Sophia Bush: A Derpy Blazer will Fix it!
36:53 Share

Art in your home can instantly transform your space and bring you joy. Saatchi Art makes it easy for you to discover and buy one-of-a-kind art that you'll love. Whether you're looking to complement your home decor, fill a blank space on your walls, or start an art collection, you can find the perfect piece for your specific style and budget at Saatchi Art. Go to SaatchiArt.com today to bring the beauty of art into your home. Plus, listeners get 15% off their first order of original art with code ROB.

That's 15% off at SaatchiArt.com. S-A-A-T-C-H-I-Art.com. Ever wish your favorite TV show had twice as many episodes? Everyone knows that feeling. And so does Discover. Everyone wants more of their favorites. That's why Discover doubles another favorite thing. Cash back.

That's right. Discover automatically doubles the cash back earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with Cash Back Match. Now that's a real crowd pleaser. Everyone knows how it ends. Double the cash back. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. Sophia! Hi! There he is. How are you? I'm good. Thanks for coming on board. I'm so happy to be here.

Hi, everybody. It is literally with me, Rob Lowe. Today, we are going to have a very, very thoughtful talk with the, as you are about to find out, unbelievably interesting, smart, accomplished Sophia Bush. We're going to talk everything from pop culture of One Tree Hill. Oh, my God! One Tree Hill! Oh, my God!

to social justice and how you become a Tournament of the Roses parade queen, or as it is more properly known, the Tournament of Roses debate queen, because that's the one thing I haven't done in my career yet. It's not too late. So we're going to find out with Sophia Bouge.

Look at this cool studio of yours. I know. Well, I wish I could say it was like in my basement or something. And when I first started doing the podcast, it was my basement. But since COVID, I'm in this very cool studio in Santa Barbara. And like there's musician stuff everywhere. It makes me feel like I'm more creative than I actually am. I love that. I built myself a little studio under the stairs at my house. So this is my little office.

And you're doing your own podcast now. I am. I do two now. I know. When did you start doing, which came first? Which podcast came first? So I started Work in Progress, my sort of, you know, deep dive, laugh and cry and learn about all the things show in 2019. Yeah.

I had been talking to a friend and I said, well, you know, I was texting with Gloria Steinem. My friend looked at me and was like, that's a ridiculous thing to say. And I was like, isn't it ridiculous? Like, you know, if I had told my journalism student self going to USC Annenberg that that would happen to me someday, I wouldn't have believed it. And I thought, you know, I just thought, what if I could take some of these conversations off of text threads and make them available to everyone? And so to interview...

Women like her and, you know, senators and congresspersons and creators and writers and musicians and authors. It's been so much fun. Which ones stand out for you? There have been so many people who've just been fascinating. Valerie Carr, you know,

the author to interview Jamil Smith from Rolling Stone to have Evan McMullin, like the former foreign policy director of the GOP is probably not a person that a lot of people think I would have on my podcast. We had a great time. We talked for three and a half hours. I was like, my poor editor, what are we going to do? And it was that, the love of real depth

which is sort of the opposite of, you know, the internet and clickbait and short form tweets that made me think when COVID hit and I was FaceTiming with my girlfriends from my first show, we'd be like on a FaceTime, we'd all open a bottle of red wine. We'd be cooking dinner together, chatting, you know, isn't this so weird? We're just stuck at home. And I said to the girls, I was like, you know, I think we have to do a podcast.

I think we could reclaim our show and have so much fun. So I have one very deep, deep show and then one pop culture show and I love it. Yeah, it's kind of, you kind of get both of your interests combined

you know, serviced at the same time. How did you decide to start yours? It's sort of like you said, your text thread with Gloria Steinem. There are people in my life that I think are so interesting and fun. And a lot of people are interested in them, but don't know them the way I know them. So to share sides of

people that people already think they know and just present them in a different way. And for me as a fan, you know, we have Lindsey Buckingham on and you talk about his guitar solo and go your own way or, you know, I just, so the fan part of me, the fan boy gets to go, you know, crazy. And so I've had so much fun doing it. Isn't it interesting too, I'm wondering if you experienced this on your show, you

you know, we're both storytellers. I imagine you love to chat, have a great long dinner with people, you know, really get into a topic, but there's something about the permission slip of an interview. Yeah, totally. I have discovered things about people that I have thought I've known for so many years. I've discovered things when I've had people on the show that I didn't know before. And then on the other side of it, I think because it's a long form, um, people forget they're being interviewed. Yeah.

