Actor Rob Lowe admitted yesterday in a conversation with Oprah Winfrey on his podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe that he was repeatedly called a “fa**ot” during his childhood because he was “pretty,” USA Today reported.
“I wish that when I was younger I was cute. What I actually was, was pretty,” Lowe said. “And that, as a boy, is not what you want to be.”
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“I got that 24/7. This is the first time I’ve ever talked about it,” he said, adding that he has long followed a “never complain, never explain” approach to life.
“So people talk … about me. So what?” he added. “But the truth of it is, we know today that that stuff affects you…. If it had happened to me in today’s culture, there would have been an audience [for it,]” he said, noting how much has changed culturally since the now-62-year-old’s childhood.
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Lowe began acting during his late teen years in iconic films like The Outsiders and St. Elmo’s Fire. During his young adulthood, played the villain in film comedies like Wayne’s World and Tommy Boy. He has since appeared in numerous films and TV shows, including the 2013 Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra.
In a 2014 interview, Lowe framed support for gay rights in libertarian terms, telling The Washington Post, “My thing is personal freedoms, freedoms for the individual to love whom they want, do with what they want… I want the government out of almost everything… [including] the right for individuals to love whomever they choose.”
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