's also sneakily moving. Sure. So that was what I wanted. And the books. Because you got an arc. You know, you did Rise from the Ashes to a certain degree. Yeah. To a certain degree.

Kept going. I'm still clawing my way up baby it's a long road but what's like so so did you you wrote it all yourself oh yeah and and is it does it build to like is there a third act is there a denouement is there a story that you know kind of like you you focus on is it the tapes or what what's the story in the middle that and then you come out of? It's a really interesting structure because I just know what I like in a memoir is like, I don't want it to be linear because a lot of times I don't care what people were like before they were famous. Honestly, I just don't care.

I just want to know, let me know about the famous part. And in other books, like Quincy Jones's book, for example, his non-famous life is actually almost more interesting. Right. So I mixed it up. So it sort of goes through different timelines. So no Dayton, Ohio community theater story. Oh, that's in there 100%. Yeah.

It's Malibu, Dayton community theater. There's nothing that's not in it because job one, if you're going to do a one-man show or if you're going to do a memoir is you better be honest. You better be authentic. Yeah. And not full of shit. Yeah. And you do that. Yeah.

And so now when you decided to do this, you know, along with the mental samurai and this other stuff, I mean, is this something that you've always wanted to do theater or is it like uh like you know i gotta i gotta get some other cash flow coming no it it's it's really as simple as you know i'm in my fifth decade yeah and you know it's harder and harder and harder to get my adrenaline up doing being doing traditional acting stuff because i've been doing it for so long so when i so i to go out by myself on stage alone and entertain people with something i've written for 90 minutes on in on the vegas strip or the royal festival hall that gets my adrenaline going to you know try to produce and host and deal with a do do a whole genre that I've never been in. Don't have any knowledge about in the game show world that, that gets my adrenaline going. So you're re-engaged.

Yeah. Cause listen, I'm 55 years old. I gotta, I gotta keep being re-engaged and curious. Do you get bored on sets? A lot. Oh, it's brutal. There's nothing more brutal than the boredom on a set. I, you know, that's what I find, you know, all my life I've wanted these opportunities to act, and then I get them, and I'm like,

whew, that was a nice three minutes of work. Now how long? I know. Two hours. Now you know why everybody's, you know, doing drugs. Yeah. And everything else. It's hard to figure out what to do with your time.

So what, were you writing? I write, exactly. You were never a drug guy, huh? Oh, in the day I was. I mean, I've been sober now for for 20 i don't want to get out of myself but it'll be 29 years in may oh yeah like active sober no sober sober 100 yeah i'm coming up on 20 do you do that's great yeah i do the thing yeah i do the thing 100 so when did you so that's you got 20 yeah baby yeah it's coming august is 20 so you got it you you did it 10

years before me so you were in your 20s? Yes, I was 26, yeah. What was that day like? I was done, dude. I mean, you know what it's like. But I don't know what it was like at your level. I mean, you're running around with Judd Nelson and some guy named Chewy. Probably, like, what?

See, I don't know anything about Judd Nelson, but I have to assume that the access you had to the environments that you could get into and live with, it must have been a lot more exciting than mine. It was. I'm out on the road in fucking Minneapolis with some guy I don't know with an eye patch. Yes. Who brought the shit in the other comic. Yeah. No, I'm in the grotto at the Playboy Mansion.

Okay. You know what I'm saying? And you're 22? Yeah, I'm 22. And I'm single. Uh-huh. So it was great. But you're on Coke, so not great.

Oh, no, great. Okay. Yeah. Which is great. Who are we kidding? Listen, drugs and alcohol are great. Yeah. Until they're not.

And when it was not, it was not good. And it took me a while to figure that out. But when I did, I was truly well and truly done. Did you see people go down? Were you afraid for your life? No, not yet. Because I've since seen that a ton. I've lost more friends and seen more people go down since I've gotten sober. From the shit?

Than I did then. Oh, yeah. Part of it was I'd met my wife and I knew that she was the one for me. And that if I couldn't make it work with her, I was probably doomed. Oh yeah. To end up like my biggest nightmare would be Warren Beatty and, um, in shampoo where you're like alone on Christmas Eve, standing on Mulholland drive, watching the sun go down and all of your bimbos don't want to see you.

That's like, that's sort of where I, the worst iteration of myself, I thought. Yeah. And, and I thought the only way to make this work with this great woman was to get sober.

Did she demand it? No. No, she was great. But she was also like, I love you. I'll be your friend. I'll be your friend forever. Right. But I can't be with you.

If you're going to be. If you're going to be like this. And then I had also my grandfather had just died. So there was like a lot of things that just happened at that moment. They weren't massively earth shaking. But it was enough to get me to, to be like, I'm done. That's, that's quite a crossroads where you like, uh, you're, you're the, the projection

of what your life would be loneliness, you know, cause you had no intimate relationships really. None. And you just realize that if I don't if i don't lock into this with this woman and get off of this shit it was i'm gonna regret it for the rest of my life when i really felt like it was a it was a like it was like the game frogger and you're on that log you're like do i jump now do i jump now and the lily pad comes you go this is the last lily pad this is it you got to get on this pad you're done Did you ever have any nights where you almost like died?

No, I was a very professional at it. I never- What was your thing? I was never stoned on the set. Never. Was it blow? It was the right mixture. Of blow and booze?

Of blow and booze. Getting that mixture right was heavenly. yeah and it's it lasts about an hour and then yeah and then you're just fucked up on coke yeah exactly you're you're awake with nothing to do that's exactly what it was yeah um and then you know uh but i but i almost immediately found yeah that um my biggest fear getting sober was I wouldn't have any more fun. That was honestly my biggest fear. That I'd become one of those boring people, one of those Bible thumpers about sobriety. Dude, I currently have a massive wine cellar that's amazing.

And it's for my guests, and I want people to have fun. And I love being around people who can still do what I used to do and it's still working for them. I have no judgments at all. And I just- You just collect wine as a hobby? No, if you're going to be a good guest. Yeah, a good host.

Yeah, a good host. I mean, sorry, host is what I meant. But like, I found out very quickly that there's way more fun in sobriety than there was getting high. Right, well, it's weird because once, like, not only do you still have a good time, but you're so fucking nuts for the first couple of years that you're not really thinking about fun

anyways. You're just sort of like, this is fucked. What the, this is what it is. You know, and there's- So I had the opposite. I had, I was like euphoric. Really? For the first two or three years.

I was just angry. I'd go to, I'd go to meetings and I'd be like, fuck you you people i don't want to be here this is bullshit oh really yeah man because i just ran out of choices like there was it was undeniable that i was going to you know not live or be a productive person if i didn't do it but i did it because of a woman as well but i got in there but i was you know i knew I had to be there, but, you know, I wanted to fight it. Oh, that's interesting. I was done fighting. I was, I was, what did they say?

I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Sure, sure. So you were just sort of like relieved once you got. If they'd have told me to stand in the corner on my head for five hours a day to stay sober, I would have done it. Yeah. Do you sponsor people? I don't as much as I should. I don't either because it's weird sometimes for me. And I know we shouldn't be talking about it, but I do on the show, so it's okay.

But I'm a big believer in the program. Sure. And more than anything, it's given me the tools to lead my life in so many other areas. That's the real thing. Well, that's the thing they say. If you put your sobriety first, everything will fall into line. And I haven't thought. The notion of drinking or using.

I would be as likely to do that as I would to go to Mars. It's that my issue is like living life on life's terms and using all of those tools that I've learned. Right. And they've just changed my life. I never think about it. And when I do think about it, it's just so scary and exhausting. I know.

To be sitting in front of a bunch of lines. I mean, can you fucking imagine that at our age? So you have reoccurring dreams about it? Occasionally. I have three reoccurring dreams. One is it's junior high and I'm at school and I forgot to wear clothes. Yeah.

And I'm trying to hide. There's that dream. Yeah. I have it's opening night. I'm at school and I forgot to wear clothes. Yeah. And I'm like trying to hide. There's that drink. Yeah. I have, it's opening night. I'm standing backstage. The lights go up and I've forgotten to learn the lines. Well, that's, yeah. Right.

And then the other one is I come to a realization that I've been drinking. Oh, and you haven't told anyone. All along. Oh, yeah. But didn't know I was drinking right and now i have the choice of do i tell people right do i and that's the reoccurring dream i have and i have it a lot i've had i've had similar ones like that where we're like i'm using and i haven't told

anybody and i'm just living in this lie. Right? Yeah. It's weird. And then it's all about like, by the way, I love when I have the dream because it's a little bit of experiencing what it would be like. Yeah. It's so funny, the stage fright line, that panic in that moment is crazy. On opening night of A Few Good Men at the Royal Haymarket in London, Aaron Sorkin and I are there. And the critics all come on opening night in the UK. It's not like here we never know. Is this the first time it's there?

And it's the first time it's there. First time we've ever done the show. Oh, yeah. And I'm playing Lieutenant Caffey, and I have somebody on the witness stand. And it's a courtroom drama. Like, it's like there's plot. And I realize that I've jumped two and a half pages ahead. Yeah.

And I'm like, this is a nightmare. You had to self-correct. And I had to figure out a way to weave it back. But that's my biggest holy shit moment involving dialogue and lines with huge stakes. And did you pull it off? I pulled it off and no one was the wiser. The only person who would have known would have been Aaron himself, and he'd gone out to smoke a cigarette and missed it, thank God.

And he must have been pretty excitable then, too. Yeah, he's one of the great, I mean. I interviewed him. He's real sober, too. Yeah, yeah. He's real locked in. Yeah, he's the best. Well, so, like, after the controversy the the controversy though i mean it doesn't seem

like you stopped working and it feels to me that that because of that it gave you a a sort of uh a weird opportunity to explore roles that you probably wouldn't have 100 like you could be whatever the fuck you wanted well it removed a ton of pressure in that way um it you know it also coincided with a really awkward like time for like traditional like leading men yeah your um mid to late 20s is usually it's changed now because the business has changed a lot but in those days it was not a great time like you were too young really to play parts with substance right and you were too old to play the young ingenues that you've been playing yeah so it sort of also coincided with a time that was going to be rough anyway. And then as I as I got a little bit older, you know, more parts of for sure, opened the door to the whole Mike Myers, Lorne Michaels, Wayne's World, Austin Powers, Tommy Boy, sort of comedies that I did.

So, yeah, you were able to do, like, you're good at playing some weird, horrible version of yourself for comedic effect. 100%. 100%. But I remember that movie, Bad Influence. Oh, thank you. That was a good one. I remember that movie Bad Influence oh thank you that was a good one I liked that one that's a menacing movie

that's a really talk about a movie that's before it's time and you were just sober then or a few years no it was right at the end cause that's like that character's fucked up

oh it is the most demented movie yeah demented character and I mean and it was right at it was right when the video came out yeah Oh, it is the most demented movie, demented character. And I mean, and it was right at, it was right when the video came out. Yeah.

Right. It was right at the height of my craziness. So culturally you were a fucking sordid figure. Yeah. So I was living, I was living the character. Yeah. And it's like, what was the angle? The one scene I remember that like, I can't get out of my mind because it like is when James Spader, the character who plays his brother comes to the door and he's just like,

yeah, could you just tell him I have the fear? And you're like, go fuck you. Tell him I have the fear. Yeah. Because he's high and he's fucked up and he just slammed the door in his face. But like, remind me what the angle was. It was basically I was in in an iteration of the devil right no yeah yeah but what was your what were you doing to spader like you you how do you

met him you guys were friends or i mean the character in the movie i came up to him in a bar right and he was telling me his sob story and i just charm i charm myself into his life and and the one thing that i that i get him to do because he's in a relationship to be engaged to this. And it's clear he doesn't love her. Yeah. But he should marry her and she's rich. He should do it, but it's really clear he doesn't want to do it. So I get him to fuck some girl.

Yeah. And I film it. Right. And then I go to the engagement party. And you put it on. And I put it. Right. And then I go to the engagement party. And you put, oh yeah. And I put it on for the family to see. Yeah. And then he goes, and he's like, what are you doing?

And I go, I'm saving your life. It's such a great, it's a David Koepp script. So David Koepp then went on to write everything from Jurassic Park to Carlitos Ways, one of the most renowned screenwriters in our business. But this was his very, I think it was his first or second script. It's a crazy movie. Yeah, it's really, really fun. But I imagine oddly that because of the controversy surrounded you and then you play this iteration of the devil and there's a sex tape in the movie, that must have re-ingratiated you to to hollywood in some new way they were sort of like i don't know this guy maybe we can uh work with this well you know the the fallen ravlo listen i

you know how everybody loves a redemption story yeah and i also think that, you know, no matter who you are, if you legitimately got it, you're always a threat. Oh, yeah? Yeah. You can just do it. You're always a threat. And you keep your looks. You're not all beat up. No, and look, and everybody, like I said, everybody has their time in the barrel.

There's being in the barrel for, you know, something embarrassing, and then there's being in the barrel for doing something wrong. And that's a totally right totally different you know thing it's like you know i i you know i just have having put my kids through through college and both of them both done both of them are done wow um one's in law school now so he's not really officially done well that's great yeah and like i so i watched the this college mission scandal from afar and just go, fuck, oh my God. It's madness to watch that. Well, it's madness because there's like, you know, it's one of those things because you know how it happens. You know, you operate in the rare air of privilege and you just go like, this is what people

are doing. So I'm going to do it. I mean, I guess. I mean, I guess. I mean, I would never dream of doing what these people are on wiretaps doing. I would, I wouldn't. I mean, look, my, my kids are really privileged. They're lucky. They, they went to great schools. I was able to pay for the schools. I was able to pay for tutors. So they're already have such a leg up, but my kids busted their ass.

And you, and you made sure that they did that oh yeah no i was very early on very very strict about academics and it starts immediately were you that way you weren't that way i was good in school yeah um i liked school i worked really hard i was good in certain areas and not good in like math and all that stuff but i was i was i was serious about school i was yeah well i mean but that's well that's good i mean you turned out to be a good parent somehow thank god you got sober no for sure my it's my kids my kids laugh because they can't imagine me taking a drink you know oh really they've never seen it what a gift that is i know jesus my uh you really got out young that's like that's impressive i mean it took me

10 years more than you and here's what you know it takes what it takes no i know i know it's like it's like it's you can't do it for and the irony is we think we did it for the girl you mentioned your the girl in your life i mentioned my wife sure but at the end of the day the only reason we do it is for ourselves and and it you can't do it for your job yeah You can't do it for your court case. You can't do it for any of it. No, no, you got to be ready to do it and it's got to click in. If it don't click in, it ain't going to click in.

No, I lost a girl. I made her horribly miserable. Like I went right from drugs to just draining her of her life force. She got out and in retrospect, I can't blame her. But I grabbed on, man. I grabbed on. You take what you need.

Yeah. So, all right. Now, how do you decide? I mean, you talk about kind of having a, you know, you're the oldest guy, the most knowledgeable on the set. You've been doing this a long time. You'll do TV. You'll do movies, you'll do whatever. Well, I won't do whatever, but I'll do whatever. Where do you draw the line?

I will do whatever I feel is going to be an interesting experience or where what I feel like I can give will be additive. Okay. So do you turn down a lot? A lot. And is it usually small movies or just shitty parts or you don't know?

It's just project to project. Dude, I turn down Grey's Anatomy. Yeah. It can be, so it can be a monstrous. For an arc or a regular thing? To play McDreamy. Oh, really?

That's a minor, that probably cost me $70 million. Hey, it's just money. You're not thinking about but you know what but listen at the end of the day it was like i watched it when it came out and when they started calling the handsome doctor mcdreamy i was like yeah that's not for me right it's not for me yeah but like you did but the the comedy thing you know that was one of those things because you i mean you weren't really prone that way i I mean, no, but I was always a big comedy guy. It just, people didn't know. Like I, from,

from day, I can remember being 12 and 13 and watching the first seasons of Saturday Night Live. Yeah. And then I would perform the sketches for my parents when they would wake up on Sunday mornings. So I was a comedy nerd. Right. From the get-go. I just had never had a chance to do any of it until I hosted the show, which was a dream come true. And what was that coming off of? How'd you get the gig? You've done it a few times, right? I've done it three times. I did it in 90 for Bad Influence.

Ah. And then- Was that a hit movie? No. Critics loved it and the audience just, it was a little tiny release, terribly released. Yeah. I remember loving the movie.

Yeah, it's a really good one. It's one of my, for sure one of my, if I had to pick two off the top of my head, it would be Bad Influence and About Last Night. So comedy though, you you so when you that it all started with the relationship with lauren and mike with lauren and mike and and i remember working um on wednesdays you go in with the writers on snl and walking into mike myers office we'd never met and him saying do you want to do a wayne's world sketch on the show or do

you want to do sprockets and i was like i hate wayne's world i think show or do you want to do Sprockets? And I was like, I hate Wayne's World. I think it's stupid. I want to do Sprockets. Yeah. Which we did and it was really fun. And then the irony that we would end up in Wayne's World is funny. So that's really what drives you is you want to have a new experience and a good time.

Totally. But West Wing, that was good and that was not comedy, but that was really a community. That must have been an amazing experience for years. I, yeah.

When I read that script, I mean, there are very few scripts that you read and just blow your doors off like that. And also read a character where you go, um, I'm the only guy who can play this part. Yeah.

And, and which of course is not true, but that's what it feels like. I felt that way about the wrestling show. So I'm glad that it didn't make it to you, that you were just an idea. Because, you know. No, but there are parts like that. No, I know.

I don't have the range that you do, obviously. So if the guy's kind of like me, I'm good. Yeah. Listen, by the way, plenty of people made a great career in that year. Yeah. But you don't really. I mean, it's weird because you think, you know, I think I know you, but you do a lot of stuff that it's not really you.

I mean, you can definitely not be you. Oh, listen, in Behind the Candelabra. That thing was, that was crazy. That's me at the far edges of my range. That thing, I love that movie. I've watched that thing like four or five times. Thank you. You're great in it.

And like, and Michael Douglas. It's amazing. It's crazy. Crazy. Who are you talking to, Mumbles? It's just, it's unbelievable. Oh my God, I look like my father. I look like my mother.

And no, no, Nanette. He's just, he's unbelievable. Damon was great. But your character was like inspired because it was almost like a David Lynchian character. Was that a real guy? He's a real guy. Plastic surgeon. Yeah, real plastic surgeon who was notorious for giving one of the first big famous botched face jobs in L.A.

There was a very well-known realtor in LA who notoriously had a horrific face job done. He's dead. He blew his brains out. He did? Yep. There are no real photos of him, so I imagined that character.

What happened was I got this offer. Yeah. And this is what's great about this business. I don't know Steven Soderbergh. I love him. Yeah.

Never met him. Never had a general meet-nothing. Yeah. Out of the blue, phone call, I want you to do this part in this business. I don't know Steven Soderbergh. I love him. Never met him. Never had a general meet nothing. Out of the blue, phone call, I want you to do this part in this movie. Great. And I've been tracking the movie just as a fan because the notion of the movie sounds so mental. And so I sat there and I'm competitive. And I come from ensembles. Outsiders was an ensemble. St. Elmo's Fire was an ensemble. West Wing was an ensemble. And the keys to ensemble is you better fucking plant your flag or you're going to get eaten alive.

Really? Yes. Is that true? Fuck yeah. You need to be a team player. Right. But you also need to get your numbers. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Kind of. You need to get your touches. Yeah. As they say. Right. You're not a sports guy. Right. but i'm giving you some sports vernacular well no i i like to know this because you know because i was recently in an ensemble movie and i realized like

you know i had to figure out what my place was in it it's it's an orchestra and what are you gonna play right are you gonna and by the way sometimes you're gonna play under like like i'm gonna just i'm just gonna do a low bass riff right you know just be in the pocket yeah the whole time yeah or i understand these metaphors right or you're like you know what i'm i'm putting the squawk box on it and i'm gonna blast it yeah so i figure i got michael douglas who's a genius yeah playing Liberace yeah and and Matt Damon who's also one of the great actors yeah

in butt tight velour shorts and with frosting on his hair yeah like I gotta bring my A game so I concocted

this character and this look yeah and I you came up with that look 100% well I called Soderbergh beforehand, and I said, listen,

I think the tone is pretty clear from reading the script, but I just want to ask you, I have an idea, but it's a really big swing. Are you down for that? And he was like, oh, swing away. I was like, great. And you didn't even have to pitch him? I just showed up like that.

With the hair? Yep. And did you- And I had't even have to pitch him? I just showed up like that. With the hair? Yep. And did you- And I had- Did you have weird teeth? I had hair, I had teeth, and I also had, they had taped my skin back, like in my eyes and forehead and neck, so it looked like I had a bad facelift. Right. And you seemed almost drugged out.

It was a little drugged out, and he looked very sort of metro. So I kind of wanted to cut against that because the other guys are so openly gay. Yeah. So I used the voice from the guy I used to do the men's, remember the men's, what was it? Men's Warehouse.

Remember the Men's Warehouse commercials? Yeah, I kind of did. The guy like, you're going to like the way you look. Remember that guy? Yeah, yeah. So I just stole that voice. You're going to like the way you look. So that guy? Yeah. So I just stole that voice. You're going to like the way you look.

So that was funny to look like a woman. Yeah. Basically. Right. But to have that voice, I thought, the California diet. Yeah. There's 20 pounds in 10 days. And did you, because the movie's not really a comedy, but it's not.

But it's hilarious. It is. It does have that tone. Yeah. You know, there's definitely moments where, that that character was so like out there that you know it definitely provided that it also it also proved to me that the old adage that it isn't about the size of the part because i in all of the work that i've done in my career yeah for my peers that part one billion percent was the part like in terms of you know you're walking down the street and spike lee runs across traffic to hug you or whatever

really it's for that it's a it's around that part yeah people lost their minds no kidding yeah because they'd never seen you do anything like that i honestly think people didn't think it was me until the credits wow i'm pretty sure and a lot of people didn't yeah Yeah. Because they'd never seen you do anything like that. I honestly think people didn't think it was me until the credits. Wow. I'm pretty sure. I know a lot of people didn't. Yeah, that's great. It was definitely an inspired part.

I'm having that experience with fucking, have you watched the new True Detective? Oh, yeah, yeah. With Dorf? Yeah. What the fuck? I know. Right? You didn't even know it was him for half the first episode. I'm like, where'd this guy come from?

Isn't it great when you see somebody like, or like in Stars Born, when you see, you know, the comic. Dice. Andrew Dice Clay. Yeah, yeah. He can act.

Yeah, you're like, I love, listen, when people reinvent themselves, it's the best thing ever. And, you know, no matter who you are, you gotta reinvent yourself

like every decade. I swear to God you do. So tell me more of these acting tips. Like, so in an ensemble, you've gotta figure out how you're gonna stand out. You gotta. I swear to God you do. So tell me more of these acting tips. So in an ensemble, you've got to figure out how you're going to stand out. You got to. I mean, finding the right nexus of being a team player, supporting your other actors, serving the story. This is not

about scene stealing. Yeah. Although it is. It's not about sandbagging your other people you're building them up you're there to support them but you're you're bringing it but you don't want to be steamrolled you don't you dude i don't want to sit there with michael douglas and matt damon and get my hat handed to me how would that happen but how would that happen has that happened to you where you're in a scene and you're like i just got buried um it happened i remember it happening to me once um in class and i did a scene with cliff robertson now cliff robertson's got an oscar yeah you know what i mean sure and for playing hef who what do you get the option for oh that wasn't he great in that movie dude that movie is the best yeah star 80s quite a movie the best oh

my god eric roberts really was the best yeah yeah um one of my favorites i could quote every line from that movie i love that movie yeah um but no he won it for charlie where he plays the guy who mentally regresses oh yeah yeah um older based on the book flowers for algernon um and in class i had to tell him that that i i forget what the scene even was, but he was hearing that his wife, my mother, was going to go into a mental institution or something. And he just wiped the floor with me. Oh, yeah. I just sat there with him and got, oh, okay. So that's how it's done.

I was 20. And I was like, okay, I'm not going to let that happen again. And he wasn't even breaking a sweat or nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Those guys, like I talked to Jeff Daniels about it. He said, you got to, you know, those older dudes, those actors, the big actors, they know exactly what to do with their face. 100%.

It's your face, your eyes. I had dinner with Michael Caine this year, who famously has a lot of great acting. His book, if you haven't read it, he's got great acting. His new book, Blowing the Doors Off, is all about this. It's amazing. And his thing is all about where you look in your other actor's eye. It's very broken down into the technique of it, which is a big part of it.

Because they're- This is for film acting, really. For film acting. But there's also the same technique for theater. It's just a different technique. But, you know, very few actors have the experience, the talent, and the technique. Yeah.

And when you have that, you're a monster. And you feel like yours is all tight. Just look. What's the thing about 50,000 hours sure right I'm way over that yeah yeah I'm way over 10,000 is it 50 now I think it might be 50 so what's the plan man so are you gonna are you gonna shoot the one-man show so um I haven't that people have talked about it I haven't decided yet. I mean, maybe there'll be a residency in Vegas, which would be really fun. You could just fly out there. Just fly out and do it.

Yeah. I love doing it. What's the hotel you're doing at? The first one I'm doing is Planet Hollywood. And then I think I'm going to do Caesars after that. So a residency would be, what, three nights a week? Right. I don't know.

I guess you can figure it out. Friday, Tuesday shows Saturday. Sure. And then I have a new limited series called Wild Bill that I shot for ITV that will be probably on Hulu or Netflix. The Western? It is not a Western. I play an American law enforcement analytics specialist who takes the job nobody wants to run the Boston Lincolnshire Police Department. Boston Lincolnshire is in the middle of England, the home of Brexit.

Yeah. Do you do British? Are you American? I'm American. It's a fish out of water crime drama, and it's awesome. I just finished doing it. And you had fun doing that? Yeah, and it came out great. And then, and what about movies? Any movies? Let's see what's happening with me. I have a movie on Netflix, a holiday movie coming out next Christmas, which is really fun, shot entirely in Africa. It's really romantic. Really? And I am negotiating and likely to do a movie with the director who did Rudy and Hoosiers, two of my favorite sports movies. Hoosiers, great.

Great. And it's the story of Carol Rosenblum, who is one of the original owners of the NFL. And it's basically the story about the creation of the NFL. Oh, really? As told through his eyes. That's you? And it'd be Carol Rosenblum, yeah. And then, of course, Mental Samurai.

And then, as you call it, the arm... What do you call it? It's genius. The arm. You call it the arm show. Yeah. It's the arm show. The giant arm. It's the giant arm. Dude, it's addicting. Sure. People like... They don't want to be... If you're just challenging them with questions and there's an amusement park ride,

it's great. I mean, that's what I want. It's all anybody wants, Rob. It's all anybody wants. Thanks for talking, man. That was great. Appreciate it. Yeah. That was Rob Lowe.

The show is Mental Samurai on Fox. Tuesday nights on Fox. Mental Samurai on Fox. Tuesday nights on Fox. Also go to WTFpod.com slash tour for all those upcoming dates in the UK. I believe there's some tickets left for London,

Birmingham, Salford, Dublin, but not many. So go there. WTFpod.com slash tour for all the upcoming dates in San Diego, St. Louis, Madison, wherever. All right? All right, good.

I'm going to get ready to perform. I might go get something to eat. All right? You want to buy a house? Huh? How about a house? Boomer lives! We'll be right back. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost, almost anything.

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