Rob Lowe says leaving The West Wing was 'best thing I ever did'

11 August 2023 , 15:42

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Rob Lowe says leaving The West Wing was 'best thing I ever did'

Rob Lowe has candidly reflected on his decision to depart the Emmy-award-winning show The West Wing, noting that it was the "best thing" he ever did.

The 59 year old actor starred on the seven-season show for four seasons in the role of Sam Seaborn, the deputy White House communications director, before eventually deciding to leave in 2003.

And speaking about the Emmy-winning political drama, Rob admitted to Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin, and Sophie Ansari on Podcrushed that he felt "undervalued" during his run on the show.

"Whenever I talk to actors who complain about their relationships on their shows, and sometimes it happens, it happens in any workplace, you can be in an environment where people sandbag you, want to see you fail, don't appreciate you, whatever it is," he began.

Rob continued: "And whenever I share my stories people are like ', I will never share my own stories again."

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Rob Lowe has candidly reflected on his decision to depart the show The West Wing (John Salangsang/REX/Shutterstock)

Rob played Sam Seaborn, the deputy White House communications director (Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

He compared the work environment to "diving to the depths of the Titanic every day, and we were worried about a pressure crack". Rob also labelled the show's creator Aaron Sorkin as "talented, but also intense".

Adding that he "did not have a good experience", Rob continued: "I tried to make it work and tried to make it work, and tried to make it work, and then what happened was 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."

He said leaving the show was the "best thing" he ever did (Getty Images)

He went on to compare the show to "the popular girl", saying, "everybody likes her, she's beautiful, it must be great, 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? "I knew that it was a super unhealthy relationship, and it was the best thing I ever did."

The West Wing ran for seven seasons (Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

At the time of his leaving the series, CNN claimed that his reasons were due to being "disenchanted over the unwillingness of producers to raise his $75,000 (£59,000)-an-episode salary". In comparison, The West Wing's lead actor Martin Sheen made $300,000 (£236,000) per episode. However, Rob rubbished those claims, later revealing in a statement that his character did not fit the show's storyline anymore.

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Jabeen Waheed