Dermot Mulroney: Kombucha Trouble (Re-Release)

Dermot, man. So good to see you. Oh, gosh. Thanks, Rob. I appreciate you having me on your super popular show. Hey, everybody. It is Literally with me, Rob Lowe. Yeah, this guy. This guy. If I have to hear one more story from my wife about how hot Dermot Moroney is, it could end. It could, one of Hollywood's longest running marriages could end over Dermot Moroney. I mean, not that I disagree with her. I mean, look at the man. He's something else. but but he's here today yes he is and i'm going to get to the bottom of all things dermot moroni related he's one of the nicest guys ever let's get to it this has been the most fun i gotta tell you i love doing the show i love if you go through the library you'll see all kinds of people you've worked with and you know and they're super fun I know I don't hardly have time. I would spend all day listening to you and reading what you've written, if I could. But I haven't quite squeezed it in yet. I don't know if you're recording or whatever, but I can speak volumes about your first volume, which I know I touched on when I met you, which really, really struck me and I thought was brilliant writing. and I think about it so frequently. The writing of your first book, I'm sorry with the title, but your memoirs. Stories I Only Tell My Friends. Gosh, it really stuck with me and it really meant a lot to me when I was reading it. I was kind of like compared and knew some of those feelings and just thought you did such a great job of breaking in. You know, great story to tell. I really appreciate it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I always love when people have read the books and um because it really is when you write your your your story you know your memoir it's you you know and we work mostly in such a collaborative medium medium that anything good that we've ever done there have been a thousand hands making us look good right and but when it's when it's a book it's it's all you for better or for worse right well really in your case in the way you write i mean i don't know how else to put it the writing of your writing is also really good You're telling a great story, but the way you wrote it really touched me, Rob. Oh, thank you. I have a great photo of you, me, and Dylan McDermott. It's the best photo. I posted it on my Instagram. It is such a great photo. I know the photo. I know the flyby moment that you created when Dylan and I were pretty much for the first time seated at a restaurant. I'm having a hell of a time. So how did, because. Swapping stories. You got to tell me, because like, so one of my best friends, God bless him, passed away a couple years ago. Bill Paxton was always, he was the best. He too, a role model and an idol of mine as an actor and how he comported himself. Everybody loved Bill. Such a loss for this. Everybody loved him. Yeah. But, and he was always, everybody was to go, wait, Bill Pullman? No. Or Bill Paxton? And like, but people did all the time. And sometimes you have that with- No. I hate to say, those are Bills. So that's different. That's like- That is different. That's like being another Rob in a room. Happens all the time. I know. Dylan and Dermot, it's a different category. Similar. But I think they're actually with the Bills, Paxton and Pullman and others in there. They're confusing them with each other. That is not the case with Dylan and I. They're just mixing up our names. They know precisely that I'm me and he's him. it's just it's a name mix up so when you had your when you had your uh when you finally met yeah and hashed it all out how was it just two ways of telling the story um i could go from the first meeting uh and i've told that one before or i could tell you that really he finally uh he He finally gave in and cast me on his TV show. Amazing. He finally let his guard down and let me inside the castle. Yes. So I appeared on that super popular Fox sitcom called L.A. to Vegas. Oh, that's right. It was a situational comedy. And you were the pilot, though, right? I was the rival pilot. I flew international. Oh, see, and that's higher than the pick. And he was just doing that junk run, L.A. to Vegas. So I was like a step above him. I remember when that show came out, I was going, and these are only the lessons you know, having started many shows that bomb, of which I've certainly had more than my share. Oh, Rob, you're such a great leading man. Go on. Well, you're nice to say it, but believe me, there's many a dud. And you go, I go, I wonder how long it's going to take them to realize they've got to get off those planes. And how quickly are they going to get off those? And sure enough, how quick can we get out of this fuselage? Yeah. Well, I was there a few days and we had a boxing match and a toe-to-toe pilot showing down. And all of which, of course, there was this subtext between Dylan McDermott and Dermott Mulroney. Which is it. See, I always mix up the former and the latter. Anyway, I'm the second one. That's right. That day, come to think of it, I don't know. Here I'm telling out of school a little. Dylan at the time. Oh, you've got to tell out of school. Come on. Let's take him down. I love it. Let me just say that deeply. And at the time, he had a couple of, you know, kind of quirky habits. One's chapstick. You've seen it. A lot of people have it. Oh, I have a friend. By the way, certain people are addicted to it. Addicted to chapstick. I have a friend who's addicted