And also, you know, maybe open up in ways that they don't, that they might not otherwise. I know I do. Whenever I'm on somebody else's show, I come off and go, did I just say something stupid? Am I going to get dragged for something? Because I was just talking, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. Especially because sometimes when you are chatting, you know, you're...

You're formulating a thought in real time. You haven't had the opportunity to sit, think about something, form an opinion on it, and then, you know, give it a quippy answer. Yeah, right. And it can be a bit scary. Was I clear on what I meant? I don't know if I... I'm never clear. I just know that going in. I'm not... Clarity is sometimes not my friend. I'm clear just...

clear just often enough that when i'm not it it gives me nightmares but i'm not i'm not clear so much that i never i never fumble and say something but i read back later and go wow i really could have done a better job with that you were raised you went to west lake right you're west like westridge oh not west okay so where is that exactly westridge is in pasadena i uh

I grew up right near what is now the Grove, which, you know, didn't exist then close to the Hollywood farmer's market on fifth street, right off Sweetser. And my dad had a studio on Beverly. And then in junior high, I started going to an all girls school in Pasadena and the commute. Eventually my parents were like, how did you do that commute? I mean, I didn't do it. My parents did it. I didn't have a driver's license. Yeah.

Oh my God. Okay, how did they pick that? That's a commitment. Yeah, totally. Well, they wanted me to go to an all-girls school. They liked the academics that it fostered and certainly the confidence in terms of being outspoken about one's opinions and speaking in public. And my parents were looking at Westridge where we had a family member also attending. And then-

they were looking at Marlboro which is another you know girls school kind of closer to where we lived um and there was like you know some scandal there I don't know I think like some sophomore girls got caught smoking pot or something my parents were like absolutely not well that's it you're going to Pasadena you know and now there's a dispensary on every corner so right lol but um

in later years I found, was what sort of pushed them to want me to be in a bit of a smaller community environment. And Westridge was absolutely incredible. I loved every minute of it there. And then at 17, you become the Tournament of the Roses. What's the official title? Queen? Yeah, it's so weird. It's such a misnomer because...

The entire, you know, the year that you work with the Tournament of Roses as a high school kid, you're kicking off, you know, 2000 philanthropic initiatives and events and you're going and you're giving speeches in...

in you know five to six cities around the pasadena area every week and it's a public speaking thing it's kind of like once you get it you're talking about once you oh no even to get it you have to do on the fly um speeches where they give you a topic walk me through the process of of getting to be the chairman of the roses queen how does it it's just i wish they would call it something else because people were like oh you did pageants i'm like no i did debate

But the whole thing for us was basically all the kids who try out, they throw a ball. It's like a prom. And when you go to a school where you have 55 girls in your entire class, you don't have a real prom. You have like these funny little dances. And so all of us, all the seniors think, well, we want to go to that. There's going to be like 2,000 kids there, like a big high school.

And so everyone rolls in to try out one day. And shocker, I had thoughts on how you could give back to your community to politics, even at that age. And so every time they'd give me a speech topic, I had plenty to say. And I kept going through these rounds of this thing, really not understanding what a big deal it was. I didn't grow up in Pasadena. And

you know my dad moved here from Canada my my mother's mother moved here from Italy like we didn't understand what a big deal this whole thing was and then suddenly I got picked to do it um and before I knew it I was running around you know just giving speeches all while trying to complete my senior year in high school and apply to colleges it was a little crazy but it was certainly I

I think wonderful training for the insanity of an actor's schedule, because, you know, if you got five minutes to breathe, you got five minutes to do a rehearsal is how it works in our world. And so I think it, I think it taught me very quickly that,

What it would mean to wear many hats. And it's probably why I can do a TV show and political work and two podcasts and be here with you today. I know. And tell me, so how did One Tree Hill come into existence? And what do you what do you think that the why is that people are still so fixated on on that show? And why did it make its mark?

