Kevin Bacon: The Lonely Farmer
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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. When you get older, you have to say, you have to stop and say, all right, asshole, just take a moment. This is the moment. You know what I mean? For sure. Enjoy it.

Hey, everybody. It's Literally with me, Rob Lowe. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Today we got Kevin Bacon. Come on. Come on. Kevin Bacon, people. So disclaimer, we're doing this during the actor's strike. And if you can believe it, part of the strike is we're not allowed to, in theory, talk about our movies.

Yes, I could explain why, but trust me that the Screen Actors Guild police will come and arrest Kevin and I. So if you listen to this and go, why did they not talk about she's having a baby? You'll know why. It's not me. I'm not a bad interviewer. Trust me, I'm not a complete idiot. All I want to know about is Footloose. Let's get real. But it's still going to be a good interview.

Also, don't forget to check out Kevin's new podcast. It's called Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. He's gonna have fun, great people on it. They're gonna talk about their charitable causes. He's got Mark Ruffalo coming on, McConaughey, you know, all the people you wanna talk to. Bring on the bacon.

My man is literally fresh off the stage of Madison Square Garden. How was that? How often do I get to say that? It was nuts. I would literally right now for the next six months be like, yeah, God, I was just, sorry, I was just thinking about being on stage with Billy and Madison Square Garden. Walk me through what that was like. You and Billy Joel, Madison Square Garden. How does it happen? Give me the whole thing, man.

It was, well, first off, it was a complete shock because, you know, I do, uh, I play, I've had the band with my brother, the Baker brothers for years and years and years. And, um, I've never played the garden. Um,

And somehow on social media, his sort of kind of like social media team reached out and said, he's a fan of you and Kira's and would love to come to the show. And it's been a long time since I've seen Billy. The last time I saw him at the garden was with Elton. And we don't know each other. I mean, I've never met him.

So I was like, that's cool. I'm so excited about that. And I was like, honey, we're going to go see Billy Joel at the Garden. He's had this residency there forever. I think it was show number 139 or 138 or some kind of crazy amount of shows that he's done at Madison Square Garden. And then about a week ago, I get this message. How would you feel about doing a song? And I was like, what do you mean?

And, yeah, it was real. It was like serious kind of spit take time. I said, yeah, of course. Then they pitched The Entertainer and I went through a rehearsal.

you know, worked on the song. Well, first off, I started working on the song, uh, like the second. You got off the phone. Yeah. I got off the phone. Yeah. And the funny thing was, is that at the first thing I did was I listened to the record and the record, uh, is blazingly fast. Like, um, it's great. I love it.

But it's like... I was like, whoa, this guy is really, really playing. And it's also a full step higher. So I could get there, but I'm really a baritone. So when I heard, when I talked to the musical director and he said, we actually play it down a full step. I was like, oh, thank God. Not that his voice even needs it. I mean, he did an Innocent Man

during the show, the live show, those of you who know that song. And it's got an incredible range. I mean, it starts really...

really low and goes blasting up to the ceiling. And he can sing the hell out of it. He sounds great. How do those guys not lose their... I mean, I'm friendly with Kenny Loggins. We're neighbors and we play pickleball together. That's cool. I've had him on the show. I mean, listen, Kenny Loggins. I'm familiar with his work, Kenny Loggins. Are you familiar with his work, Kevin? We're not allowed to speak about it directly, but I am familiar with his work. Yes, yes. I forgot for a moment who I was fucking...

talking to. But he absolutely has not lost one iota of his range. Nothing. By the way, I got a chance to play his song Footloose

Which is a song by Kenny Loggins. It's a song. It's not a movie that you were ever in because we would never mention that.

In that case, I had to beg him to bring the key down because Kenny, again, has an incredible voice and incredibly high range. And as you've pointed out, he hasn't lost any of it at all. I mean, the only thing I can say is that I think that if you keep using it and if you're not abusing your voice, I mean, I think that you could pretty much hold on to your range. There's a lot of people that...

I've seen Bruce. I mean, he just wails for- He got more range. Three and a half hours. I mean, I'm sure you've ever seen a Bruce Springsteen show. About 75 shows. Okay. So seriously, Rob? Yeah, about 70. Yeah, literally. Literally, I have seen a billion Bruce shows. He's my guy. He's my guy. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Well, I mean-

you know, I look at that and I go, I don't know how that is possible. I, I really don't because it's also the way he sings, you know, he's got a lot of gravel and he just is really, really whales on it. And he does a lot of talking. And the truth is, is that talking is actually a lot harder on your vocal cords and the way that they, um, resonate, you know, singing has a kind of, um,

It's just a kind of a smoother, more natural kind of vibration. But I once did a one-man show on Broadway, and boy, that was really hard. You did a one-man show? Yeah, I did a one-man show called An Almost Holy Picture in 2011, I think, or 2012.

