ONLY IN HOLLYWOOD The Lowe-Down on Rob's Life & Career By Ruben V. Nepales Philippine Daily Inquirer April 30, 2006

Rob Lowe's pretty face is maturing well. As he settles into middle age, the hot poster boy of the ’80s has also developed an easy, if self-deprecating, air about him. He can freely joke about himself. This member of the Brat Pack is lucky to have a steady career at this stage in his life. He could have fizzled into oblivion or become a has-been appearing in B projects, but these days the blue-eyed actor is enjoying a respectable, if not spectacular, run. Fortunately for Rob, it turns out that he has acting chops that enabled him to make the transition from hunk du jour to, simply, Actor. He has a short but memorable role as a top Hollywood agent in Thank You For Smoking. In this brilliant satire that we saw with Rob at Sundance last January (it sparked a bidding war among film distributors), his character is a source of amusing sight gags that illustrate the ostentatiousness of that powerful Hollywood animal, the Agent. Buckley’s bitingly hilarious novel, Thank You For Smoking stars a terrific Aaron Eckhart as a tobacco industry lobbyist with a killer smile who would do anything to put his spin across. During the Q and A after that Sundance screening, debuting filmmaker Jason Reitman, talented son of director Ivan (Ghostbusters), expressed surprise that a sex scene involving Aaron and Katie Holmes, who plays a Washington Post reporter (we told you Aaron’s character would do anything), had been cut short. Jason’s remarks prompted speculation that Katie’s man, Tom Cruise, put pressure on the film distributor to trim the said scene. It proved to be false — it was simply a goof by the projectionist — but the rumor persisted. Rob — and the rest of the cast of Thank You — got excellent reviews. The actor, whose early credits include starring with Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon and Patrick Swayze as teenagers in Francis Ford Coppola’s acclaimed 1983 film, The Outsiders, also earned favorable notices last year when he dared venture into the London stage in the play A Few Good Men. Rob recently returned to the set of The West Wing to appear in its farewell episode. He earned the critics’ respect, and ultimately an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of a White House communications director in the TV series which he quit in 2002 due to pay disputes. The former party animal, once linked to such high profile ladies as Monaco’s Princess Stephanie, socialite Cornelia Guest and actress Nastassja Kinski, and whose high school classmates included Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn, have settled into domesticity with wife Sheryl Berkoff. The couple, married in 1991, are raising two sons in Santa Barbara, California. When you think about the early part of your career, what comes to your mind? A lot of my early movies are being reissued on DVD on their 20th anniversaries (laughs). I’m glad that I’m still here, talking before you guys. Lately, I’ve been doing a DVD commentary for the 25th year of The Outsiders. It makes me think about those times [when] my life was just about going from project to project and that was my total focus. I had nobody to answer to but myself. No mortgage... wife... [or] kids. You’re just thinking along the lines of “Hey, I hope I can be in that new Scorsese movie.” It was a really simple, fun time like we all had when we were kids. I get to re-live that every time I turn on HBO or Showtime and see one of my old movies. It’s kind of cool. What do you think about the new Rob Lowe fans? I don’t run into them at restaurants because I don’t live here (in LA) so my exposure to the new generation—I never thought I’d be saying that (laughs)—I want to go blow my brains out now, thank you (laughs). My exposure to the new generation is limited to what I read and see. It’s the same story for any generation. You’re new, you’re getting famous really young, you don’t know who you are. The ones who have it together really stand out. In my generation, among the guys who were really focused early on was Tom Cruise. Tom always had his eye on the ball. Today, I see that in Reese Witherspoon. Do your sons look like you? They look a lot like their mom but yeah, they’re blonde versions of me. My oldest son is going to his first sock hop this week. He’s dressing as Sodapop Curtis (Rob’s character) in The Outsiders which gives him an unfair advantage. He’s going to get some girls to dance with him based on that alone. How old are you now? Forty-two, but I am going to start lying about my age now (laughs). You don’t look 42. Good, because I am going to start lying for real (laughs) in the next press conference. *I am not going to ask who you based your agent character on in Thank You For Smoking.* You can ask. Okay, who? The love of all things Asian is based on Mike Ovitz because everybody knows he loves the art of war and Sun Tzu. He was very into that but the demeanor is not Mike Ovitz at all. The demeanor is actually a combination of three or four people that I cannot name but it’s the new version of powerful “agenting.” In the old days it was, “You’ll never work in this town again.” That’s much too messy. So now, it is equally as full of shit, if you’ll excuse me (laughs). Now, it’s “We’re just humble people (laughs), artists trying to put people together.” That’s the new dynamic and that’s what I was trying to do. What’s the worst piece of advice that an agent has given you? That I should take a movie for way less than I’d ever made before. I thought, wow, if that’s what he thinks I’m worth, I’d better get a new agent.		