to it. I won't comment anymore on that. Probably shouldn't have at all. But the other bears on my experience with Dylan. He enjoys a little kombucha. Maybe after a whole scene's over or something, someone would bring him one. I might have some, I don't know, some still water from a bottle or hopefully. Kombucha. Yeah. And so he says, here, you ought to try some of this after we're done shooting. An active day. Comedy acting. So I did. I tried some. I had probably a good low-ball glass full of it. Middle of the night, I wake up. It's coming out of both ends. I'm not supposed to have kombucha. I don't know how I found that out. And then I wouldn't have. Dylan McDermott tried to poison me. Tried to poison you. Backstage at Fox Studios. So I drag my decimated ass into the stage the next day and have to sort of strip down and have a boxing match with the guy. So he almost took me. No, he was doing you a favor. But really what it did, it made me real slim. I was going to say. He knew the next day he had to have his shirt off, and he was just, you know, instead of doing a colonic. Just helping a Dermot out. Just help a Dermot out. Hey, well, the truth be told, I never met an American man named Dermot until in recent years. One of them has two Ts. One pronounces it Dermot. So I'm still the only one that I know of. And we also all know that we couldn't have the name McDermott. We couldn't have a Dylan McDermott without Dermott. So he knows that. We're square on that. In fact, I proposed to him and we are indeed going to get married. I think you should. Yes. I think it's a career move at this point. He said yes. So you were, I got a story for you. So you were in Young Guns. Yeah. two or one no young guns one i didn't make it to the final credits um yeah that's right so stop me if you've heard this i might have glanced the day they announced that there was a a young guns two green light on the next movie yes was that day it was the day they shot you yeah they like stopped at lunch and everybody said stop stop cut hey great news just come in from the Los Angeles. We've got a sequel. People are riding around bucking horses while they're rigging me for squibs to take me out of the sequel. Couldn't you have said, can you make my wound more like a wound instead of a death shot? I suggested a evil twin that come back as some sort of doppelganger in a dream tweak. They wouldn't fall for it. Damn it. Well, my wife was the makeup artist. We were not married at the time. Cheryl. She was the makeup, and Cheryl, and boy, so all you people out there I know and love your wife I've seen her once since that time but we were all there we all know how beautiful and what an incredibly formative experience that was so bless her will you please give her my deepest honest and love I know precisely I remember everything how beautiful and what a big part of making that movie she was and that whole trailer Jeannie Van Fug who designed Dirty Steve's makeup, who I got to work with a few times. And so bless you all that were there, Cheryl. That was a great... So of all the studs, of all of the young guns, and there were a lot of young guns for my listeners, the one that everybody thought was the hottie above all was my guest today. Forget the Charlie Sheens, forget the Emilio Estevezes, forget the Lou Diamond Phillips, forget the Tom Cruise coming in for a day and hiding under makeup to be an extra forget all of them there was only one hottie that everyone coveted and it was you my fine sir and I tip my cap to you well Rob I was really following I'm snapping at your heels following in the path that you had cut for young leading men in Hollywood so they gave me an end around by giving me a couple great early character roles to disguise the fact that I was, as you are, a leading man, like a longtime companion in Where the Day Takes You. So I went in under the disguise of being like a character actor and was so blessed with incredibly diverse, kind of really incredible roles. But you were the first wave. You broke down the bastion of ancient old Hollywood, you and your cronies and your Malibu ranch types. That's right, baby. And I'll say thanks, because it really was a trail being blazed by you guys when, for the first time Hollywood, had 19-year-old men and girls, pretty and pink, risky business, all of that right then. Ferris Bueller, your work, just incredible. The films, and they let me in, thanks to you, really. They were looking for more guys like you. Long Time Companion is such a great movie and so ahead of its time. Oh my God. And if you were to watch it again today, it's timeless. It's absolutely timeless. You said time at least two or three times already talking about long time companion. And that's one of the things that made it a magical film, even if it was about some other topic in a group that interrelated so closely as these men did in that story. but the thing I've pointed out before is it's an eight year history leading up to the present for when the film comes out so at the end of that movie you're grieving the loss of eight or nine years of friends and family and we're where we are today when that movie came out it came up to the day I guess I'm explaining in a clunky way but I think that always set that film aside and then of course the incredible acting from that cast Campbell Scott Bruce Davison, of course, was awarded the Oscar for saying goodbye to Mark Lamos in that scene that stuck with all of us forever. It amazing when an actor has