Rob Lowe joked that it was a “nightmare” working with his son, John Owen, on the Netflix series Unstable because he thought his son was going to “cure cancer,” not become an actor.
During an appearance on The View on Monday, the 60-year-old Hollywood star joked that his son “could have worked at Jamba Juice,” instead of going to Stanford University, where he studied science and technology.
Referring to their TV series Unstable, which helped the father-son duo bond over their sobriety, Ana Navarro asked Rob, “You’ve been in the industry since you were 12. So tell me, when you were growing up, was being on screen with your son a big dream for you?”
Rob immediately responded, “No, dream? It was a nightmare! Dream? You have to understand, I sent this kid to Stanford, I signed the check. I mean, if he wanted to be an actor, he could have worked on Jamba Juice!” while John Owen smiled awkwardly at his side.
However, Rob didn’t stop there and continued: “I mean, I could have saved myself a lot of money! I thought I would get out of there and cure cancer and work in a lab! No, no!” as the panel laughed.
Rob Lowe joked that it was a ‘nightmare’ working with his son John Owen on his Netflix series Unstable
Ana then asked John Owen what he was studying, and when he confirmed it was science and technology, she turned to Rob and said, “Okay, you’re right!”
Sara Haines then joked, “This is what you get with a Stanford degree!” while John Owen noted, “But that’s the reason… part of the reason our program is set in a biotech lab, so it was worth it in a sense.”
Sara replied: “So at least you pretend to be one on TV!” to which John Owen bluntly replied: “Exactly.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the 28-year-old spoke about the inspiration behind her TV series Unstable, which returns to Netflix for a second season on August 1, explaining: ‘He’s really good to me when I give him a hard time, which is one way I think we show love to each other in the Lowe family.
‘And I was doing it on social media at one point and people seemed to be having fun, so I went up to him and said, “Would you let me make fun of him on national television?” and he said, “Yeah.”
Explaining how the series is “like therapy,” John Owen continued: “It’s cathartic at times because we get to live through experiences I’ve had, except in the show there’s a scripted resolution, and I think there’s something deeply cathartic and therapeutic about that for me.”
He added that the show was “very, very realistic” and that his father was “constantly judging” him for things like his posture.
His comments come just days after he and Rob admitted that working together on Unstable helped them bond over their sobriety.
Rob claimed he could have saved “a lot of money” if he hadn’t sent John Owen to Stanford University
John Owen, 28, confirmed he studied science technology at Stanford University but had decided to act instead.
John Owen said working on Netflix series Unstable with his famous father had been “deeply cathartic”
During an interview with Extra, John Owen confirmed that he had been sober for a little over seven years and said that staying clean was one of the “main things” that connected them as father and son.
John Owen praised Rob for being a role model while he was “struggling” and explained that it helped him to know someone who “came through successfully”.
The actor also said his father was “very smart” in not trying to correct his behavior too much and allowed him to “make mistakes within limits” to keep him safe.
When he asked me Extra If he had to advise other parents to give their kids space, Rob clarified that you have to “give them boundaries so they don’t kill each other or do something really, really, really, really stupid.”
“Believe me, there were boundaries, but the notion that someone is going to stop drinking or doing drugs because you want them to or because they got arrested or because they lost their job or lost their girlfriend… it doesn’t work,” he said.
Rob insisted that the only way for someone to stay sober is to make the decision “on their own.”
Previously, John Owen said he was in the hospital “many times” while battling addiction and even had a close friend die from a fentanyl overdose.
Meanwhile, Rob entered rehab in 1990, at age 25, and has been sober ever since.