Gosh, I wonder what that is, right? For people who have these sort of zeitgeist shows, I want to pick your brain about that. You have to come on my show, I'm realizing, because I want to ask you 10,000 questions. You can ask them here too. But you've had many of them. And like all these people started doing pandemic rewatches, right? And so many people started to rewatch One Tree Hill. I started to rewatch The West Wing. And I was like, oh my God, I just want to talk to Rob Lowe about this so badly. And we have a gorgeous point of connection with The West Wing and Westinghouse.

One Tree Hill, which is the inimitable Moira Kelly. Of course. I mean, what an icon that woman is. I forgot about Moira. Moira. My gosh. Can you believe? Oh, yeah. I mean. When she drives her beamer up on the sidewalk and is screaming at that guy. God, she's so cool. Yeah, that's a great scene. That's one of the great, great entrances. And I think it's in the pilot. I think that or the second episode. It's early on. I think it's the second episode. Yeah. I just couldn't get enough of it.

And so, you know, my show that's a Zeitgeist show that I had no idea would be. Did you guys know when you were doing the West Wing, were you like, oh, this is going to be an evergreen show? No, God, no. We thought it would be. We were certain we would be on the canceled too soon list. You know, that famous list of brilliant shows that never got the. We thought we knew we were making a great show. That was great.

New new new for sure, but we felt like nobody would watch it and we would be gone by Thanksgiving Wow You know one trio was kind of similar for us. They always liked to tell us we were on the bubble I think because you know post friends they were like don't ever let your actors think the show's gonna last because they'll ask for more money or something Which was really weird You know, I was just I was in college. I was working on my summer breaks and spring breaks and

You know, being a total pain in the ass for my agents. I remember they were like, you treat your career like it's an extracurricular activity. And I was like, it is an extracurricular activity. I'm in the Annenberg School of Journalism. I took it so seriously. And you're shooting in North Carolina at the time, right? Yeah, it was North Carolina. Were you at the big studio there in Wilmington? Yep. Screen Gems. I'm not crazy. Like, that's a good life, shooting in North Carolina, right? And shooting there. I think...

Look, I think if you were doing it now and you could take your family, you would love it. I think when you're 21 years old and you're trying to find yourself and you're in a town where everyone is either an 18-year-old college kid or like a 50- to 60-year-old retired golfer, you're kind of like, what am I doing here? And it was hard for us. It was really also obviously wonderful at times. But...

it was very insulated and you know, you can't get a direct flight home. So it's, it's hard in that way. Um, but,

I wound up out there because I had done a pilot for the same producers who produced One Tree Hill. And that pilot did not go. It was fabulous. Jeffrey Nordling played my dad and he's so cool. And seeing him on Big Little Lies, I just was like, hell yeah, Jeff, you're killing it. You know, he's so cute. He's always like, oh, thanks, kid. He's called me kid since I was, you know, 19 years old. He's an angel. But

The producers called and said, I'll never forget it. One of the guys was like a really New York guy. And he goes, well, we made this show. And it's about these kids in North Carolina. And it's so depressing. The four of them are sad. We need somebody to come in and be fun.

And I was like, all right. Like, I've never, you know, I'm in college. I'm like, I don't know what this means. So I go in and I read for this job. And then before I know it, I'm, you know, in a callback and then a test. I still can't remember if it's a network or a studio test that happens first. I should know this by now, but I don't. I go to these tests and then they say you're moving to North Carolina in two weeks. Wow.

You know, I think about it now. I realized that I seemed like I had my act together to a lot of people, I think probably because of the confidence that a school like Westridge gave to me. But, you know, I was three years out of an all-girls school, and I moved to North Carolina to star on a TV show. I had no idea what was going on. I was just like this naive little baby deer. But...

Similarly to your experience, we just wondered what's going to happen. And every week the ratings went up and up and up and up and up. And it was all word of mouth. I mean, it was just like catching like wildfire. And still every year they told us we were probably going to get canceled. And then we were on for nine years. That is so funny. Nine years in every year. Oh, God, that's so unbelievable. But it makes perfect sense. Yeah.