Did you? I did, and I ended up doing the movie for what I wanted to do it for. But generally, I’ve been lucky. Everybody who has represented me has been really great. Agents are a lot like politicians. I was on a show about politics (The West Wing) for a long time. Politicians are easy targets. They’re easy to make fun of. A lot of people don’t like them and there are a lot of them that are unlikable. Same with agents. But in my experience, most agents believe in what they do. They want to help talent. They want talent to succeed. Although I had a lot of fun making fun of agents in this movie, the truth is, like most politicians, most agents take their jobs really seriously and are good at it. Was the kimono scene your idea? It was Mr. Jason Reitman’s idea (laughs). We have a picture of us on the set—the wardrobe person is showing us the kimono and I’m looking at it like, “Whoa, pal, I don’t know about this (laughs).” We actually had a moment where I said to Jason, “Am I really going to wear this kimono in the movie?” and he went, “Yeah, I think you are.” I said, “All right, let’s do it.” I’m glad I did, because the biggest laugh every time I see the movie is when it’s revealed that it’s me in the kimono. I was thinking about this. One of my favorite, though sad, moments at the Oscars every year is the “In memoriam” sequence (dedicated to film talents who died in the past year). I said to Jason, “In 60 years, 70 years, whatever it is, God bless when I’ve moved on to the great movie in the sky, if that kimono is in my ‘in memoriam’ portion (laughs), I will kill you.” What was it like wearing that kimono? Like wearing an iron suit. You’re like the Tin Woodsman in The Wizard of Oz. They would just sort of tilt me against the wall. You can’t take it off by yourself. It was very uncomfortable. It was very heavy. When my first set of really nice reviews came out for this, Jason wanted to buy me a kimono as a gift (laughs). There’s a funny line in the movie that is said a couple of times, that Aaron’s character did it for the mortgage. I love it. The Yuppie Nuremberg Defense, they call it: “I did it for the mortgage.” Can you tell us which films you did for the mortgage? I think if you go to imdb.com and look at my filmography, you can probably guess (laughs). *How was your experience appearing in a play (A Few Good Men) in London?* I was there for six months, which really takes you off the market for a year. I’m still paying the effects of that but I’m glad I did. I was welcomed with open arms on every level—both the critics, who were fantastic to me, and the audiences. We were always number one among the straight drama plays. I met (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair when he came to the rehearsal to say hello. It was just an amazing experience. But the agents went, “Oh, you’re going to go work for free for six months, huh? Fantastic (laughs).” *Were you emotional when you returned to tape a special appearance in the final episode of The West Wing?* First of all, since you’re all here, I thank you guys because, as you all remember, you were the first people to recognize The West Wing. We have never forgotten that and the last thing I did when I left the stage was look at the four Emmys and that first Golden Globe in an area of the studio where all of the trophies are kept. That was the last thing I looked at. I walked out and that was it. It was sad but more than anything, there was just a great sense of what that show was at its height. The show has changed a lot in the years that I was not on it. I don’t recognize a lot of it but it was good to be back at the end and sort of help put it to bed. Didn’t you write and direct a short film? I did. I had big plans. What happened was, I had a lot of people interested in me as a director and a lot of really fun stuff was happening. But then I read the script for this pesky little pilot called The West Wing and that did it. It fulfilled me so much creatively that I didn’t have anything left. It also left me exhausted in terms of the amount of time I had to commit to it. I am just now starting to get back into writer-director mode. Back to the time when you were a party animal… Party animal (laughs). She’s (the reporter) throwing down the party animal card. Well, you were talking about just going from one project to another and living a carefree life. Are you a man now? Wow. There was probably a series of events. I don’t think there was any one thing. I am not doing an Oprah (Winfrey) confessional but getting sober was a big thing for me. It has been 16 years now that I have been sober. Getting married, having children. That informs who you are, as a man and then, just good old-fashioned age. Good old-fashioned time on the planet dealing with problems, making mistakes. I think a combination of those things probably got me to the point where I go “Yeah, I’m definitely not a boy anymore.”

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