Rob Lowe has endured quite the career, filled with wacky experiences. Among them, included getting interrupted by Brendan Fraser during his closing sign-off on SNL. However, looking back, that was extremely tame compared to everything that went down with Tom Cruise during his role in the '80s film, The Outsiders. We'll take a look back at exactly what went down between the two. As expected, Cruise turned out to be quite intense, a theme that would follow that actor for the rest of his successful career.
Living With Tom Cruise Off-Camera Was Not An Easy Experience For Rob Lowe
During their work together in The Outsiders, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise had quite the relationship, one that often times soured. Lowe recalls Cruise being very intense early on in his career. The actor saw that first-hand when the two had a room together in New York. According to Lowe, this did not sit well with Cruise, even when he was a less established name in the business.
"All of the L.A. people survived the L.A. auditions, and then the handpicked people had to go to New York to face the New York version; so it was me and Tom Cruise and Emilio and C. Thomas Howell," Lowe recalls with ET.
"We check in and Tom finds out that we're sharing a room, and just goes ballistic."
Lowe found it remarkable that even then, Cruise had high expectations, "The notion that an 18-year-old actor with a walk-on part in Endless Love, and like, a seventh lead in Taps, could have that kind of, like, wherewithal? I remember going, 'Wow, this guy is the real deal.'"
As if living with Cruise wasn't hard enough, on-set, things got worse between the two.
Tom Cruise Lost His Cool After Being Struck By Rob Lowe Accidentally
What should come as no surprise, Tom Cruise was very competitive on the set of The Outsiders. Rob Lowe recalls the cast trying to learn how to backflip and of course, the Mission Impossible star was the only one who could've pulled it off.
"It's hard to learn, and Tom was relentlessly competitive," Lowe says. "He ended up being the only one who could do a backflip. It is in the movie The Outsiders for no reason. He runs out of the house and does a backflip for no reason, just to do it."
Things would sour even further between the two when on-camera, Lowe accidentally struck Cruise. This would lead to Tom completely losing.
“We all beat the living s--- out of one another,” Lowe said. “We really did. I got one clean shot on Tom, and Tom is such a competitive lunatic - which is what I love about him - but the next thing you know he's ready to kill me!”
The tension was already high due to Francis Ford Coppola creating a gang atmosphere on-set, as a way of method acting and keeping the tension alive between the cast. That moment truly solidified the chaos and tension taking place, something that clearly followed Tom throughout his career.
There Was A Lot Of Method Acting Involved During Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders
In order to add authenticity, the cast of boys required to live with real-life greasers, in order to get a bigger picture of the role. Speaking alongside Today, Lowe recalled the process of living in a basement alongside Cruise during the film.
“They came to us at rehearsal and like, ‘OK, so, we’re gonna divide you up. Rob, Tom, you guys are gonna go stay with Bill and Sandy whoever.’ And we just went to their little house and had dinner.”
“Tom and I ended up in the basement in two cots and we’re like, ‘We don’t know these people,’” he said.
Not only that, but the director also decided to split up the cast, according to the gangs their characters belonged to. It was quite the atmosphere and experience for everyone involved.