Movies Features

TORONTO—At 45, Rob Lowe is not just another pretty face. He’s a survivor of 30 years in show business. That said, Lowe is still leading with his looks. In fact, he is still playing men whose success is directly linked to their outer beauty. In The Invention of Lying, he takes on the role of a screenwriter who lives in a parallel universe where no one has ever lied. It’s also a land where people mate with those with similar traits. Rob (Lowe) assumes that he will marry Jennifer (Jennifer Garner), the most beautiful woman he knows. She assumes the same thing but admits to being attracted to a homely man, Mark (Ricky Gervais), who will do whatever it takes to sweep her off her feet, including lying to her. The movie opens in Vancouver on October 2.

In the mid 1980s Lowe was a member of the “brat pack”, a group of young actors who starred in movies that were targeted at people their own age. He got his break in 1983 as a member of The Outsiders’ cast, which also included Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, and the late Patrick Swayze. By 1986, he was a genuine movie star. In a Toronto hotel, he says that although he is surprised that he is still working regularly, he always felt that he would be a better actor in his 40s.

“It’s really extraordinary to have lasted this long,” he says. “But I was optimistic when I was that age and making those movies. All I really wanted to be was 40, because you are at your height in terms of your performing powers and the parts have more weight and gravitas. My heroes were always older actors like Paul Newman. But I am glad I am still working. It is exciting because it isn’t an easy thing to accomplish.”

Lowe’s career started going off the rails at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, when he made a notorious sex tape with two girls, one of whom was underage. Ironically, he got his second big break in 1999 when he was cast as Sam Seaborn, counsel to the Democratic American president in TV’s The West Wing. The show led to starring roles in the short-lived series The Lyon’s Den and Dr. Vegas and, more recently, to a recurring role as a U.S. senator in Brothers & Sisters. He says that although movies were the best place to find meaty roles when he started out, he now sees television as being a better place to find good parts.

“When I started out, the movie business was very different than it is now,” Lowe says. “In fact, it is different than it was five years ago because big studios don’t make that midlevel, midbudget, dialogue-driven movie anymore. That is ceded to television. When I am working with [Brothers & Sisters costar] Calista Flockhart, we have scenes that would have only been in a movie 25 years ago.”

When he does take time off from television to make movies, he usually chooses comedies like The Invention of Lying, Thank You for Smoking, and the three Austin Powers movies. He says comedies offer challenges and collaborators that keep him interested in the business.

“There are days when I love it more than ever, and there are also days when I think, ‘I have been doing it for so long, I need more challenges.’ The illusions are gone. Then you do a movie like this where you do a scene with Tina Fey and Ricky and you think, ‘These are the two comic geniuses. They are not just performers but auteurs, and they will likely write the history of comedy for the next 50 years.’ It would be like going back and working with Mike Nichols or Woody Allen in the 1960s. That’s also how I felt when I worked with Jason Reitman [on Thank You for Smoking] and Mike Myers. That is still thrilling.”

Lowe is also accepting of his plight. He says that although being good-looking might have cost him a job or two along the way, it wouldn’t be a good idea to complain since it’s unlikely that most people would feel sorry for him.

“It is something I never focused on and it is awfully hard to gain any sympathy from anyone for being too good-looking. There are a lot of people who would take that mantle on. I think there have been times it helped me and other times when it hurt me, but you would like to think it evens out.”