During an appearance on Dax Shepard's 'Armchair Expert' podcast, the former star of 'The West Wing' also talks about his co-star's 'relentless' competitiveness on the set of 'The Outsiders'.

• Apr 28, 2020

AceShowbiz - Rob Lowe is spilling the tea on how Tom Cruise behaved early in his Hollywood career. Looking back at the time the two of them worked on "The Outsiders", the actor playing Sodapop Curtis in the 1983 coming-of-age film recalled seeing his then-co-star throwing a fit upon learning that he had to share the same hotel room with him.

The former star of "The West Wing" shared the story during an appearance on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast. "All of the L.A. people survived the L.A. auditions, and then the hand-picked people had to go to New York to face the New York version," he began. "So it was me and Tom Cruise and Emilio [Estevez] and C. Thomas Howell."

"[It was the] first time I ever stayed at The Plaza Hotel, and we check-in and Tom finds out that we're sharing a room and just goes ballistic," the 56-year-old actor continued on retelling with a laugh.

During the chat, Lowe noted that Cruise already demonstrated his "relentless" competitiveness. "He ended up being the only one who could do a backflip. It is in the movie 'The Outsiders' for no reason," he remembered that his co-star learned the stunts for the film. "He runs out of the house and does a backflip for no reason. Just to do it."

Lowe, however, could understand all the antics pulled by Cruise. He claimed it was simply because the latter knew his value. "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 stated.

"And the notion that an 18-year-old actor with a walk-on part in Endless Love and like a 7th lede in 'Taps' could have that kind of like wherewithal," he continued, adding that he remembered talking to himself, "Wow, this guy is the real deal." He elaborated, "I mean it made me laugh, it was gnarly. But in the end of it, you can't argue with the results. He's had his eye on the ball since day one."