larry king now playing j.f.k. in the t.v. movie killing kennedy it's rob lowe what is it about me that i can bring to j.f.k. because otherwise it's just a saturday night live in person nation no one has can tell me why being successful they would go to grow things you are born feeling empty and you are looking unconsciously or consciously to feel that we do things on parks and rec called the fun run and the fun run is once we've done the scene and off we do one version where we get to do whatever we want and i mean say what ever we want plus i would like to play dr evil. in a movie i would. be good all next on larry king now.

welcome to larry king now one of my favorite people rob lowe is with us recently seen in the emmy nominated age be old film behind the candelabra as dr jack starts ending his five season run as the whole areas chris stranger on n.b.c.'s parks and recreation early next year end starring as president john f. kennedy in the upcoming national geographic channel t.v. event killing kennedy of premieres sunday november tenth eight o'clock eastern and sword last night you were terrific thank you it's a good if this is one of those rare cases where the movie may be bad in the book it was so well done oh thank you thank you others big gets you for this they called me out of the blue and. ridley scott who is who is the producer on the movie his company annette geo both called and i've been a kennedy fan my whole life and i was just honored and thrilled. is it difficult to

play someone everyone knows about as seen on film or of because it's. twice as difficult as playing any other part because first of all kennedy is arguably the most recognized figure of the twentieth century both in terms of his voice and the way he looks so and everybody's seen him everybody's seen him everybody knows what he how he speaks so you have to be able to do that you have to which is not easy but then the work begins that is required of any part which is not easy and that's the stuff that actors do on a daily basis is you know bringing it to life making it relatable finding the authenticity of it so it's just double the work i thought how do you avoid. that thin line between acting and imitation well exactly because there's nothing worse than emitted than imitating and i think people the danger is getting caught up in thinking only about the voice or only about the look and then that's not inhabiting

someone and you know acknowledging that it's me it's going to be me i'm playing the guys so what is it about me that i can bring to j.f.k. because otherwise it's just a saturday night live in person nation i always tell you two years ago in the one nine hundred sixty s. a great writer jim bishop wrote the day lincoln was shot which is this book is very similar to it by time line following john wilkes booth and lincoln the like through the day twenty publishers turned that down saying every school kid knows the story and one of what is said to national geographic everybody knows the story we know as well shoots him right and we know he went to dealey plaza that day why do you think it worked i don't know it's the same it were it was and it's and you see it with the movie titanic we all know the titanic was hit an iceberg went down with everybody and yet it's the big it's one of the biggest movies in history because there's something shakespearean about both of those events they were seismic events

there are events where a series of minute things all had to go exactly right or wrong for for it to happen and we know how it ends and yet we sit on the edge of our seats as as killing kennedy unfold and the editing brilliantly done that surely does of the dealey plaza handling the whole thing the ending where they showed the real people right they did that or who directed it nelson mccormack directed it he did an amazing job you know we shot that movie in eighteen days you're kidding the entire movie. so i did in washington we shot it in richmond virginia i did all my kennedy stuff in two weeks you're kidding and then they did all of the oswald stuff from russia minsk moscow a vanna mexico city all in richmond where they've flown they go please oswald he's terrific. will roll for hours amazing the director had known him and had auditioned

him for kiefer sutherland's last television series i think it was called touch he didn't get the part parent leave but the director remembered him and i had a bunch of names that i was interested in the directors and i i think i know the guy and wanted someone people hadn't really seen before because you quote when you said you think kennedy would not be elected to they well i like i think it goes for any sort of moderate and look he was a pragmatist i mean he was not above a smoker in the room deal right you put all of the civil rights movie is easy and yet he put on the civil rights bill for years which angered the more left in the can and yet half of the democratic party in the south hated him that's why he went to dallas in the first place didn't go to mahmoud the king's speech so you know he was he was much more complex than we remember him and a lot of that stuff today is a democrat you would never get away with you'd never get away can you imagine that committed democrat not going to anything having to do with martin luther king day

