Rob Lowe is getting candid about life before sobriety.
The 9-1-1: Lone Star actor recently opened up to Variety about the substance abuse that took place on movie sets during the ’80s.
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He revealed a lot of surprisingly behind-the-scenes secrets that fans wouldn’t expect. If you’re ready for it, come see what he had to say.
The ’80s was a dark time for Rob Lowe.
While his career was on fire — he starred in big-name flicks, such as The Outsiders and About Last Night — his personal life was crumbling.
Since he started drinking alcohol at the young age of 13, it seemed normal to drink beer with his Outsiders castmates.
Many celebrities, no matter what era of acting they are from, deal with a lot of pressures in Hollywood.
And the younger they start out, the easier it might be for them to succumb to the pressures of Hollywood.
Many big stars, including Rob Lowe, fell victim to the culture of Hollywood that encouraged substance abuse.
“You drink a beer and think nothing of it,” he told *NPR*, adding that beer was given to actors as young as 15.
“It was a culture that was so different,” he shared .
But things soon got out of hand.
These substance issues were amplified when his sex tape leaked in the late 1980s.
When the sex tape was released, it was soon discovered that one of the two women in the video was underage.
One was 22 and the other was 16 — something that Lowe adamantly claimed he didn’t know at the time.
He met the two women in 1988 at an Atlanta nightclub.
After the three of them hit it off, he took them to his hotel room and filmed the sexual encounter.
While the incident led to bad press, he also called it “one of the best things to ever happen to me.” That’s because it prompted him to get sober.
Now, the actor is 30 years sober. Way to go, Rob!
To celebrate, he’s getting more candid about his story than ever before as a way to help others.
This includes young actors, as he recently shared some behind-the-scenes secrets on former movie sets with Variety’s Recovery Issue .
This included how common drugs and alcohol were on movie sets.
“Every day when we would wrap we’d get in a van. The Teamsters would give us a carton of beer. This was a Warner Bros. movie — as mainstream as it gets,” Lowe said.
Obviously, beer is seen as more acceptable than illicit drugs.
But don’t let that fool you. It was just as easy to find cocaine on set as it was to find beer.
“This was just how the business was back then,” he said. “Cocaine was the thing that successful people did.”
So naturally, that made the work environment quite difficult.
“There was always that wonderful moment when as an active drug abuser you’d go on the set and figure out which department was selling the coke on the set,” he told Variety .
“It was no different than craft services. Where are the Red Vines, and where is the great Peruvian blow?” he recalled.
“Those days are long, long, loooong gone.”
Despite these temptations, Lowe said that there was a kind of “innocence” to the industry that has since been lost today.
“I feel so blessed and fortunate that I was able to live through that period, and I mean that in all of its definitions,” Lowe said.
“The late ’70s and ’80s in Southern California in the entertainment business — there was nothing like it. And there never will be again.”
Another thing that will “never be again” is Lowe’s substance abuse issues.
But that’s not to say that recovery is easy. He shared with Variety that it’s a job never finished.
“The only way to stay in recovery is to be honest with yourself on a minute-by-minute basis. No secrets, no double life.”
“And you have to get real,” the actor candidly shared.
“Nothing can make you get sober except you wanting to do it,” he continued.
“The threat of losing a marriage, losing a job, incarceration — you name the threat, it will not be enough to do it.”
But once you get up that mountain, the view is pretty nice.
“One of the great gifts of recovery is that you start living your authentic life,” Rob shared. “You start living your actual values and living as who you truly are.”
Honestly, we are so happy to know that Lowe’s life is flourishing.
He is currently living his best life, and we really would not have it any other way.
You can read the rest of Rob’s interview with Variety here .
H/T: Variety