At Ashley, you'll find colorful furniture that brings your home to life. Ashley makes it easier than ever to express your personal style with an array of looks in fun trending hues to choose from, from earth tones to vibrant colors to calming blues and greens. Ashley has pieces for every room in the house in the season's most sought after shades. A more colorful life starts at Ashley. Shop in store online today. Ashley, for the love of home.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I'll never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount. Terms and conditions apply. I also find it super interesting that you were for a minute in Terminator 3. I have a Polaroid somewhere that I need to find and send to you of me trying on jackets in a fitting for that movie. They kept trying blazers on me to try to make me look older and

And I look like somebody's 12 year old sister trying on their mom's jacket. That's amazing. There was no way anyone was going to buy that me at 18 who looked 13 through veterinary school. Like it was and how flattering, right? For them to be like, no, no, but you did really good in your audition. We want you to be in this movie.

There was nothing they could do. They dyed my hair darker. They cut my hair shorter. They just they tried everything. And I just looked like someone's derpy little sister coming to set every day being like, hey, guys.

They give you a walker. Oh, my God. The grit made your hair gray. It was so silly. Did you ever get to meet with Arnold? Was Arnold even in it? Yeah. No, I did. I got to meet with him. We did this rehearsal. And I remember he had to, like, pick me up and throw me over his shoulder. And I don't know. I'd been on, like, three sets. I didn't know what was going to happen. And he actually did. And I was like, God, it's...

this is what you see every day. It's very high up here to the ground. Like it was just such a weird experience. And even he was like, who is this child? He started laughing when we met. And I was like, this is probably a bad sign. Like I just was, I was a baby. You know, I'm sure someday you'll write a book and that like that, that chapter is,

Would be amazing because it's just one sort of clusterfuck after another that everybody everybody having the best intentions. Yeah. And you're just like, that's the stuff in in a career and in Hollywood that always makes me laugh. And I'm fascinated with because it's the calamities that people don't ever know that go that go on. Oh, for sure. I know. Let's put her in a blazer.

Okay, that'll do it. Blazer will fix it. That'll do. Dye her hair darker. She'll look older. And it's hilarious to me because, you know, the girls and I are rewatching One Tree Hill now because of our podcast, Drama Queens. We're watching season one and we were all 21 at the time. And we're going, we look, we actually do look like we're 16. We looked like babies. Babies.

just babies you know people didn't have the hair and makeup and the tiktoks teaching you about skin and all the stuff that you have now we just looked like little kids and i and it just makes me laugh to think that at 21 i was playing a 16 year old and when i was 18 someone tried to hire me to play a 27 year old like what was happening i am also another great one is so you your character um

Detective Lindsay, you've played on five different shows. Yeah. I don't know if anybody's ever done that. Yeah, I don't know. The same character on five different shows. Yeah, all in the universe. The wolf-averse. The wolf-averse. So, Mike, just briefly, my...

I take full responsibility personally for all of Dick Wolf's success in the business. Do tell. I do. And I think and whenever I see Dick, I am waiting for my percentage of the multi billions he's made. Dick wrote a movie for me called Masquerade. It's a really good movie, but was lost in the just didn't do well, but really good. And it was such a disappointment to Dick.

that he said he was going to start writing television. No. And it was after that that he went and wrote Law & Order. So if I hadn't tanked my movie

Dick Wolf might not have ever gone to television. You really took one for the team, Rob Lowe. I did. I took one for the team. What a kind man you are. You threw yourself on the wolf sword. That's really... You launched a... You launched generations worth of television. A juggernaut. Have you ever been to Dick's house? I've seen photos. It's funny. We were working in Chicago and he got a piece of art and we wound up in this conversation about it and he takes his phone out and he's showing me pictures and...

And at first I'm like, this is a fabulous hotel. What does this have to do with the thing that you got? And I was like, oh, this is, oh, this is your house. These photos you're showing me.

I was like, maybe we all do the wrong thing being, being the people in front of the camera. We should probably be behind the camera with the pen. No one has done better than Dick. And I mean, he's wonderful and he's a really great guy. He's such a character. I mean, and I love, he suffers no fools, which I love in a person. I love that. I just, it's entertaining and it's great. Um,

I mean, geez. OK, so you were in Chicago PD, Law and Order, SUV, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med and Chicago Justice. Yeah, it's a big universe. You're like Robert Ori in basketball. He won championships with with five different teams. Yeah, it was very cool. Which was first? Chicago PD was first.