ever. so you know there's a lot about him the that i think today he wouldn't make through his own party's primary is really what i what i was thinking because i feel like today and in both parties the moderates the consensus builders sort of get drummed out and as you know kennedy barely won the primaries it was you know barely was there was seemed particularly difficult the motorcade. i mean it was a. i was coming out for a lunch break and the crew of us we were in the motorcade in dallas we were dispersing for lunch and getting ready to shoot the next scene after lunch when the teamsters were bringing the. open top limousine out and i had seen it before and when i saw it i started to cry and you know it still holds so much power and sadness and grief. even for someone like me who wasn't

alive that i was born six months months afterwards. when i saw jennifer good one for the first time in the in the pink chanel blood splattered dress with the po box hat again at the turn away you know i mean that was no fun to do. what would do such a diverse career you know you can't you can't typecast i know alison i play dr jack starts and j.f.k. in the same year that i also played chris trader on parks and rec so i mean this is for me a really great time and if you told me twenty years ago in my career when i was the young ingenue that it that i would get to this point i would have been so happy on jimmy yeah baby ok on zero i will say that with regard to women don't they were you know if you're wordsmith you can twist words for meaning the way for

a direct. this is supposed to be joke. the oldest. brother was thought it would be joke. and he was shot down and we were all. spawned. right in the way things were supposed to go. there was supposed to be meat. but it is. it was always supposed to be. pretty. that was a clip from rob's new film killing kennedy it airs on november tenth at eight eastern on the national geographic channel and again i. hardly we're going to the so for star movie it is so well done you wrote a memoir a few years ago stories only tell my friends very open office about your own addiction i'll get to that in

a minute do you think we need people like kennedy to they we don't have a force like that do we we don't we don't. he was a real he was an original and he was authentic. you know we've had gregarious charismatic presidents who could articulate and reach people and speak to them we've got you from clinton to reagan to obama but all of them harken back to him i mean they they all went to school on him you know they all watched his press conferences that famous clinton picture when he's sixteen years old yeah they all i mean you know he didn't go to school on anybody he just arrived fully made it through it's extraordinary book how did you write about your own addiction and the like well i wrote the book. because my my great friend the great comic genius mike myers would always say to me when i was working in austin powers and wayne's world he you know he would say you had

a book you have such good stories and so one i decided i would do that because i loved david nevins book the moon's a balloon there's something about us a celebrity memoir done in a specific way that i've always loved as as a reader if it's funny and smart and insightful and breezy i love that kind of genre so i wanted to try my hand and then once you're doing that you have to be honest i mean you you it's incumbent upon you is it too far that it is it's cathartic it was. it was one of the most fulfilling things i've ever done tell me about zac efron i interviewed him i know you're friendly with him he's he's quoted like a young well blows me how easily he's only has a little bit of a mini me how's he doing he's doing great he's doing great and you know one of the things that i think that the industry doesn't do well.

is mentor and i think it's important i think i think mentoring for. i think guys just don't do it enough we're guys you know we were you know we're cagey we're competitive you know it's all that stuff and that's that's organic and natural and that's is going to be but i always wanted in my as a young actor i was wanted to be taken under the wing of of someone and it be you know that just didn't play out so whenever i can share my experience with people i like to do it if it helps me to find him probably but happen that you would bend to him well in this and i don't know if i mentoring him or whatever he was he would he would have big brother ok you know we just have crossed paths and he has become a really good friend both of mine in my family my my son's adore him you know i mean. you know when zach comes to stay at the house it's like having an e.t.a. at the house literally it's like do you know as those of others who've had this and

no one has to tell me why being successful they would go to grows why did you go that is easy for me it's a really easy question i'm going to first answer at all you know like they all said they didn't know why i know why i know exactly why. because for people like me who are who are in recovery. you are born feeling empty on a certain level. and you are looking unconsciously or consciously to feel that and if you want to be an artist if you want to be an actor if you want to be a musician you think man if i ever make it it's going to fix me so then you make it and doesn't fix you now what hence the drugs the alcohol it's exactly what it is.

