Rob Lowe Recalls Boxing With 'Competitive' “Outsiders” Costar Tom Cruise: He 'Knocked Me Out'
"The next I knew, I woke up — I was coming to, on the floor,” Lowe said
Rob Lowe is looking back on his younger years — including an impromptu “competitive” boxing session with Tom Cruise!
While visiting the Rich Eisen Show for an episode that aired on Monday, July 15, the radio host, 55, asked Lowe, 60, to leave him with a memory of working with Cruise, 62, before the interview wrapped.
Lowe was 17 years old when he met the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning talent as they both starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel The Outsiders, he told Eisen. He played Sodapop Curtis — one of the Greasers — and Cruise portrayed Steve Randle.
“He was living at Emilio [Estevez]’s house, auditioning right after Taps,” the Unstable actor recalled.
Related: The Outsiders Cast: Where Are They Now?
The three young actors all costarred in The Outsiders together, alongside Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze and Diane Lane.
According to Lowe, he and Cruise “would workout and jog, like running bros,” but his favorite memory was one they left them both needing a time out.
Nancy Moran/Sygma via Getty
Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez and Patrick Swayze on the set of The Outsiders“He’s so competitive that we used to box in the hallway of the hotel we were staying at during Outsiders,” he said. “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.”
Lowe recalled having “pipe cleaner arms” at the time, compared to a “jacked” Cruise, who was like a “beast.” Somehow, Lowe managed to get a “real clean” shot in.
“I rang his bell, and the next I knew, I woke up — I was coming to, on the floor,” Lowe told Eisen. “And he, like, completely knocked me out.”
“His eyes just went black, but that’s the stuff we did,” Lowe added. “That’s what guys do. Like Fight Club.”
In April 2020, Lowe appeared on Dax Shepard's podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard and shared another memory involving Cruise.
Related: See a Young Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio and Diane Lane Audition for The Outsiders in 1982
"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 said of auditions for The Outsiders. "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," Lowe said while laughing.
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Ultimately Lowe didn’t mind his costar’s reaction.
"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,” Lowe said.
Lowe hosts the Fox game show The Floor, which was renewed for second and third seasons, and Fox's drama series 9-1-1: Lone Star.
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