Rob Lowe Makes Candid Admission About Fame in the ’80s

Rob Lowe made a canid admissino about fame in the ’80s after hitting it big with films like The Outsiders in 1983 and St. Elmo’s Fire in 1985.

In an interview on the Chicks in the Office podcast published on September 23, the former teen heartthrob, 62, opened up about the benefits of rising to celebrity status when he did.

“I was very lucky to live in a time — in the late ’70s into the early ’80s, into the very beginning of the ’90s, and then kinda over. It was just an incredible time,” he said. “It was an incredible time to be in the business. It was an incredible time to make movies. It was an incredible time to party. It was an incredible time to be single. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Additionally, the actor proclaimed, “In the totality of humanity, if I could have lived in any time, that would have been it.”

During his podcast interview, Lowe also pointed out, “It was better than you dreamed. No social media, no cell phone cameras.”

He explained, “The sort of intrigue, of like, ‘We’ll meet at club at 11,’ and then you didn’t know, maybe they weren’t gonna be there, and maybe they were. And you couldn’t say, ‘Hey, where are you?’ You just didn’t know where anybody was. It just, the intrigue of it was beautiful.”

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Finally, Lowe observed that he doesn’t think it’s “fun” for “young, famous movie stars today.”

“I think it’s a burden. Particularly if it’s happening to you in your early 20s, like it was for me,” he speculated.  “That’s when you’re supposed to mess up. I always have a ton of empathy for people who have eyes on them at that age because you’re figuring it out for sure.”

Lowe played Sodapop Curtis in The Outsiders, a coming-of-age film that centers on class division and gang violence. The role helped establish him as a teen heartthrob. The movie also starred Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, and Tom Cruise, among others.

Two years later, Lowe portrayed Bill Hicks in St. Elmo’s Fire alongside Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and more. Other notable roles during his heyday included 1986’s “Brat Pack” movie About Last Night..., 1983’s Class, and 1984’s Oxford Blues.