And, yeah, getting through, you know, an hour and 45 minutes just talking was much harder than singing a set. That's so interesting. It hadn't occurred to me, but it makes, it makes perfect sense. By the way, Bruce does not talk anywhere near what he used to, and I miss it. He used to tell these amazing emotional half-time stories about his father and growing up, and then would go into the song, and now it's just kind of,

It's funny to see musicians who we love in the different phases of their career. Elton, Billy, Bruce, and Mick, you know, and Bruce has become America's grandpa bar band. Do you know what I mean? And like, I remember when Bruce was the seething, angry, right? And now he's great. He's like, he's like Santa, get on my lap, take a picture, you know,

You want to hear Mary's place? Here it is. Do you know what I mean? It's like a, it's such a different energy at the show. Oh yeah. But it is. He can still bring it when he, every once in a while. He can still bring it. He still brings it, but listen, it's, it's what it is. What's great about Bruce is he's authentic to where he is in his life and he's happy. He's, he's been through a lot of therapy and he's not, you know, the untherapized Bruce was a very different show and it was fantastic.

fucking amazing. Well, also I have to say that, that, you know, speaking of, of talking and being personal and sharing things, I mean, um, the, the Broadway thing was one of the most spectacular nights I've ever seen of, uh, the definition of a singer songwriter talking about playing the music, the music, the songs, uh,

hearing the songs stripped down completely without production to their essence. Spectacular. By the way, speaking of Mick, one of the funniest things I've seen and also brilliant was it wasn't on the set list because I got the set list because I was on it for that night, so I had to know when I was going to do the song.

And he does, Billy does these little kind of like impromptu things. And one of the things that he did was the band started playing Start Me Up by the Stones. He was actually at the, he wasn't at the piano. He was up in the mic in the center of the stage, just a standing mic. The band starts playing Start Me Up and he goes into Jagger.

like unbelievably well the movement and the voice placement really phrasing it was so impressive and i was i was even more impressed because jimmy fallon and i for years like for like 10 years have been doing this dumb thing called uh first drafts of rock and it's basically like

You take a classic rock song, and the joke is that before it became the song that you know, it had another version. Oh, that's genius. I love that concept. And then they take actual videos of the actual song, whether it was a performance on the BBC or whatever it was. And I've done tons of them. I mean, Tom Petty, The Kinks, Clash, on and on, Zicky Top.

And the last one that I did was Paint It Black, but the song was all about wanting to paint things. He just wants to paint and paint and paint and paint. And I know that Jimmy does a great Mick, but he wanted me to do Jagger. So I know that it's not that easy. And I thought Billy just absolutely crushed it. He was really funny. He's an amazing guy.

amazing performer. I can't believe you got a chance to do that. I mean, I can believe it. You're incredibly accomplished. It was so fun. It was so fun. I was so grateful. And you know how it is in this life that we've been so lucky to have lived for so many years. And I know that you're like me in that

you have a lot of gratitude about what we've been able to experience the places that we've gone and the people that we meet

Something like that, you don't get numb to. You have to learn. And I think maybe when I was younger, I didn't really have the ability to do this because I was so hell bent on being cool about everything. Anybody that I meet or whoever I was working with or whatever, it's cool, it's cool, it's cool. But I think that when you get older, you have to stop and say,

all right, asshole, just take a moment. This is the moment. You know what I mean? For sure. Enjoy it. You know, just fucking embrace it. And so it was great. I would have loved to have been there. How's Kira doing? I love you guys are my favorite couple. Such a cute couple. She's great. Been around forever. Thank you. We were both blessed to have

great wives and long marriages and great kids. And, you know, I recently had some, spent some time with your boy who, uh, I'm crazy about. Oh, thanks. He loves you. He's such a special kid. I mean, he really, he's not a kid, but you know, he's, he's a good, he's a good man. I really, really like him a lot. And, um, I hope we get a chance to work together someday. I was so jealous of, of, you know, the fact that you guys were able to work together because that's something that

We all have done, overlapped in our lives in various ways. Our son is a musician and a composer and has worked...

uh, with Kira in that capacity, he also has produced, uh, tracks for us, for the Bacon Brothers. Oh, wow. Um, he's got a real kind of interesting ear on a couple of songs of mine that I really felt like he would bring something super cool to it. And in a new release that we have coming out, he, he, um, just killed it on, on a song called, uh, take off this tattoo. And, and I, I,

And just being able to be, you know, in any kind of working situation with your family, of course, it's going to be complicated, but it's also really kind of great. And so everyone's doing well. They're actually flying east to spend a little time with us on Labor Day. We were able to drive. Both of my kids live on the West Coast and Kira and I are here. So it was great. How did you get them to do that? My kids, I can't even get them to come up to Santa Barbara from L.A.,

You know what? It did take a little bit of... Cajoling? It took a little bit of making sure that, for instance, we'll book the tickets. Don't worry. Nobody's paying for anything. The tickets are bought. This is when you're leaving. And also, it's timing. I mean...

