Rob Lowe says he left The West Wing because he felt 'very undervalued'
Rob Lowe has revealed that he made the executive decision to leave The West Wing because he felt "very undervalued."
The actor, who played deputy White House communications director Sam Seaborn in the first four seasons of Aaron Sorkin's hit political drama, discussed his departure from it in 2002 on a new episode of Stitcher Studios' Podcrushed podcast.
"Whenever I talk to actors who complain about, you know, their relationships on their shows, it happens — it happens in any workplace," Lowe told hosts Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin, and Sophie Ansari in an interview conducted before the actors' strike. "You could be in an environment where people sandbag you, want to see you fail, don't appreciate you, whatever it is."
"Whenever I share my stories, people are like, 'I will never share my own stories again,'" Lowe continued. "They would make your hair stand up, and there's some of them I wrote. I shared some of them in my book, 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."
Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Rob Lowe on 'The West Wing'
Lowe "tried to make it work" but noticed that his kids "were getting to a certain age where I could see them having first girlfriends and being in a relationship that was abusive and taking it," he said, comparing their experiences to his time on the series. "'She's the popular girl, 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 like that you could connect that dot at that moment," Badgley replied. "That's really important."
Lowe continued, "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 was written out of the Emmy-winning series in season 4, with his character running for Congress in his home district of Orange County, Calif. He said in a statement at the time that it had become "increasingly clear, for quite a while, that there was no longer a place for Sam Seaborn," adding of the "amicable" parting, "We were a part of television history and I will never forget it." (Reports at the time indicated that the exit was partly fueled by salary issues.)
The West Wing followed the lives of fictional Democratic president Josiah "Jed" Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) and his advisors in the cutthroat world of politics. Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney, and Dulé Hill also starred in the drama, which ran for seven seasons between 1999 and 2006. Lowe would go on to make memorable turns in a number of other shows following his exit, including Brothers and Sisters, Parks and Recreation, Californication, and 9-1-1: Lone Star.
He reprised his role as Sam Seaborn for two episodes in the seventh and final season in 2006 and again in 2020 for an HBO special to benefit the nonprofit When We All Vote.
Listen to Lowe's episode of Podcrushed above.
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