not only a performance or a movie but has a scene in a performance in a movie where you go oh yeah Like I always remember Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Bastards that opening sequence where I turned to Cheryl watching He's winning the Oscar this year. And he did. There are just times when you... Hey, well, here's to you, Rob. I'm going to get your phone number. and when I see you in that scene, I'm going to text you and say, you did it, they gave you one. So keep your eyes out and go get one. I'm looking too. Yeah, and listen, if you find one, let me know, please. By the way, since we're on it, I just watched All Quiet on the Western Front. Have you seen it yet? What an incredible movie. Yes, I worked with that producer and yeah, go on. No, just that's definitely, I mean, it won the BAFTA. Well, that's how movies should be made. And just that kind of commitment. You can only imagine how you get in there and do that. Yeah. Hey, I was looking over some facts about you. And it says that your mom was a regional theater actress. I started in regional theater. Yeah, I know. Did she ever tell you stories about regional theater? Regional theater is amazing. And I'm wondering, when I was a kid growing up in Ohio, it was the only place we got to do serious work. What was her life like? Did she ever share any of her stories about what that was like for her? It's incredible. The biggest volume of her acting she did after she was 40. Every year she'd do a play in the local town, where we summer in the Cape Cod, or in my hometown in Alexandria. My mom's story, she was a theater student at the University of Iowa. And then, Rob, you won't believe it, for two years she was in the repertory company at the Cleveland Playhouse. It's about 1955 and 1956. We're right in there after college. from when she went to New York, eventually met my dad, and life continued. But she was a regional actress in your hometown theater. It was huge. Regional theater was massive, massive, massive when I grew up. Absolutely. And I know that from your memoir. And that attached me to your storyline even more so. So it's so cool that because of my mom's experience, and her experience always played kind of real quietly, but in the background as a curiosity or a, hey, my mom went, oh, you know what the big thing was at that same season? I think she did As You Like It. And in that cast was Dom DeLuise. So for us, it was crazy that we were that close to greatness that my mom had once been in a play with the guy that's in the Perk Reynolds movie. Listen, when I was a kid, I saw Dom DeLuise. I saw Dom DeLuise in regional theater doing a musical I've never heard of since called Under the Yum Yum Tree. But you'll never forget it, right? No, but I love that Dom DeLuise was clearly killing it in the early 70s. He was doing Shakespeare one summer and then Under the Yum Yum Tree. Yeah, and Cannonball Run just on his off season, right? Right. Incredible. So that was sort of our viewpoint of celebrity or something so remote, yet it had pressed my mom, right? And then in college, right ahead of me was a group of actors that went directly to SNL. That was Julie Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall, her husband, one or two other names. Sorry. But they immediately went to fame on TV instantly. That was the peak place for comedy. obviously still still is but so that kind of rolled me twice i had a couple of things that reflected like it's it's that close it's right there julia louis dreyfus for sure the most successful actor in the history of television and for sure she's never been in anything that wasn't a hit she's i mean obviously she has seinfeld then she does the new adventures of old christine ran for like five years uh right you forget about that one that was a big hit though And then, of course, Veep, legendary, legendary, legendary. I mean, she's just, she's a killer. Of course, of course. And her film work in the last couple of years, of course, is stellar. She touched in the MCU. And she was in that same comedy troupe that I was in, improv troupe at Northwestern. So that was how close, I mean, so what I'm describing to you is like snapshots that I had where it made it realistic that it could be because I wasn't anywhere near it. And I wasn't really aiming at being a film or a TV actor, but there it was. Same. Because we grew up in areas where it was only theater. Yeah. Like I just assumed I would go to New York and be a theater actor. And only because my folks divorced and ended up in California. Because of the divorce did I end up auditioning for, There's no theater to audition for in L.A. There still isn't. Still isn't really. But do I remember that you had a – that somebody had already spotted you, that you were in a play or an agent had seen you or a teacher? Yeah. You know, it's the best. So there was a professional touring group in Ohio called the Kenley Players. I've talked about them a couple of times before, and I love the notion of the Kenley Players. And it would be like Henry Winkler on his hiatus of playing Fonzie would do Streetcar Named Desire in Flint. and Cincinnati and, you know, and clearly these guys came in for, you know, four weeks, made a fortune, drank their way through the Midwest part, did whatever they were doing and had laughs and get, got to do the parts of their dreams. It was so clearly was what it was now. I looking back at it now, I know exactly what it was, but then would you go out? Would you go out now? If that was still going on, would you go do what I think I actually, on the road and do. Okay. Okay. So they offer you or something. I'm going to call you right now. And I'd be like, all right, bro, here's the thing. I got this amount. There's this much money in the bag. That's right. And we're going to Cincinnati. Here's the bag. Rob, I am on that tour bus with you. Right? Yes. I think. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, should we do? Guys and dolls. How about? See, well, here's the thing. They were always like raucous crowd pleasers. Oh, which are those then? Let's have it. I would want to do like True West with you. Oh, now see that. Do you know what I mean? Well, that's what's frustrating about you, Rob, because you're sat timid. It's right in there. And you've done everything, everything, everything else. So that's all you have to do. I think I have to play like, you know, like Fagan in, you know, Oliver. Like that's what they want. Come on, you did not say that. Can I please tell my Fagan and Oliver story? Please. Which was also extremely formative. if you tell me you saw vincent price play fagin i'm gonna know that's what i saw it was in my high school and uh it was i gotta add this in the fall we did um uh uh to kill a mockingbird and of course i wanted to be atticus finch and they cast me as jem finch i was 12 12 years old and i played that i trooped my way through it and i hated every minute because i was small and i was playing a little kid and i was a senior in high school yeah you wanted to play so senior spring the show was going to be oliver which i listened to that album flip side until it was worn out yep never wanted to be oliver wanted to be artful dodger but for that play i was going to play fagin it's my senior year or i'm not playing anything at all and the teacher didn't give me the part come on and so i wasn't in that and uh even more to my uh balancing moment in life i sat in the pen orchestra and i played cello for the guy who was playing thank you see now this is this is thank you that's how you learn you are an accomplished cellist i think i was aware of it i didn't realize that you also play on soundtracks like when they have orchestras you come in and you play yeah and you tell us the movies that you're on the score of well i'm on the score of about two dozen movies so among them are the following um at least two of the planet of the apes two mission impossibles i think i play on three and four um inside and out incredibles 2 coco if you can imagine being in that room while they recorded that central american musical theme these are all composed by michael cicchino who i became friends with after he wrote the score for family stone man my head's even spinning rob i'm so blessed and i kind of challenged him i could play you sure and he had me come in and he had me play it's i was 18 years ago i looked it up and uh so i sit in an orchestra with eight or ten other cellists who are some of the best like recording cellists in the world, of course. And therefore probably some of the- Ringers. Ringers, right? Ringers. So it has each, I played for two weeks recording this incredible wall-to-wall, end-to-end of the movie soundtrack for Rogue One, a Star Wars story. So I'm playing music. I played on two of the Jurassic World movies. So I'm playing themes written by John Williams that are composed again and arranged by Michael Giacchino and his amazing crew and engineers and recordists and musicians. And I know all these people. It's my second career in a way. Recently, I even played for another composer. I've played for a few others when it's kind of happened. Mark Irwin, the storied and award-winning composer who's done everything. I had me in to play a session for an upcoming Peacock show that I appear in. So that was incredible. Michael Chiquino's movies are all big blast busters. I've never been in those. So those are the... You can say you're in them. I mean, you can say you're... Well, I'll never forget... It's on your IMDb, baby. I'll never forget it. For correction there, it has me listed as soloist on Rogue One. I am not. Mr. Stephen Gush, I think I could get his last name, is our principal cellist. He played that. And nowhere else is it all listed at Wes One because they're not all captured on IMDb. the scores that i've participated in so i even played with michael giacchino last thursday in session with just nine other players there's one just me he had me in to play just a few soft accompanying um like mid-tone parts for an album that i'm not supposed to talk about so uh if you can believe it well i had you'll appreciate this my favorite day on the west wing was the day that Yo-Yo Ma played all day long. He played all day long, and I had no dialogue. Oh, God. I just got to sit, and the camera would eventually push into all of our reaction shots. Wow. And it never has been easier to be emotional. When you have Yo-Yo Ma sitting right there doing his thing, and the camera's pushing in on your face. I thought, this is heaven. It's a dream. I saw him. Thank you. I'm going to recruit you now, please. I saw Yo-Yo Ma play when he was probably in his early 20s, just out of Juilliard with the National Symphony. I sat just below him. I'm a teenage cellist. I'm 16 or 17. And it changed my world. So I followed him, of course, all along. Recently, I told someone that I was going to play the Vivaldi double cello concerto with him. And they said, oh, yeah, when? And I said, I don't