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Rob Lowe Says He Was ‘Knocked Out’ By Tom Cruise While Filming ‘The Outsiders’: ‘I Was on the Floor’
Hollywood has always been a competitive industry – just ask Rob Lowe! The Parks and Recreation alum revealed that he was once hit so hard by former costar Tom Cruise that he got “knocked out.”
During an episode of the Rich Eisen Show on Monday, July 15, Rob, 60, recalled the memory with Tom, 62, back from when they were first finding their footing in Hollywood. Rob was 17 years old at the time when he worked with Tom on The Outsiders film in 1983.
“He was living at Emilio [Estevez]’s house, auditioning right after Taps,” the Brat Pack icon remembered, adding that both he and Tom “would work out and jog, like running bros.”
“He’s so competitive that we used to box in the hallway of the hotel we were staying at during Outsiders,” Rob continued. “So much testosterone. We’re 18-year-old guys stuck on location. So we would have headgear, and we’d have mouthpieces in, but we would legitimately spar.”
Rob said Tom was “jacked” like a “beast” at the time, but he himself had “pipe cleaner arms.” Rob hit Tom with a “real clean” shot when they were roughhousing one day. The Mission Impossible star retaliated with a powerful blow shortly after.
“I rang his bell, and the next I knew, I woke up — I was coming to, on the floor,” Rob candidly shared. “And he, like, completely knocked me out.”
Still, it didn’t stop them from continuing their sparring and working out together after the incident.
“His eyes just went black, but that’s the stuff we did,” the Unstable star said. “That’s what guys do. Like Fight Club.”
A few years ago, Rob opened up about sharing a hotel room with Tom while filming The Outsiders and all of the antics they got into.
“First time I ever stayed at The Plaza Hotel. We check in and Tom finds out that we’re sharing a room, and just goes ballistic,” Rob said during an episode of “Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard” in April 2020.
“To me, what’s great about the story is, there’s certain people who have always been who they are, and that element of them has powered them to where they are today and the rest is history,” he added. “And 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.'”
Rob went on to praise Tom for being so dedicated to his career and setting his mind to things he is passionate about.
“I mean, it made me laugh, it was gnarly,” Rob said. “But at the end, you can’t argue with the results, he’s had his eye on the ball since day one.”
When director Francis Ford Coppola suggested the cast learn how to do backflips for The Outsiders, only Tom was able to pull it off.
“It’s hard as f–k to learn, and Tom was relentlessly competitive,” Rob explained. “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.”