Unfortunately, SoC is not working because the strike draft is not working right now. So we're thrilled that they're on their way. Okay, so I see you serenading the goats all the time. Where are the goats kept? We have a farm in northwestern Connecticut that I actually got.

In 1983. No way. Yeah, I'm a city kid. I grew up in Philadelphia. But as a kid, for some reason, I developed a love of horses. So I was dating a girl and we were visiting her brother who was up here in the country. Honestly, I'd never even been to the state of Connecticut. And as a goof...

I remember we said, let's get a real estate agent and pretend we're looking for a house. It was literally like that. Let's pretend that we want to buy a house. And we ran around and we found this little kind of ramshackle turn-of-the-century farmhouse and bought it. Wow. I don't want to... You can imagine. It was a lot of money for a lot of people, but...

It was really kind of a song when you compare it to real estate is these days. 83, 1983. 1983, yeah. And also the area was, it's very, very rural. It's not a vacation spot really. It's farmland. Yeah. And it was really just to get a horse. I just had this idea of getting a horse. How much land do you have?

Well, now it's expanded. I bought a few other parcels of land. So we have quite a bit of land. But I'll tell you a funny story. The guy that sold me the house, he lived across the road and it was his father's or the family, I guess had been in the family for years, this farm.

And every few years you would say, well, I'm going to sell another parcel of land.

And, uh, if you don't buy it, there will be a house there looking down into your backyard. So I ended up getting it and then another 10 years would go by and the same thing would happen. So it wasn't really that I was like, so, you know, like wanted to do a land grab. It was just that I was trying to keep, cause we lived down in the, in the bottom of the valley. And, uh, one of the pieces that we bought had an old house in it. And, uh,

He didn't want me to own the house. It was an abandoned house that he had grown up in. And we kind of went back and forth on it for a while. And then eventually I said, listen, you can't sell me a piece of land but not sell me the house that's on it. That's just weird. What if you sell it to somebody else and then there's somebody that's living basically right up in the backyard? I mean, you can't do that. He says, I can't sell it to you because it's haunted.

And I'm afraid that you will get possessed and, you know, do some serious damage. You know, you're like, wait a minute, bro. I know how this ends up. We went back and forth on this haunted house thing. And and I actually finally we finally came to an agreement in the contract that I had to destroy it within, I don't know, a month or something like that.

So please tell me, please tell me you went and spent a night in the haunted house. I did. Not only did I not did not only did I not do that, but I went up there and there were some beautiful old pine boards and a banister. And I said to Kira, we got to take those out.

And she's like, no, you're not. You're not putting those fucking things in our house. You're probably right. Look, the wives are always right. You weren't tempted at all, like a moonlight walk.

See what was going on. I did go there during the day. And, you know, I don't... Listen. Did he ever give you a reason why he said it was haunted, at least? Oh, yeah. That's kind of an ominous thing to drop on the table and then walk away from. It was a long story that had to do with a Native American who, in the 1700s, had been murdered, I think, by a colonial soldier. And he had had Ghostbusters there. I mean, it was a whole...

It was a whole long thing. But you've played, been in scary movies. And I always find that when you're in a scary movie, everybody wants to know, well, have you ever seen a ghost? Or do you believe in ghosts? And the thing I always say is I would really love to. But as of yet, it just hasn't happened. But I hope someday that it will. ♪

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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. So Johnny, my son you know, and then my other son Matthew and I did a... Okay, picture a reality series that is a mixture of Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown, and Scooby-Doo. I'm in. Right? Yeah.

Not only am I in, I'm in it. So we, among the places we went was a closed down children's reformatory slash prison in central California that's notoriously haunted. And I saw lights going off and on in the middle of it, literally like somebody was on a switch.

off and on. And Matthew, my other son, there was like a big sort of, like, you know those balance balls in the gym that are inflated, you know, that you do your core work on? Like, picture one of those kind of deflated, but it's beginning to roll across the room. Yeah. And he got it on camera.