know, because he doesn't know about it yet. But so maybe you help bring awareness to that Also that little side project which is to finally group up And I know that we can do it for a good purpose because he seems to be truly driven to do good for people with his music. And that's the thing that I most admire about him. Can I add this, that John Wells and his lovely wife, Marilyn, were so kind to invite me and Prima to see Yo-Yo Ma from their box at the Hollywood Bowl. This is just about three years ago because they knew I played. And so we were stunned and so thrilled to be their guest. Of course, I worked with him on Shameless and on August Osage County. But isn't it funny that you were with John Wells listening to Yo-Yo Ma too? Yes. And Yo-Yo Ma has played for every president since Kennedy. It's kind of an amazing. And with every ethnicity and every music type almost known to humankind, he was put here to do that. And I really can't even speak further to it. It's otherworldly. He's beautifully put. So his cello, he told a story. He probably tells the famous story. He left it in the back of a cab once. Yeah. Can you imagine? I do. Rob, I ran over my cello. In high school. I still have it. It's the same cello I've had since I was 14 or maybe 15. I was going to ask you, do you have the same cello? I do. It's upstairs because I just played it the other day. Same cello. But this is before he left his in the cab. I'm in high school. Oh, I forgot something. I put it in park. I need the keys for the trunk. I run back in the house. I get in the car, put it in reverse. The car rises up on the old hard cello case. Not a scratch. Oh, yes. Yes. And and so, yeah, I was meant to continue playing the cello. And I still am because I have yet to play with Maestro Ma. You know, the other you have so many great movies I love. But, dude, so everybody had been telling me over the years, you have to see Living in Oblivion. You have to see Living in Oblivion. You have to. It's one of those movies. No, no, no. I know I'm going to. You know, people, you know, you're going to like a movie. You know, you are. It's not like you're procrastinating on it. You know, like this is in my wheelhouse. I know I'm going to like it. I just haven't gotten around to it. I finally did a few years ago. That movie is amazing. Wow. That movie is amazing. It's been too many years that I haven't seen it, but I know it's amazing because really it's in the top four or five of movies that people come up to me about. If I'm anywhere near a film set, that goes skyrocketing up to number two. of what that guy's going to come over and say, hey, you know that other movie? I'm like, yes, I do. He might have his earphones around his head or like a radio clip to his belt or a bullhorn. You don't have to say, I get it, I get it. Living in oblivion. It might be the best movie about filmmaking. If you really want to know the foibles and the, what is it, what's the phrase I'm looking for? It's that great Jerry Maguire line. It's the horrible things about filmmaking that nobody will ever tell you about. That is the one. It's all just. It is something else. That is from the frustrated mind and brilliant mind of Tom DiCillo, who had made a movie called Johnny Suede. That is that offbeat choice that suddenly out of Thelma and Louise, Brad Pitt chose to do. tom cast catherine at the time my wife in that so the great catherine keener great catherine keener they co-starred in that and remain friends to this day besties of all time and um that's where i met tom tom was trying to get box of moonlight made which wound up being made third with john torturo starring in that in a brilliant performance sam rockwell supporting have a little role because he couldn't get finance after a successful film with brad pitt and he just sat down he wrote this super like anxiety dream uh short movie about about the most disastrous day you could ever think of on a film set that was made into a brilliant short in black and white if you recall i think it was a short before it was a movie yeah and that was It's just short ends, like borrowed, used film. And six months later, we regrouped and put two more dreams where Nick Rev, of course, in French, Rev is dream. But Nick is the character Steve Buscemi masterfully performed in that. So he wakes up three times from it being an anxiety dream. So good. The noise, the music on the street, everything. The boom man with the fave-a-fave clock who wants to get a frame line. Every time anybody says anything about, can I get a frame line? Frame line, yeah. On any set I've ever been on since, about six people just crack up. Yeah, I'm going to use that tomorrow. I'm going to go back to Lone Star. I'm going to look at the guys and go frame line and see if they left. Rob, I've got to tell you, I'm going to even interrupt you because I know I've been wanting to talk to you. So this is really amazing. And I didn't expect that I'd be on your podcast, although, you know, I'm out shilling a franchise movie. So who knew I might do something. We will get to. We will get to. Some podcast with somebody. I'm so thrilled it's you. I just learned about it the other day. But you brought up movies that people have said, and you're like, yeah, I know. It's a great movie. I love it. And if I ever saw it, I didn't clock it the way I did. When I saw The Outsiders a month ago with my teenage daughters. Oh, boy. So I'm coming into this really full of your talent and how beautiful that film is. I