Yeah, PD was first and then the crossovers began with Fire and then we did Justice, but that show didn't last. So then we started doing Med and then I was going back and forth doing a lot of crossovers with SVU, which was such a trip because as a young actor, that was always, you know, on my bucket list. And then rather than like doing one episode playing a victim of something. Was Maloney still on it when you were there or was Mariska? No, Maloney wasn't there. It was me and Mariska, you know, Kelly, Ice-T, and...

And God, we just had a blast. And, you know, they were fun. Mariska was like, you should just come here and work on our show. And we toyed with that idea for a moment. But it it's a really, you know, it's a wild thing that he's been able to build. And it was very cool for me to play a character who had a reason to especially go back and forth and be up at SVU and.

as much as I did. You know, Mariska was certainly an inspiration to me in a lot of ways. And I loved, you know, I loved whenever Dick Wolf was on set. He's fabulous. You know, he's such a great guy to be around.

And, you know, he's the kind of guy you want on your team because he has your back, but he has your back with a baseball bat. You know, he's really, he's lovely. And, you know, you know, and I know not everybody in the TV world is like that. And certainly not everybody in my TV world of which he was the king was like that. The king can't be on television.

On one set every day. But God, when he was around, it was always the best. Yeah, he's such an he's just he's been a sort of offline mentor to me because we're neighbors in Montecito. And his first is his oldest son was in preschool with my oldest son.

So we, you know, we were we were young. We were young fathers together, Dick Wolf and I. So we had that to share, which was which is super fun. Here's an interesting factoid. My wife, Cheryl, gave Mariska her first paying job ever. No way. Yeah. So at Santa Pietro's Pizza Parlor up on Beverly Glen, my wife, Cheryl, ran it and hired Mariska in.

as the first waitress. The rest is history. So whenever we see Mariska, we have a good laugh about that. Wow. I love all those little sort of, you know,

Reach across connections that I know right in our business. Yeah, it's so fun Um, oh, so let's talk about the Maasai wilderness conservation trust. Yeah, do you get to spend a lot of time in Kenya? I'm assuming it's in Kenya. I have actually had three trips Booked to go to Kenya all of which I've had to cancel because of work You know, they always say as an actor like you wanna you want your show to get picked up? You want to book a job book a trip and

You'll only be working when you're supposed to be traveling. But I feel very fortunate. Edward Norton has been a patron of the Trust for a long time. He and his wife, Shauna, who are just the loveliest people on earth, introduced me to it. And the work that they do to, as I believe all philanthropic efforts should, to empower the local community to be the stewards of their environment, to keep their culture intact and safe.

to protect the animals of the African wild and create other opportunities for tourism and income streams so that they can fend off the poaching industry. It's an incredibly well thought out organization. And I've been so honored to raise some funds and kind of

hold up a bullhorn for them. It's certainly something that even all these years, you know, into doing work for many groups, I still do not take it for granted. I think it's pretty cool. It's just such a profound experience and such a beautiful, beautiful place. And, um, my first spent time with the Maasai in the early nineties and, um, then had been back a ton, spent more time now actually outside of Kenyan sort of, uh,

Tanzania, but that it's, it's a great, I actually got to shoot a movie in South Africa in the Kruger. It's like really like for keeps down there. Yeah. It's pretty incredible. And I've got friends who work on conservation efforts in Virunga and I've not been lucky enough to go yet, but even having traveled to South Africa for a brief time, I, isn't it beautiful? Oh God. It's,

It's the most incredible continent. And I think it's no accident that everyone who has the privilege of spending any time in any part of Africa feels this sort of sense of like the scope of the universe. You realize that the, you know, millennia of history and human evolution and all of it, it just deserves our respect and reverence. There's a reverence required there, right?

that is makes your like makes your heart flutter a little bit doesn't it I know I know it's so it's it's pretty it's pretty pretty exciting music

At Ashley, you'll find colorful furniture that brings your home to life. Ashley makes it easier than ever to express your personal style with an array of looks in fun trending hues to choose from, from earth tones to vibrant colors to calming blues and greens. Ashley has pieces for every room in the house in the season's most sought after shades. A more colorful life starts at Ashley. Shop in store online today. Ashley, for the love of home.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I'll never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. Okay, so you got Good Sam. Good Sam, baby. Good Sam. Good Sam is short for Good Samaritan Hospital, and I'm guessing...