Wow. Yeah, so I... Was it on the show? It's on the show, yeah. It's called The Low Files. Yeah, it was our very first episode. We saw more stuff in our very first episode than we saw in the entirety of the rest of the series as we looked around. But it was pretty intense. And then, you know, they had this... Wow, that's pretty intense. They had this, what the hell is the name? It's scientific, I say with air quotes, name of the device that would... It sounds insane as I say it.

That would pick up on the frequencies and...

revert them into speech? He'd be like, are you there? Like, one of those things, which was hilarious. The thing kept asking for pizza. Pizza pie, it kept saying. It was both really super absurd, but also really scary. I wish that I'd kept that house up. That would have been a great episode. Celebrity haunted house. I would have been there in a minute.

So how much time do you divide between the city and Connecticut? Uh,

The truth is, is when there's work happening, we go where the work is. And Kira, I know she needs to connect with the city at least once a week. I mean, if she's on the road or shooting in LA or whatever, no. But if we're here, she wants to connect with the city once a week. When I met her, I had broken up with the girl and I was living up here alone with a dog.

And just me and the dog would go off to shoot movies and stuff. But my whole point of view was that I wanted to be a lonely farmer with a dog. Yes. And this was my self-image. This was my self-image. It's going to be me and the dog and my horses, and that's it. And I meet this woman and fall in love and...

We start to, you know, build this family. And I was like, okay, I'm the lonely farmer and you're the lonely farmer's wife. And she's like, uh, no. Have you met me? No. After she, she went for it for about, uh, probably by like four or five years or something like that. And what, you know, our kids were being raised here. Our daughter was born in the hospital here. And, um, my, my son was, was in school. And finally she sat me down and she said, guess what?

We're going back to the city. And it was the biggest fight we ever had. We fought about it forever. I mean, a lot of it was that I was feeling like undue financial pressure and I didn't feel like things were going so great career-wise. And then the idea of actually going into New York and trying to find a place to live where we could all live together

together, you know, enough bedrooms and stuff. I was like, we were just evening out, you know what I mean? And now we're going back to, you know, trying to struggle for putting enough work together to cover this, this mood.

And, you know, it was short-sighted for sure. She was 100% right, as usual. We moved back to the city and raised our kids in the city. It was like the greatest thing that we ever did. I mean, you know, they loved growing up in New York. They're both Angelenos now, but they loved growing up in New York. You know, we would come up on the weekends. But now...

Now it's pretty much 50-50 and we don't have any... Our last dog died probably about six months ago or something like that. A year, I don't know. And we decided...

I don't know. Never say never, but I don't really want another dog right now, but we have a whole bunch of other animals. See, I'm a big dog person. I have four dogs, almost. Four dogs? Yeah. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, I have a pack. And, you know, they get older and one goes and you send them out and you bring in another and we just keep it. We've always had like four dogs. Ah.

And now that the kids are out of the house, they're the children. It's a cliche, but it's true because I don't have goats. All I got is dogs. Well, listen, you know, goats and our pigs too are, all the animals, I mean, are incredibly happy to see us. And I think that that's one of the- A pig is happy to see you? A pig is. Oh my God, yes. Oh my God. If they hear us-

even approaching the gate, they come charging across the field at top speed for a pig. And we don't even have to have food. It's not always... I mean, it probably is motivated by food, but they love to be pet and...

And, you know, they both do this hilarious thing where you start to rub their belly and then they just they kind of slow down. They slow down and then they just hit the deck. They just fall right over.

And just say, okay, I'm good for the rest of the day with you rubbing my belly. That's all I need in this world. It's really cute. I mean, they're really. It's the best. I love that stuff. They're very sweet. My German shirt haired pointer, we're renting on the beach right now because we're building another house and he will swim miles into the ocean to chase birds.

Miles. Oh, wow. Miles. And I've had to go rescue him. But the thing is, he'll come back, but it's really hard to watch your dog at the horizon line, literally at the horizon line from the beach. And he's going to get tired or a shark. There's great whites out there. Wow. And so, yeah, that's a strong, that is a strong instinct. And then the other thing, I'd forgotten about this until I was looking at a little research.

We have Jack Russell's. And you know where I'm going with this one. I worked with Jack Russell's. Let's leave it at that. But that's a good Jack Russell. Yeah. I want to tell you a story about that. It was while I was making a movie. I was making a movie in Lone Pine, California. And coming through Lone Pine, California is the aqueduct.

which is either called the Los Angeles River or becomes the Los Angeles River. I know it well. It is basically, for people that haven't seen it, up there, it's probably about a 45-degree angle aqueduct made out of concrete that the water flows through, often very, very quickly and very, very cold.

