Photo:Warner Bros Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock
Warner Bros Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock
Rob Loweis opening up about his experience filmingThe West Wing— and why he ultimately chose to walk away.
The 59-year-old actor spoke about his time onAaron Sorkin’s hit political drama during his appearance on Wednesday’s episode of Stitcher Studios’Podcrushedpodcast.
“I felt very undervalued,” Lowe said of his starring role as Sam Seaborn, the White House deputy communications director. “It happens in any workplace. 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 shared that he did write about some anecdotes filmingThe West Wingin his 2011 memoir,Stories I Only Tell My Friends.
However, he revealed on the podcast Wednesday, “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.”
“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.
TheUnstablestar then explained how his sons,Matthew Edward, 29, andJohn Owen, 27 — whom he shares with wifeSheryl Berkoff— ultimately inspired him to step away from the series after four seasons.
“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,” Lowe began, as he compared his relationship with 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 makingThe West Wingto 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?”
Michael Buckner/Variety/Getty
“I walked away from the most popular girl at school, but I also knew that it was asuperunhealthy relationship and it was the best thing I ever did,” he continued, adding that he has “zero regrets.”
He further noted, “What people forget is the minute I left, Aaron Sorkin left and then it wasn’tThe West Winganymore. It wasERin the White House, which is perfectly fine, but I’m not interested in that.”
Lowe left the series halfway through its fourth season after appearing in every episode since the NBC drama first aired in 1999. However, he did return for two episodes in season 7.
WhileThe West Wingconcluded with its seventh and final season in 2006, the castreunitedin 2020 for an HBO Max special to encourage viewers to vote in the 2020 presidential election.
Lowetold PEOPLEat the time that filming the special was “surreal,” explaining, “in getting ready to do it, it felt like it had been a thousand eons ago.”
“Then when the cameras rolled, and it was just [West Wingcostar]Martin Sheenand I sitting down as Sam and President Bartlet, it felt like it was yesterday, and everybody was as good as I remembered them,” he continued. “It was like a great, classic rock band that hadn’t lost a step.”
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The West Wingcan be streamed in full on HBO Max.
source: people.com
