Rob Lowe Felt 'Very Undervalued' on The West Wing, Compares Filming to a 'Super Unhealthy Relationship'
Paul Dailly
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Rob Lowe has appeared on countless hit TV shows throughout his career.
While he's currently starring on both 9-1-1: Lone Star and Unstable, the actor is opening up about why he left The West Wing.
On Wednesday's installment of the Podcrushed podcast, the actor revealed he felt "very undervalued" while starring as Sam Seaborn.
"It happens in any workplace," he affirmed.
"You can be in an environment where people sandbag you, wanna see you fail, don't appreciate you — whatever it is."
"Whenever I share my stories, people are like, 'I will never share my own stories again' because they would make your hair stand on end," he added.
Lowe revealed that there were some hints about his time on the NBC political drama in his 2011 memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends.
"I purposely didn't share half of the other ones because it would make the people involved look so bad that I didn't want to do it to them," Lowe elaborated.
"I did not have a good experience and tried to make it work and tried to make it work and tried to make it work," Lowe emphasized.
He went on to speak about leaving the show and how his two sons inspired him to depart after his four-season run.
"What happened was my kids were getting to a certain age where I could see them having first girlfriends or friends and being in a relationship that was abusive and taking it," Low shared before comparing his time on the show to dating the popular girl in school.
"Everybody likes her, she's beautiful, it must be great — all the things that people would say about making The West Wing to me," Lowe said.
"'It's so popular, it's so amazing, it must be amazing,' but I know what it's like and if I couldn't walk away from it then how could I empower my kids to walk away from it?"
"I walked away from the most popular girl at school, but I also knew that it was a super unhealthy relationship and it was the best thing I ever did," he continued.
"What people forget is the minute I left, Aaron Sorkin left and then it wasn't The West Wing anymore. It was ER in the White House, which is perfectly fine, but I'm not interested in that."
Despite exiting the show, Lowe returned for a two-episode arc in the seventh and final season.
Fans can watch Lowe when the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved in new episodes of 9-1-1: Lone Star and Unstable.
Both shows are on extended hiatuses until a fair deal is reached t that values the writers and actors.
What are your thoughts on Lowe's sentiments about working on The West Wing?
Hit the comments.
Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
