Rob Lowe names the worst movie he ever worked on: “They started tearing pages out of the script”
Rob Lowe once had an impressively bad filming experience. The actors with the most extensive and storied careers are likely to have a few to talk about, but Lowe has revealed some extreme ineptitude due to a lack of resources that produced a direct-to-video critical flop.
The beloved Brat Pack member, still associated with films such as The Outsiders and St. Elmo’s Fire, was, like all of these actors, left in a difficult place as the 1980s came to an end. The decade had proved itself to be a fruitful time, but it was certainly ‘of its time’, too. It meant that as the new decade arrived, the ’80s, and all who defined it, suddenly felt very out of touch.
Add to this the fact that the ageing process comes for us all, and the teen hopefuls now had to find a new schtick. As they all aged out of the coming-of-age genre and the lighthearted tastes of the decade declined, they struggled to find their way out of this typecast. Lowe himself was also caught up in a sex tape scandal in 1988 that further derailed his career.
While he would later on get some better roles in The West Wing, Parks and Recreation, and 9-1-1: Lone Star, the early ’90s for Lowe were Wayne’s World and Tommy Boy. Lowe did, however, name his most overlooked movie as 1990’s Bad Influence. Around this time is when he starred in The Finest Hour, a 1991 film about two Navy SEALs who become best friends while training but are driven apart by their feelings for the same woman and eventually part ways to complete training elsewhere, reuniting under intense circumstances later.
Prompted by GQ to “Tell us about the worst job you’ve ever had?” Lowe responded, “I’ve had a few of these. I did a job for a movie on a location where they were trying to save money. When I got to the location, they didn’t have any stunt men, which was a problem because it was an action movie.” Given how careful stunt coordinators are about using the actors vs. doubles in projects with sufficient funding, this account really raises a red flag. In his autobiography, Lowe revealed that he was almost killed while filming a stunt being dragged by a speed boat; he got tangled up in the cord, and a Navy SEAL crew member noticed and dove into the water to save him.
Lowe continues in the GQ interview, “They also weren’t buying entire canisters of film – they were buying only the bits people had already used and were stitching them together. They’re called short ends.” Another place budget problems came up was with effects: “And then also when they needed to create smoke, for the smoke sequences, they just burned fires.” This approach was also potentially a huge safety hazard for the cast and crew.
“Unfortunately I didn’t learn all of this until after I’d travelled to Israel,” says Lowe. “That was for The Finest Hour. When we got behind schedule, they even started tearing pages out of the script.” Given that they were haphazardly removing parts of the story to save time and money, not at all like the usual approach of deleting some scenes after filming, it’s no surprise that the film was poorly received, as its narrative would lack cohesion.
Seemingly because he was at a bad place in his career, Lowe ended up on a low-production-value set like this, and didn’t exit it because he had already travelled to the location and maybe did need the work. He bounced back eventually, returning to more professional environments, but it goes to show that Hollywood’s safety protocols, unfortunately, cost serious money.