I had a dog. All my dogs have been mutts, but this particular one, Jane, was like your German Shorthair pointer, like a crazy, sticky bird dog type tracker, like really, really strong. And she absolutely had no fear and loved the water. And I go out with her. She's off the leash and we're jogging.

pretty much, you know, through the desert up there. And she goes and jumps in the fucking aqueduct. Oh boy. It's probably going 20 miles an hour, ripping. It's going so fast. And I look at her and

And I look at this thing and I'm running along the side of the river next to her. And I go, I don't know how I'm going to be able to get this dog out. This is going to be impossible. And I keep running and I keep running with her. And now she's starting to like, you know, kind of, you know, she was like never, never got upset, but she's sort of starting to like whimper a little bit.

And I see a gate up in front of me where it's going to stop and it's going to go past this gate. I'm not going to be able to get through. I pulled this gate open and try to squeeze myself through the inside of this thing, ripped my chest up, but I made it through the gate.

Then I come up with some kind of crazy ass idea while I'm running that maybe I could build something quickly with my shoelaces that could be able, I don't know why. So I take my shoelaces off. So now I'm running barefoot because my sneakers wouldn't stay on. And finally up ahead, I see, I guess probably for saving drowned people,

There is one ladder down the side of the aqueduct that's kind of built into the concrete, just pieces of metal. And there is a horizontal rope strung across it. And then vertical ropes spaced probably about three feet apart that have knots tied on them. No way. No way.

Yeah, which is literally there. What else could it be for? What else could it be for? Of course. To actually save probably mostly people. Right. So I take off like a shot to try to get some distance on her. I climb down into the water and start pulling myself out into the river, holding on to this rope.

And I grabbed her as she's coming. I'm like, come on, Jane, come on. She's like swimming, literally like paddling towards me as she's floating downstream. I grabbed her by the collar and hoisted her up onto these little metal, like, I don't even know how I got this dog out of there. Got out of there. And she shakes off.

And she picks up a stick and wants me to throw it for her. And I was like, you motherfucker. I almost died and you want me to throw it? You're like, that was fun. Can you throw it back in there for me? That's insane. How cold in the water? It was freezing. It was freezing, freezing cold. I got back to the house. The run had gone on longer than I think Kira had expected. And...

I'm like, I don't have my shoes, you know, I'm barefoot. My chest is bleeding. I'm like, I got the dog. Where exactly were you again? You're not Kevin.

Yeah. You're not going to believe, honey. You're not going to believe this story. And, uh, but she, she's one of those dogs. I don't know if any of your dogs are like this, that kind of have nine wives, you know? Yes. A lot of, a lot of, a lot of near death experiences for her. I also like the way you, like me, I like human names for my dogs. Your dog's name was Jane. Yeah. I'm a big believer in human names. I like, uh,

Um, Owen is the German short haired pointer. Um, Daisy is the, one of the Jack Russell's, the other Jack Russell. Um, what is it? I've had so many damn dogs. Can't remember their names now, but I like, I like human names. I have a friend who named his dog, Jerry Bruckheimer. Yeah.

Which, because he could this, oh God, Jerry Bruckheimer is shitting in the grass again. It's John Lovitz. It's John Lovitz named his. That's funny. Celebrity dog names would be pretty sick. Yeah. This is no disrespect, but our pigs are named June and Johnny. June and Johnny, no disrespect. That would be good to have a dog like Clint Eastwood, dog named Clint. There you go. Did you ever ski with Clint? No, have you? I have.

Yeah, he must have. I'm sure. Is he a good skier? I think he doesn't. He finally stopped skiing. And it was one of the great privileges to ski with him because everything he says sounds like Clint Eastwood. So, yeah, I think we're going to go down Widowmaker. We don't go down Widowmaker. It's a double bike.

Well, I grew up with Charlie Sheen before he went totally insane. He's better now. I'm glad, happy to say. But we were obsessed. That's good. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know. He's doing good. And he used to tell me, we used to obsess about Clint and do backyard movies where we made our own versions of Dirty Harry and all of it. And then he finally got to work with Clint. He was the first of us, I think, to ever work with Clint. Eventually, Charlie realized he really hadn't said anything to him. And they're going to start shooting. So it's the first day of shooting. And Charlie's like,

we haven't really rehearsed. I haven't really had a proper fucking conversation with him. Oh, yeah. And now he's in his head and he's fucking freaking out. And so he goes and he knocks on Clint's trailer. This is the morning, first day of shooting, sun is not up, first day of shooting, knock, knock, knock. Yeah. Hey, I was just wondering, like, you know, it's the first day of shooting and all, like, you know, how are we going to attack the day or, you know, with the...

