Rob Lowe calls leaving ‘The West Wing’ ‘the best thing I ever did’
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Rob Lowe, who starred as Sam Seaborn on “The West Wing” during the show’s first four seasons and left due to a reported salary dispute, said his departure from the Emmy Award-winning drama was the “best thing I ever did.”
“I felt very undervalued,” Lowe, an Emmy nominee for the series, told Stitcher Studios’ “Podcrushed” with hosts Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin, and Sophie Ansari. “Whenever I talk to actors who complain about, you know, their relationships on their shows, it happens. It happens in any workplace. You could be in an environment where people sandbag you, want to see you fail, don’t appreciate you, whatever it is and whenever I share my stories, people are like, ‘I will never share my own stories again.’ They would make your hair stand up and there are some of them I wrote. I shared some of them in my book [‘Stories I Only Tell My Friends’], but I purposely didn’t share half of the other ones because it would make the people involved look so bad that I didn’t want to do it to them. So, I did not have a good experience.”
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Lowe said he tried to make his time on the Aaron Sorkin drama work despite his issues, but realized it wasn’t going to set a good example for his children.
“My kids were getting to a certain age where I could see them having first girlfriends or friends and being in a relationship that was abusive and taking it. She’s the popular girl, everybody likes her, she’s beautiful, it must be great,” Lowe said. “All the things that people would say about making ‘The West Wing’ to me. It’s so popular, it’s so amazing, it must be amazing, but I know what it’s like and if I couldn’t walk away from it, then how could I empower my kids to walk away from it?”
He added, “I walked away from the most popular girl at school, but I also knew that it was a super unhealthy relationship, and it was the best thing I ever did.”
Lowe left “The West Wing” during its fourth season and amid reports of a salary dispute between the actor and the show’s production studio. At the time, he released a statement saying his character’s waning role played a part in his decision to leave. “As much as it hurts to admit it, it has been increasingly clear, for quite a while, that there was no longer a place for Sam Seaborn on ‘The West Wing.’ However, Warner Bros. has allowed me an opportunity to leave the show as I arrived … grateful for it, happy to have been on it, and proud of it. We were a part of television history and I will never forget it.”
In the years since leaving “The West Wing,” Lowe has often discussed the project and his exit. During an interview in 2011 to promote his memoir, Lowe told The Daily Beast, “So when it comes to something like ‘The West Wing,’ I didn’t understand a lot of what was happening, and my sense was that it was unfair, but I also didn’t begrudge it because it’s not my show. If they want to do the show without Sam Seaborn, it’s their call and it’s all good. I try to avoid negativity and bitterness at all costs.”
Seven years later, Lowe suggested a reboot of the show would be of interest. During a 2018 interview with Stephen Colbert, Lowe said, “I was watching all the reboots come out and look, I love ‘Murphy Brown’ as much as the next person, and who doesn’t? But I think it’s time to get the old gang back together. I know all of the staff would love [it]… [but] it’s all about Aaron Sorkin. He’s the guy who wrote it. He’s the guy who created it. He is ‘The West Wing’ and we’ve got to have him figure it out.” (Sorkin left “The West Wing” after its fourth season; John Wells took over as showrunner in his place.)
In 2020, Lowe reunited with the main cast of “The West Wing” and Sorkin for a special one-off episode to benefit voter registration and also participated in a cover story for Entertainment Weekly. Asked by the publication about the enduring legacy of the series, Lowe said, “I think the comfort food element to ‘The West Wing’ is one of the things that I love, as well as how people are finding solace, inspiration, protection — whatever adjective you want to use — in it. It’s kind of remarkable that after 20-plus years, it still has the ability to comfort people and inspire people.”
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