Sam is also the name of one of the characters. I'm just guessing. I don't know anything, but my TV experience tells me that I'm right. Am I right? Well, you are partially right and then completely right. I play Sam. I knew it! Is Good Samaritan also the name of the hospital? Our hospital is actually called Lakeshore Hospital.

which is a hospital set on the lake shore in Detroit, which is cool because that's kind of a city I have deep ties to. Oh, cool. And, and yes, the idea of her, of, of this lead character of Sam being good. Sam does really revolve around the notion of what it means to be a good Samaritan, to be a helper. Right.

but because there are so many good Samaritan hospitals around the country, that was not a name we could take. That's right. Who else? Who are your co-stars? So Jason Isaacs plays my father. Great. And I mean, my God, what an icon and a man. But I must say, you can really get into the sort of

peer group experience of my generation when you realize you've had about a thousand text messages from friends saying, oh my God, Lucius Malfoy is your dad. You know, the Harry Potter people are going crazy and they're so, so excited about it. And, yeah,

It's this really amazing opportunity to do a family drama in a hospital. You know, I've always been really drawn to family dramas. This is us, Succession. You know, some are kind, some are scary. I've also always really loved hospital shows, whether it's House or Grey's. I've never seen a family drama in a hospital before. And this family, myself and Jason, Wendy Crewson, who plays my mom,

who is the woman who, you know, kind of behind the scenes and beautifully built this whole hospital around my father's career. There's a lot of stuff going on. And the central conflict with these two, you know, we're butting heads all the time because he...

He can't help himself. He's a father. He thinks I'm not ready. And then as a doctor, I know I'm ready. And he also doesn't know that he loves my, you know, empathetic leadership style, which revolves around listening to people. And I think he's a brute and a bully who treats people like they're disposable. And, and so there's a lot of, um, there's a lot of ideas that are

meeting in this sort of David and Goliath story. And it's just so much fun to act with those two and with everyone else on the show. I think it comes out tonight. I mean, we're going to air this at a different date, but it comes out tonight, right? It's premiere day. Yeah, I know. It's so crazy.

Congratulations. Do you have... Thank you. You've been through a bunch of premiere dates in the board. Do you still get as nervous? Are you like going to be calling the ratings, which today don't mean what they used to? I mean, how do you handle a premiere night? I don't think ratings mean anything anymore, weirdly. It's like, what is that? None of us know. There's streaming, there's live, there's live plus three, live plus seven. I don't know. Yep. But for me, what I am realizing is

And my loved ones who are in my house have been checking in with me today going, are you feeling your feelings? Are you feeling anything at all? Why are you organizing Pinterest boards and still looking for, you know, a drying rack on Etsy? And I'm just like, I don't know. I mean, it's like if it's premiere day and I realize I'm so invested that I've almost disassociated from it.

Oh, yes. You know, I'm an Olympic medalist in disassociating. You and me both. We have to talk about that. No, you and me and my psychiatrist. Okay. Disassociating is the enemy of intimacy. I'm learning. It is. But it's interesting when you do learn, when you learn a version of a high functioning kind of that.

Almost as a coping mechanism, because what we do requires such open chested feeling. And by the way, how else do you walk through an airport if you can't disassociate? Yeah. Literally when I when I like walking in any crowd I'm in, I'm not in my own body. No, I can't be. I'm up here and I'm noticing where everyone is, where every phone is. I know where it's coming from. I know where the exits are. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. As somebody in recovery from drugs and alcohol for a really, really, really long time, the things that make you a drug and alcohol addict...

When shepherded in the right direction can also be extraordinary tools. Yeah. And so like disassociation, I would not, it's not what one should really aspire to. But man, it's a really good tool in the right place, right? Isn't that part of what's interesting, right? When we grow up and we see ourselves and we do the work for whatever it is, whether you're in recovery or, you know, you're healing from trauma or whatever, right?