Sort of thought, you know, what we're sort of, what we're going to be doing. Clint just looks at him for the longest time and goes, we're going to hit our marks and say a few words. That's it. And that's, and that's exactly what happens. You know, that's exactly what happens. And then they turn into these unbelievably great movies. And, and it's one of those things where you kind of go, wait a second.

What about all these other times when there's been absolute insanity and yelling and, you know, whatever fights or, or all kinds of crazy stuff going on. How come he can do that and not have all that stuff? And you really scratch your head about it. Uh,

Although I have to say that, you know, after the experience of working with him, I held on to a lot of those. I certainly held on to those things in terms of, you know, being a director, but also in terms of, you know, an approach to being on a TV show or in a film.

Let's see what we can do to make this an experience that doesn't have a whole lot of insanity around it. And let's see what we can do to make the use of our time as efficient as possible.

And not waste it with a lot of bullshit that has nothing to do with what's ending up on the screen. Now, that's not to say that I'm sure you've had this experience where you can have a terrible experience and make a great movie, or you can have a great experience and make a terrible movie. In the case of working with Clint, that ended up being a great movie. But I...

I do think that there's a lot about his approach that really has stuck with me. I mean, one of the things that I'll always remember is that

You know, he really likes light sticks, which I like. You know, when I say sticks, you know, we're talking about, you know, you hit a slate to it. The clapper. Yeah, the clapper thing in order to synchronize the picture with the sound so that the editor can see a synchronized picture with sound. And traditionally, it's a big smack.

And I believe what Clint said was that

He was doing the television shows when he was doing Westerns and they line up, you know, six, six horses. And, you know, they're about to raid a town or whatever it is about to take off. And the, and the, and the assistant camera guy would come out and smack the slate as hard as he could. And all the horses would flip out, you know, they start, you know, rearing up and, and, and shying and stuff. And if it's, if it's freaking a horse out, he said, you know, it's gotta be freaking the actors out.

And what I started thinking about was that a lot of our process is in some ways, I think, backward from what it should be. Because I believe that the most relaxed time should be the time between action and cut. And in a lot of ways...

We were taught that, you know, I'll give you an example. People knock on your door and they give you a 10 minute warning. And when I hear the word warning, I say, that means that some bad shit's about to happen. You know what I mean? I don't want a fucking warning to work. I want to work. I love to work. I want to, you know what I mean? I like, I say, don't warn me that, you know,

Warning, warning, like the robot in space. Yeah, right. Well, Robinson, you know, we turned to the ship. I mean, I feel like I want that to be something that I'm looking forward to. And then, you know, rolling sound speed. Oh, yeah.

Everyone very quiet, please. Smack. Boom. They smack that thing in your face. Now I'm tense, right? Yeah. And then they say cut and everybody goes, oh, what are you doing? What are you doing for lunch? All of a sudden then becomes like the relaxed part of the day. It's like the day when we're not rolling. For me, I want it to be, I want to flip that, right? I want to flip that and feel like now I can just be, can be relaxed.

the character and the cast and the script and the camera and the operators and all of us in a place of breath and of, you know, experience. And I really learned that from, yeah, from Eastwood. And you literally, whenever you're ready, all that stuff. Yeah. Right? Okay, you guys, go ahead.

And my favorite is I heard at the end sometimes I go, that's enough of that. Which isn't exactly, doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement.

Well, if you go to work for him looking for ringing endorsements, you're working for the wrong guy. No, no. A lot of us... The truth is that a lot of us are incredibly insecure and need a lot of like, hey, great job. Oh my God, you killed it. Whoa, the dailies were unbelievable. Oh my God. Oh, look, I got a little full. I saw what you did there. And you know what I mean? Like that's what we...

That's what we want. I smell Oscar. But you're not going to get that with him, obviously. Truth is, I kind of like that better. I am somebody who does the homework and I don't come relying on

someone that's a director who's going to come up and give me a gem of a piece of direction that's going to take me from sucky to good. You know what I mean? For sure. I kind of feel like

I want somebody that's going to first off cast me and then, and then put the camera in the right place, you know, and let me do my thing. 100%. I'll say one more thing, which is great. Love letter to Clint. But, you know, I really, one of the things that's really interesting about him is he,

He's directed, I don't know how many movies, 30 movies or something like that. Most directors haven't directed that many movies and forget actors who direct. Like that's, I mean, very unusual. I don't think there's anybody that has been in things and directed them and been such a

giant star and such a successful director. I can't think of my, there's some, some people who were, you know, done, you know, a handful of things here and there or two great ones or, you know, whatever, you know, but that, that's pretty, that's pretty unusual.

