Rob Lowe has joked it was a ‘nightmare’ working with his son, John Owen, on their Netflix series Unstable because he thought his child 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 study science technology.
Referring to their television 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 coming up, was being onscreen with your son like this huge dream of yours?’
Rob immediately replied: ‘No, dream? It was a nightmare! Dream? You have to understand, I sent this kid to Stanford, I wrote the check! I mean, if he wanted to be an actor, he could have worked at Jamba Juice!’ as John Owen grinned awkwardly beside him.
However, Rob didn’t stop there and continued: ‘I mean, he could have saved me a lot of money! I thought he was going to come out of there and like cure cancer and work in a lab! No, no!’ as the panel laughed.
Rob Lowe has joked it was a ‘nightmare’ working with his son John Owen on their Netflix series Unstable
Ana then asked John Owen what he studied, and when he confirmed science technology, she turned to Rob and said: ‘Okay, you’ve got a point!’
Sara Haines then joked: ‘This is what a Stanford degree gets you!’ as John Owen pointed out: ‘But that is why… part of the reason why our show takes place in a biotech lab, so it did pay off in some regard.’
Sara fired back: ‘So at least you pretend to be one on TV!’ as John Owen replied bluntly: ‘Exactly.’
Elsewhere in the interview, the 28-year-old opened up about the inspiration behind their TV series Unstable, which returns to Netflix for a second season on August 1, and explained: ‘He’s a very good sport about me giving him a hard time, which is a way that 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 get a kick out of it and so I came to him and said, “Would you let me make fun of him on national television?” and he said, “Yes.”‘
Explaining how the series is ‘like therapy,’ John Owen continued: ‘It is cathartic at times because we get to live out experiences that I’ve had, except in the show there’s resolution written in, and I think there’s something deeply cathartic and therapeutic about it for me.’
He added that the show was ‘very, very realistic,’ as his father was ‘constantly judging’ him on things like his posture.
His comments come just days after he and Rob admitted that working on Unstable together 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 that he studied science technology at Stanford University but had chosen to act instead
John Owen said working on the Netflix series Unstable with his famous father had been ‘deeply cathartic’
During an interview with Extra, John Owen confirmed he was just over seven years sober, and said that staying clean was one of the ‘main things’ they’d ‘connected on as father and son.’
John Owen praised Rob for being a role model while he was ‘struggling’ as he explained it helped to know someone who successfully ‘came out on the other side.’
The actor also stated that his dad was ‘very smart’ in not trying to overcorrect his behavior and allowed him to ‘make mistakes with boundaries’ to keep him safe.
When asked by Extra if he would advise other parents to give their children space, Rob clarified that you got to ‘give them the boundaries so they don’t kill themselves or do anything really, really, really, really stupid.’
‘Believe me there were boundaries, but the notion that anybody 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 they lost their girlfriend… it doesn’t work,’ he said.
Rob insisted that the only way for someone to stay sober was making the decision on ‘their own.’
Previously, John Owen said he was in hospital ‘many times’ while battling addiction and, even, had a close friend die from a Fentanyl overdose.
Meanwhile, Rob entered rehab in 1990, at 25, and has been sober since.