You start to realize that if you can toggle your natural response to things, you can actually build a toolkit. Yeah. If it owns you, it's scary. If you can't control the tendency to disassociate, that's scary. But when you start to learn, like, come on, that's got to make you feel a little bit like Harry Potter, where you're like, look at this magical thing that I know exactly how to do because my therapist is great and I actually show up. Yeah.

Yeah, you got to do the work, right? You got to work. Well, good luck tonight. I will be I'm turning the TV on even though I'm not a Nielsen family. By the way, I once knew a Nielsen family. Really? And when I would and they would.

This is back in the days when it wasn't just a box and they had to make a diary. And they would put in the diary that they watched my show and how many people they had over. And when they did it, I could see the ratings in Chicago where it was would be you would get an extra 500,000 people by one Nielsen box going on. I was trying to game the system. By the way, it didn't work. Series was canceled. Yeah.

almost immediately but um there's no there's no free lunch but um that said i i'm going to be turning on my tv for good sam tonight oh thanks rob and good luck yeah it's funny you know a 10 p.m slot some of my friends are like we have children can we just leave the tv on and then watch it tomorrow by the way 10 p.m used to be used to be the prime because um when we when we were doing west wing law and order was at 10 p we were at 9 law and order was at 10 yeah and the

That was the year that Law & Order just blew sky high. I mean, we were a hit, but Law & Order was a monster at 10 p.m. Yeah, 10 p.m. is a big deal. I think, you know, post-pandemic, we've all just gotten very sensitive to the sun, and I'm ready for bed at like 8 o'clock. So I'm going to have a coffee this afternoon and stay amped for my premiere. You get a hype, girl? Whoop, whoop, you're hyped. Good sayin'.

Well, thank you for coming. This is so fun. And let me know. I'll come see. I'll come visit you on your thing when I I'm going back to my show today to tomorrow. And my life is not my own. But when I have time, I'd love to come come on for you. I would love that so much. That was great. What an interesting, interesting, smart woman. And I'm going to watch that hospital show. Good Sam. I don't know about you, but I'm going to. And now let's have a little gander at 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.

Hey, Rob. How are you, man? This is Chad calling you all the way from south Georgia. I was curious, in the movie St. Elmo's Fire, that awesome earring you rocked the whole movie, where is that earring? Do you still own it? Do you still have it? Do you know anything about where the earring is? Just curious. Let me know. When they told me Chad was on the line, I thought it was my brother.

But I'm glad it was you, Chad. It's funny. The earring is lost to the mists of time, but the earring hole is still there in my ear. It never closed up. I mean, I'm told that when you get a pierced ear, if you don't keep a plug in it or whatever, it'll close up. Mine never did. I don't know what that says about me.

And if you if you look at my work today, you'll get a gander at it. It's still there if you look close enough. The earring was a if I remember correctly, a lightning bolt with like a but at the top of the lightning bolt was like what's at the top of a sword. You know, it has like the.

the sort of handle and there might've been a skull and really early on in St. Elmo's fire, I had my favorite, um, earring, which was an actual baby doll. I had a doll baby hanging off my ear.

in the scene where I'm in the Jeep. I only wore that earring once because it gave me an ear infection and it weighed too much. But listen, anytime we can do a deep dive on earrings, I'm down to clown. So thank you. Thank you for the question. And thank you all for listening. Next week, more interesting folks on literally, don't forget to give us a rating if you're so inclined on Apple. I'll take five stars, but I won't take any less stars. Thank you. Great having you.

You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced and engineered by me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm. The podcast is executive produced by Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher.

Our researcher is Alyssa Grawl. Our talent bookers are Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn. And music is by Devin Bryant. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week on Literally with Rob Lowe. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.

At Ashley, you'll find colorful furniture that brings your home to life. Ashley makes it easier than ever to express your personal style with an array of looks in fun trending hues to choose from, from earth tones to vibrant colors to calming blues and greens. Ashley has pieces for every room in the house in the season's most sought after shades. A more colorful life starts at Ashley. Shop in store online today. Ashley, for the love of home.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I'll never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply.