ROB LOWE ON EMBRACING THE BRAT PACK AND THE MUSICAL THAT CHANGED HIS LIFE

Rob Lowe, 60, is an actor best known for the films “St. Elmo’s Fire” and the “Austin Powers” series, and TV’s “The West Wing” and “Parks and Recreation.” He is the host and producer of Fox’s game show “The Floor.” He spoke with Marc Myers.

When I was 5, I had this nagging feeling something bad was about to happen. Dad was around less and less, and intuitively I felt things weren’t normal. I eased my anxiety by playing with toys and watching TV.

One day, in a store, I asked my mother if Dad was ever coming home. She said he wasn’t, that they were getting divorced. With my fears realized, I began to cry.

My mom thought she would need to explain what was going on. Surprised by my tears, she said, “You know what divorce means?” I blurted out, “Of course I do. I watch ‘Divorce Court’!”

My family first lived in Charlottesville, Va., while my father, Chuck, finished law school at the University of Virginia. After he graduated in 1964, the year I was born, we moved to Oakwood, Ohio, just outside of Dayton, my parents’ hometown. My father joined a law practice, and my mother, Barbara, gave up a career as a high school English teacher to become a homemaker.

But as Dad worked late and Mom stayed home, they grew apart. After they separated, my father moved out, and my younger brother, Chad, and I stayed with Mom. Within a couple of years, she remarried. Her second husband, Bill, worked for Dayton’s Parks and Recreation Department as a city planner.

One day, Bill took me to see “Oliver!” at the Dayton Playhouse, a community theater. The musical changed my life. Seeing all those kids on stage, I realized performing is what I wanted to do, and acting became an obsession.

When I was 8, Bill had to be closer to work, so we moved into Dayton, to a rough neighborhood. It was a culture shock for me. I’d never gone to school with kids who didn’t want to be there and talked back to teachers.

There were plenty of bullies. My interest in musical theater didn’t help. I never, ever felt I was like other kids, but I was a chameleon who found a way to navigate the social stuff at school as best as I could.

At some point, I was handed a flier for the Dayton Playhouse, which was recruiting kids. With my mother’s permission, I joined. What theater offered was a place where I could access a part of me that I’d just discovered. My first production was “The Wizard of Oz.”

When I was 9, my mother and Bill began arguing nightly. I blocked out their bickering by moving my leg in bed to make the frame squeak.

Their fights led to divorce, and Mom decided to move us to Malibu, west of Los Angeles, where she had friends. I was 12. Malibu hadn’t been gentrified yet, so our three-bedroom rental was typical of the area—a California ranch.

One day, I walked to the Mayfair Market nearby where kids hung out in the parking lot. I saw Chris Penn with a Super 8 camera filming one of his many Vietnam epics with other kids.

The group that was into acting included Chris’s brother Sean Penn and Charlie Sheen and his brother, Emilio Estevez. I eventually got to know them, and I made my own movies with Charlie.

In classes at Santa Monica High School, I always sat in the front row and raised my hand with the answer. I was that guy. But I wasn’t in school plays. By then I had an agent and was going on auditions.

At 15, I had already co-starred in my first network TV sitcom—ABC’s “A New Kind of Family.” By my senior year, I was cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders.” I had to choose between going to film school at UCLA or USC or making the movie.

I figured film school could wait. Then came two movies a year and I never went to college. I learned to act by watching more experienced actors on sets and by doing the job. Later I began working with an acting coach.

I really didn’t have a single career turning point. I had roles in big films and TV series at many different points in my career separated by slower periods.

Today, I live with my wife, Sheryl, in Santa Barbara, Calif. We first moved here in 1993, when our first child was born. Now we’re in a rental while the 19th century house we recently bought is being renovated.

As a husband and a father, I did a few things different than my parents. For one, my wife and I didn’t divorce. For another, I was present for our two boys—Matthew and John Owen.

My mom passed almost 15 years ago, but my dad, who’s 85, is still with us. He’s very proud of his grandkids. He once said to me, “Man, you’re doing so much. I just hope you’re just doing stuff for you.” My reply was, “No, Dad, when I’m coaching Little League, that is for me.”

Rob’s Surfboards

Brat Pack? All of us should feel lucky to have been given a name for what we contributed as actors and that fans still care 40 years later.

Favorite home spot? Sitting out back while reading and writing. We have views of the mountains and the Pacific. I also surf, play golf and hike.

Surfboards? At least 10.

Recent splurge? At the new property, I’m putting in a golf hole with two tee boxes at different distances from the green.

Favorite TV series you were in? “The Grinder.” It’s a gimlet-eyed take on a pretentious, out-of-touch, narcissistic movie and TV star.

2024-12-03T16:03:32Z