Imagine showing up for the premiere of your first movie, only to then learn that a majority of your scenes have been cut. Tragic and heartbreaking, right? So, it's sad to hear that exact thing happened to Rob Lowe at the age of 18 when The Outsiders debuted a different version than Rob Lowe remembers shooting — as in, his scene was cut, and no one told him.
"No one ever said a word to me," Lowe recently told HuffPost Live of the experience. "No 'hey, we're going a different way with the movie' or 'the movie's too long' or even 'you suck.'" But Lowe eventually turned that disappointment into a positive, just like the eternally-happy Chris Traeger from Parks and Recreation would.
Even all these years later, with huge success under his belt, you can tell the experience really hurt Lowe. "It wasn't a great thing to do to an 18 year old kid," he acknowledged. Of course — it's a tough introduction to show business for anyone to have. But in a very Chris Traeger-approved way, Lowe has capitalized on the negative and turned it into a learning experience: Instead of letting it get him down for all acting ventures going forward, it's actually influenced how Lowe's approached producing own movies. "Ever since then, whenever an actor is not going to be in the cut in the way that they would have expected, I make sure to tell them," Lowe shared.
Fans of Lowe's Sodapop character can see the extended rendition the way it was shot in The Outsiders: The Complete Novel. This director's cut version debuted in 2005, and now to Lowe everything is water under the bridge. "I get it. Movies become what they become," Lowe said.
That's true, and it's also because of that experience that Lowe became the actor and producer he is today. You know, the kind willing to tell the actor he's not going to be in the film before he shows up to the premiere.
Watch the full HuffPost Live interview below:
Image: NBC; donnagwillickers/Tumblr