know you wrote about it so eloquently in the time you had in Tulsa. So I'm watching it sort of reverse engineered. I know about reading your book. while I'm watching that movie through the eyes of an adolescent kid. And let me tell you, you guys, I got choke in my throat. You're so beautiful. All you guys, Ralph and Tommy, it's incredible what you did and what the camera did with you. You guys are leaning on each other and it's so organic and your faces are gorgeous. And can I please, if you will, allow me to suggest that. That was a cutting-off point. That was the beginning of a time and an end of a time right there with those Coppola movies, Rumble Fish, where the youth was taking over. It was our time to come in. And it got hard on the old guys about four or five years later when you guys were still in charge and Tom Cruise had done Top Gun. And they were like, wait, I'm not so sure about this. And then they kind of just chalked all you up to being too successful or dare I say too pretty or too this, too that, too something. When all y'all were frocking it and you were paving the way, but you were blowing down doors and putting those old men to bed. So guess what now, bro? We're on the other side of it. We're the old men. So step aside. You see these kids getting these parts. When I see Timothy Chalamet, you get a good part. I was going to say Timothy Chalamet. I was going to say the same thing. Do you actually feel like jealousy, Rob? Yes. Do you have like the remnant of like coveting that role? Oh, I go, I would have so loved to be in the Baz Luhrmann Elvis casting carousel. And I just know I never would have gotten it, but boy, would I have loved to have tried it. No, but they almost stopped there. And then this second wave came in, of which the reason they went to Chicago and look at students to see who was next was because of you guys. And, you know, and like Judd Nelson and Andrew McCarthy. Yep. And all those other blue-eyed boys. And you know what? They finally needed a brown-eyed guy. So they went and they got me. Been here ever since. Try me, you guys. And then what did they do? They put dirt all over your face in Young Guns. I mean, what the living hell. Yeah, yeah. Well, that helped me really stay. If you mean dirt on my face for Dirty Steven Young Guns or any other, I've been doing it since, although it's getting a little old. How are you feeling about that? I mean, is it sticky blood or feeling like cold in a scene that night? I'm good, baby. I've had two. How cold have you been on a set recently? I'm cold all the time now. Oh, are you? Is that an age thing? Yeah. It's surprising. It's only on Zoom that I'm not wearing my, what do you call it? A neck gaiter. That's how I roll at home. The neck gaiter. Okay. I'm off to- Yeah, to keep the draft out of your scrawny old neck. Well, I tell you, I had two really good conversations with my idols about aging in Hollywood. And one was Michael Caine and the other was Clint. Wow. And both lovely, lovely, obviously, beloved men. And have been very nice to me over, never worked with either one of them, but have been very nice to me over my life. And Clint, I think, is 90 now. Still making a movie every year. Yeah. and I it's one of a kind I asked him I said how do you do it what is you make a movie a year it's really really hard and how do you do it at your age and he leaned into me he said Rob I never let the old man in gosh that's so that's actually really it's really heavy yeah and great and then the other was Michael Caine and and I said how can I be you and he goes well you'll just have to keep living and you will be right and i thought well that's simple enough yeah because that's the thing is like that's the next thing is old man parts because dude there are a lot of old man parts that crush i know i mean all all my so my kids young kids they don't know michael cain from anybody but man when when alfred the butler talks in those batman movies they know that the shit is going down no they will they will replay some men just want to watch the world burn they will they will replay that scene over and over and i'm like because it's michael cain guys yeah uh it's incredible how you can um you can watch something over and over again obviously we've been doing that for a long you know since we got vhs's but yeah you know you started even before that so your your movie would be out and then it'd be out at the end and then it'd be over and be over so let me um you know who's my new my neighbor these days is my favorite of your female co-stars of which you want on quite a run young man uh with with hotties is cameron diaz oh what uh what an amazing person oh i'm so glad are you acquainted with her do you are you neighbor we see each other and her husband benji yeah it has cost me a lot of money because he's got me into watch collecting oh dad so this so this is this is the one that benji i wish i could i wish i could zoom in on this it's a good one but uh benji's got me into he's he's got me in some very very expensive habits and that that being number one but boy cameron diaz well cameron is a down-to-earth person i'm telling you he's probably got a lot of extra money left over for watches because uh she seems to roll uh just in the happy zone and um i love her intensely i can i can think of every moment i spent with her i can't i can't forget a single one of them so when yeah when I will give her your best. I was going to make up some scenario where you're walking