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 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, here's what I have to ask you about because I remember this vividly, this moment in time and in a career and the business. I had just done, I think, The Outsiders and there was this Broadway play that everybody wanted to be in called Slab Boys.

And I remember this like it was yesterday and you did it. And with Sean Penn, was Matt Dillon in it? No, Matt wasn't in it. Who else was in that cast? Sean, Jackie Earl Haley. Oh, yeah. Val Kilmer. Val. Brian Benben. Madeline Potter. Madeline Potter. I did a play of Madeline Potter.

Yeah, I had actually done the play at the Actors Theater of Louisville earlier that year or a little bit earlier or whatever. It's a fantastic playwright, John Byrne.

I believe, I mean, was, I don't know if they're still married now, but was married to Tilda Swinton. And he was not only a playwright, but a fantastic artist and a really interesting character with this unbelievably great Glaswegian accent, which I can't do, still can't do. And a giant, giant mustache that was often...

just kind of tinged because he smoked these filterless cigarettes. And the bottoms of his mustache and his fingers were kind of brown. And I remember, and he was just a fantastic character. And somebody at Actors Theatre had found this play. Back then I was auditioning and doing regional theatre work.

whenever I could. And, um, I went to Louisville to do slab boys. It ended. And then they just, somebody decided to do it on Broadway and I didn't audition for it cause I had already played the part. Wow. And they asked me to, to do the part. My, if my memory serves me correctly, I don't think that the critics quite got it in the same way that we did. Uh,

It was almost a working class Scottish drawing room comedy in a funny kind of way. You know, a lot of people running in and out of doors and all sorts of intrigue and stuff like that. I love doing it. So good. Do you get a chance to do much theater anymore?

I haven't done theater for a while. The last thing I did was a new play, which was a production of Rear Window, but actually based not on the movie, but on the original novel that was from, I think, the 40s, the 30s or 40s.

And, you know, so the characters were not exactly the same. But that was a lot of fun. I did that up in Hartford, Connecticut. It was kind of with an eye to Broadway, but it just didn't really pan out, unfortunately. I'm always thinking about doing it because there's the band. I feel like...

that is in a way kind of part of my live life. That makes perfect sense. 100%. You know, I feel, I don't know how you feel about this, but when the thing that I love about live performing, whether it be theater or music is that I get butterflies, you know, I got a lot of butterflies when, when it was beyond butterflies, you know, when I played with Billy, but, but,

But even doing our show, you know, I know the tunes. I know the changes. A lot of times there are venues that I've played before. The band and I are all, you know, we're in sync. Everything is something that we've done. But right when you get to get, right when you're about to come out, you have that feeling like, you know, shit could go south, right? You could break a string, forget a lyric or do changes. You could sing notes out of tune. Sound cannot work. There's a lot of stuff that can happen.

But on top of that, you're also sharing that one night with that group of people. Right. Like it's never going to be the same. There's no take two. That's really what it is, right? Yeah. When you walk onto a set, it's like you're living, right? Yes. You know that there's, you've been there, you grew up there. It's so, that's so familiar. But when you go out to do,

Even if you've done the show, a theater, you know, for four months or something like that, there still is that feeling of like, this is only this night or this afternoon that's going to be shared with this group of people. And there's an immediacy to it that I think is great for a creative person. It's the best. I mean, I did a few good men on the West End. I played Caffey. Ah. So Sorkin and I, after...

After West Wing went together and did that. And it was right around the time of Guantanamo Bay was going on. So it was a really, and as you know. How long were you there? How long were you in the West End? I did 140 performances. It was a long run. And that part, as you know, is a beast.

Yes. A beast. Did you like dig that? Like living in London, working in the West End? I mean, that's pretty cool. It was living in Belgravia, everything leading up to it. Come on. It was the sickest thing ever. And that play is just a mousetrap of, it's a perfect, perfect, perfect play. Perfect. It just destroys every night. Yeah, it is great.

