Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise physically fought on ‘The Outsiders’ set: He ‘completely knocked me out’
Stay gold, Ponyboy.
Rob Lowe, 60, has revealed that he and Tom Cruise, 62, had a scuffle while they were filming “The Outsiders” in 1983.
On Monday, during an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show,” the radio host asked Lowe to share a memory of working with Cruise on “The Outsiders.”
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Lowe was 17 during filming while Cruise was 19.
“He was living at Emilio’s [Estevez] house, auditioning right after ‘Taps,’ ” Lowe recalled, sharing that the two young stars “would workout and jog, like running bros.”
Lowe added that Cruise is “so competitive that we used to box in the hallway of the hotel we were staying at during ‘Outsiders.’ ”
He added, “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, he recalled.
“I rang his bell, and the next I knew, I woke up — I was coming to, on the floor,” Lowe said.
“And he, like, completely knocked me out.”
Lowe added, “His eyes just went black, but that’s the stuff we did. That’s what guys do. Like ‘Fight Club.’ ”
“The Outsiders” was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and based on the 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton. (The novel is also the basis for the current Broadway play, produced by Angelina Jolie.)
Set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1960s, the story follows brothers Ponyboy Curtis (C. Thomas Howell), Darrel Curtis (Patrick Swayze), Sodapop “Soda” Curtis (Lowe) and their friends — known as the Greasers — as they get into conflict with another group of wealthier teens, known as Socs.
The movie was a “who’s who” of rising stars in the ’80s, as the cast also included “Karate Kid” star Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon and Diane Lane.
In April 2020, Lowe said that when he, Cruise, Howell and Estevez were auditioning for the movie, it was the “first time” he ever stayed at the Plaza Hotel.
“We check-in and Tom finds out that we’re sharing a room and just goes ballistic,” he said on the “Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard” podcast.
Lowe wasn’t fazed by Cruise’s larger-than-life reaction, however.
“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 1,” Lowe said.