your dog or whatever, bringing your groceries in. Please give her my love. I will, for sure. And I'll text her and say same. Now tell me, you've entered one of the great franchises of all time. You're in the new Scream. Yeah. Welcome to Scream. Screamology. Screamopolis. The Scream universe, as they call it now, right? The universe of Scream yeah It kind of amazing Of course the fan base is already there This has happened to me one other time when I joined Shameless which was already a hit show So it a very distinct sensation I only felt twice All of the hard work is already done That's right. Every other job I've ever had, like building a boat, you just hope it doesn't sink. And if you get to the other side without, then that's good. There's no like life once you get over the day. It's just the boat. so they crushed it in scream five and re-established the franchise i think it's uh thank goodness i never had to be good at math oh me neither but it's 25 or some years since they did it uh originally um and they they remounted it with melissa barrera jenna ortega in the lead with mason gooding and jasmine savoy brown in the um in the four leads that are once again being chased around by Ghostface. So it's one of those slasher movies where the guy has a mask that have been happening since the first one of these or from those off-tune movies of this 80s, really, is when slasher horror came back strong and hasn't left. Jen Ortega, boy, she's having a moment, isn't she? I mean, whoa, whoa, whoa. I mean, just blown up. Well, they're going to stumble on it eventually, I'm sure. I didn't know her very well, but I was already in a hit horror franchise with Jenna Ortega, but she was 11 and she lived next door to me. Come on. In Insidious, number three. So I think there's a still photo from that set that is bound to be unearthed before you know it. So she's been doing it since she's 11 and it took, now she's what, 20, 20? I believe. It took 10 years. Yeah. Right in there. But she was the one to fill me in on that and show me the picture. So that's super charming to begin with. Yeah. But this is an extraordinary person. I almost can't even. There's a reason what's happening with her is because she's exceptional in every way that you can imagine. Can't say enough. Can't say it better than that. She really seems like she is so purposeful. sometimes you feel like somebody's really supposed to be doing what they're doing and she's got that in spades yeah her went wednesday is such a hit for for netflix there and i got to compare notes on her on her cello playing of course yes yeah that's right yeah she nailed it only the smartest finest people play the cello i am now i am now learning it's it's hard to fake playing the cello and to go on record and she she really nailed it she did a great job are there some oh you might have been one of the first people to hold a condom on camera on a network television yes in fact i was rob that's a very obscure fact but it's funny that you would bring it up really that's a good fact what prompted you to hold a condom on network television well can you imagine the meetings they had about that that's 1987 yes i can seven probably 1987 is probably really my second third tv movie called daddy you'll remember it patricia arquette was a teen mother i was the father we were high schoolers uh danny aiello was the coach john carlin played you use one of these little lady yeah yeah was that well but no and it was a big moment in um in television history whether anyone knows it or not but that was my hand in the in the scene where the girl saying well you have to wear one of these awkward insert close-up insert of condom in palm of hand. Thank you, America. You're welcome. Wow. Wow. Just say no. Or just say yes. Just say yes to condoms. Yeah, I think that's still the going. No, what I was angling at was best MTV movie award kiss. Yeah. That's not nothing. Yeah. Listen, many are called, few are chosen. You know, that's a big deal. You and Winona Ryder. Yeah, we were nominated, Rob. Oh, I thought you won it. See, no. Do you remember who won it? No, somebody should quickly Google that. Who's hotter than you and her kissing? We were in an amazing movie called How to Make an American Quilt. Yeah. It wasn't funny. Maybe that's why. But if what you're really angling at is like what it was like just Winona Ryder in 1997. Go ahead. I did a movie with Winona Ryder and I played the fiddle. It's not the cello. No, even harder though, Rob. That's impossible. Really hard. Well, you need to watch it. It's called Square Dance and then you need to tell me if my fiddling made any. How? You know who taught me how to play the fiddle? No. David Lindley. No. Yep. This is the best. So the studio, this is one of the great things about being an actor. Square Dance? Square Dance, yeah. And so I have to learn how to play the fiddle. And they go, hey, I'm going to find somebody who knows their way out of the fiddle. They get me David Lindley, who is the iconic musician, all of Jackson Brown songs you've ever heard. Yeah. And on and on and on. Wow. And that was a real thrill to take some lessons and just learn how to fake it. What low era was that? This was right after About Last Night. It was right after about last night. So right early, so young. Chopped all my long, luxurious mullet, hair moosed locks off, and played this part of a, you know, just, I don't even know how you'd describe it, but it was an intellectually challenged young trailer