It is great, yeah. As you know, on Broadway, critics can come anytime during previews. And in theory, you never know when they're in the house, right? In England, they come on opening night. They all come. Oh, they do? Yes. Oh, wow. So, which is both good and bad. I kind of like it better because I like kind of knowing when the stage, whatever. Frankly, I think I would like that better. Yeah. I think I would like that better. I liked it better. I didn't like it better. Game on. I didn't like it better when I had, I think, might have been your character,

in the witness stand and was looking at the actor's face and his eyes were really big and looking at me and I go, I wonder why he's looking at me that way. And then I realized I jumped two and a half pages ahead, which is a problem in that show because it's such a nightmare because that opening night opening night with all the critics. Oh dude, that is that I'm going to have nightmares about. And I had this moment. I'll never forget it. You know, if seminal moments in, in one's career, uh,

And I had this moment of, I was like, okay, okay, okay. And I just took it. Thank God it was an interrogation scene because I don't know how you get away with it otherwise. I just, I had to figure out where I was. I had to figure out what I hadn't said because the rest of the play doesn't make any sense without the stuff that I'd forgotten to say. So I...

Just leaned into it. It was nuts. I literally turned, I looked directly into the audience. I walked down center stage, right out, stared at them thinking, took my long, sweet, didn't try to pretend, figured it out, went back and let him in. And no one ever said a fucking word.

Nobody, nobody ever knew. Aaron Sorkin knew. He lost his mind. Oh, I'm sure he did know. But nobody ever knew. And we, it was very amazingly well reviewed, but it was like, talk about, it's that thing where you say can happen. Like that's being in the airplane and you realize you're out of gas. It's like, that was as bad as it gets. Wow. That's pretty, that's pretty bad. But-

When I came back and it like snatched victory from the jaws of defeat or whatever it is, you just feel like. That's right. Yeah. That's the thing is that that's what you did is that that's then you're like, okay, I did that. I can do anything. Right. I'm Superman now. Well, this is great, man. I thank you for coming on. This is. A pleasure. Have you ever played the Santa Barbara Bowl?

No. I mean, you have a lot of musicians living around you, right? So many. Yeah. Kenny and who else was up there? I lived in Michael McDonald's house. Michael McDonald and Jeff Bridges. Jeff Bridges. Joe Walsh lived up there for a while. It's been years and years and years. All the guys from Depeche Mode.

live in Santa Barbara. Oh, really? No kidding. Please say hello to Kira for me, please. Will do, man. And best to your family. Thank you. And it's great to do this. It's really fun, really fun hanging out with you. What a great guy. So fun. Love him. 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 Lowe on the lowdown. I'm Julie, and I'm calling from beautiful Wiltshire in England.

I'm at the tail end of binge listening to literally from the beginning, and I love it. It's equal parts, as you would say, hilarious, moving, and incredibly interesting. I love hearing you talk about your love for Cheryl, and you're such a very proud dad. Those two parts of your life shine so brightly in your works. So I have a question for you.

I lost my dad when I was in my mid-twenties. It's weird to lose such a huge influence on life when you're still trying to figure out who you are. My question is, if your life had been blessed with daughters rather than your two lovely sons, it would have been very different. How do you think you'd be different if that had happened?

Anyway, take care, Rob. Keep recording. I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you. And I love Wiltshire, where you're calling from. And it's funny that you ask about my kids. My son Matthew was conceived in Wiltshire, in Sting's guest bedroom. True story. We wanted to have girls. We tried for a third because we wanted to have a girl.

And up until my brother had three of them, there had not been a female low in, I think, two or three generations. So it didn't happen for me, but it happened for my brother. So, and I'm very close with Chad and I know him as well as I know anybody in the world. So watching Chad raise his girls and his experience versus me raising my two boys is

Um, it's really, as you say, completely different. I, I, I know it would have softened me for sure. Um, uh, I think it would have given me a lot more perspective, um, on, on the world because, you know, having a, Cheryl being the only,

in our nuclear family is, you know, she's an island unto herself. But seeing the world grow up through a young woman's eyes would be, would have been spectacular. Yeah.

Because everybody says that there's nothing like a girl's love for their dads. You know, it's true because, you know, guys, you know, my boys now are like, hey, dad, what are you doing? And, you know, I see my brother with his daughters and they're still lovey-dovey and all of that. So it's a missed opportunity, but it wasn't in store for me and Cheryl. But I also wouldn't have it any other way in the next life because I do believe that'll happen.

Thank you for your question. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Be sure to download next week's episode. Don't forget, if you're hanging around the Amazon website, give us five-star review. We like that. That's very helpful. And thanks, as always, for participating. And thanks again to Kevin Bacon. He's a legend. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time on Literally.

You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Nick Liao. With help from associate producer Sarah Begar. Research by Alyssa Grawl. Editing by Jerron Ferguson. Engineering and mixing by Rich Garcia. Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant. Special thanks to Hidden City Studios.

Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe. 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 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.