rat living in, you know, but he was a brilliant, and it was Winona's first lead. She'd done, it was right before Beetlejuice. Rob, I remember this movie, of course. Jason Robards was there too. I don't think anybody ever gave you a chance. They didn't even give you a look at something that had like, you know, serious actor on it because of what you'd already done. And because they were just starting to turn against you. And guess what? They let in, but it went stronger female at that point in Hollywood, in young Hollywood. Right? It was a fun name. It was Noni's first. Noni, as she was. Oh, bless her. I came back around with you. I'll even pitch it. It's still sitting right out there on your remote control. Gone in the night. I'm fine. Wait, put that back on the screen. I want to see it. I didn't get a chance to read it. My team is telling me who won. Oh, yes, please. Best Kiss winner of 1996, Natasha Henstrich. And the alien. And Anthony Gadira in Species. In Species. It was like a VFX tongue kiss. You remember it. It was awesome. So totally deserved to win. I don't think so. Bill, if you're asking about what it was like to kiss Winona Ryder in 1996, go ahead. How was it? It was amazing. That's why we're in Hollywood. Well, thank you. So this was so fun to catch up with you. I can't wait to see you in Scream and everything. You know, you're one of my favorites. Same here, Rob, for real. Honestly, it was amazing to see your early work recently, too. God, that's amazing. How did your teenage daughter, how did she feel? It's the movie's 40 years old. Fell madly in love with Ponyboy as you're supposed to. Yeah. Like incredible, just pie eyed. Right. Yeah. And also now people their age should be absorbing the cinema of it so much more, you know, as a part of consuming a movie than I did as a kid. I just took it in until I got into making movies that you realize the mastery that's involved in each and every job on those sets that we've grown up on. So here's to all those guys and you, man. Thanks a lot. Oh, thank you. It was great having you. So appreciate it. I can't wait to see you around. He makes me want to play the cello. No, actually, that's not true. If I'm being totally honest, he makes me want to fake play the cello. I want to fake play the shit out of it. I think I could. And he's inspired me to do it. What a nice guy. All right. You got questions? I got answers. Let's hit the lowdown line. Hello. You've reached literally in our lowdown line where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep. Hello, Rob. My name is Linda. I'm calling from the city of Pico Rivera, California. And one question that has, every time I see the movie, I just think about it, like almost all the time. And in St. Elmo's Fire, when Alec dunks your head into the toilet because you pissed him off for some reason or another, but the toilet. First, is it a real toilet? Second, is it clean or is it dirty? Every time I see that scene in the movie, I always think that, like, oh, my God. And lastly, I just want to thank you. Thank you. I'm sure, like everyone else, a lot of us have grown up with you. And I just want to thank you for sharing yourself through your podcast with us and through your work. And a lot of us have just grown up together with you. So I just want to say thank you for all that you do and sharing yourself with us and keep up the work. Thanks, Rob. Have a good one. Well, thank you. Without people like you, I don't have any of this. So really, thank you. That's very sweet to hear. I remember that toilet very well. And luckily for me, it was on a set in Warner Brothers Studios that was built and meticulously placed clean water. Looking back, I'm watching that movie. It's really a dick move that they do to me. And we all kind of laugh it off. We're like, I mean, I guess it's before. They didn't teach him about bacteria at Georgetown. I think the St. Elmo's fire people needed to spend a little more time in science. They wouldn't have been so cavalier with Billy Hicks's head in the toilet. And that, of course, is the same scene where we all, for no apparent reason, huddle up and go, a boogaloo, boogaloo, boogaloo, ha ha ha, which people will quote to me. It's never explained. And I love that the director, Joel Schumacher, let us do that. because what that was was something that Emilio and Judd and I were doing regularly as buddies. And Joel thought it was funny and put it in the movie. And what that was is that was our imitation of these guys that we would see out at the clubs who didn't speak a ton of English, but had Ferraris, lots of money, sending champagne to all the girls. And we were all like, God damn those guys. and they'd be like eyeballing our girlfriends in the corner going, oh, boogaloo, boogaloo, boogaloo. So that's where that comes from. Thanks for calling. And thank you for listening. And there's amazing guests coming up. So get ready. Next week is going to be another fun one, I think. Thank you, as always, for listening to the show. And please spread the word to all your peeps. See you next week. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Nick Liao, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar, researched by Alyssa Graw. The podcast is executive produced by Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and myself at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd, music by Devin Bryant. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe. This has been a Team Cocoa production.