to just stop how do i stop well i mean not like. it was twenty three years ago. and i was just done i was done i had a run it was fun i liked it i wouldn't go back and change it would but no i wouldn't. but i had met a girl my wife cheryl and it was going on the rocks and i real it was because of my you know wild ways raising hell and i knew that if i couldn't make it work with her i was definitely not going to be able to make or with anybody i just had a moment of clarity they call it. and they have been carrying around in my wallet now i couldn't keep a pair of sunglasses i lose my keys twenty times a day i'm a spastic and yet i was able to keep a drug and alcohol counsellors card in my wallet for

a year. and so when i was ready i had it i made the call and i've been sober for twenty three years you were going to love life what is it about. it is i had a lot of stories that i wanted to put in the first book that i couldn't put in because they really weren't about my actual biography or frankly i didn't have the guts to put a man this is more. a selection of essays i wrote about things in life that are important me i guess is the sort merrily tell the rob lowe you'll see it was kennedy and you is a member will performance rob by the way says goodbye to a role that has literally made us laugh for the last five years don't go away. but if you're going to like these college face i think sometimes people are.

a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researchers. were not psyched up to camp at guantanamo where patients are forced that the monitor and the first strike never turned the world's attention to the place that something gulag of our time. the great rob lowe i call growth as he really is a perfect person great dodger fan and a great actor and he plays jack what do you do next by the way i mean followed

kennedy home. i have a very funny movie with cameron diaz the beautiful talent is hilarious cameron diaz and the equally amazing jason segel coming out in the the summer from sony really mad that comedy yes remain a lot of i feel that yes ok explain to me how literally happened first of all how cool that like this many years into my career i finally get a catchphrase it's not as easy as you think to get a catchphrase correct and i think that the the writers just like the way i pronounced it which is idiosyncratic it's literally and people like that they may just made people laugh so that's my thing now. literally says it all the time why are you leaving that wonderful throw i know it's i well i was meant to be on for six episodes and it turned into eighty eight episodes so when rashida

jones was leaving. she's my baby mama on the show. everybody everybody sort of felt like those storylines had run their course and you know it's bittersweet but i get the sense that unlike some of the other shows that i've been on this is the kind if it continues that i could come back as needed but i also i'm moving on to my own show what is. n.b.c. next fall hopefully we're developing now it's a comedy workplace comedy where i play one half of the greatest doubles team that ever lived until a tragic flame out of the u.s. open and now i am the head pro at the l.a. golf and tennis country club was the title working title the pro. like it if you got a bomb yeah yeah ok bob i don't usually do it here i'd rather like let people live

in their illusions you said you think the west wing is the greatest show in the history of television i do i said in modestly base i do i do believe that so i would you like tide cobb said what's the best tech job quote you would think oh no quite a few bragging if you done it that's that's my thing about what i would love the west wing if i wasn't on it i just happen to be on it i think it's tremendous show i mean breaking bad's pretty good and that mad men's pretty good but the sopranos there's a lot of really good ones but but i love i love the west wing the writing was the writing is insane chaos was terrific that's why did you leave that show well that's the one one of the things that's great about writing a book is you can deal with questions that are very complex in their own time it's sort of asking like why did your parents get divorced it's awfully hard to answer in this kind of a format but in in the book i think it's probably answered pretty well but it basically comes down to. greece and and you know everybody in the workplace

sometimes realizes that they're maybe not being appreciated as they should be and you know you have to have the balls to move on when you're not appreciative for show to be successful if you want to like each other did you have to like cast member no i never do think you know what i like to go if i don't have to i don't have to like i'm in i actually almost universally find if someone has a reputation for being a pill i'm going to love them i just try you know i live you are seeing people i like i like idiosyncratic interesting people i really do. parks and rec for example everybody on that show is like just easy breezy. and so i'm going to miss that a ton because that's not like going to work at all funny or. hilarious and nice and great and i want you to win share the wealth team players no envy

no jealousy how do you not break up when you're performing in a good comedy. or do we we definitely do we definitely do sometimes but. you have to you have to have a sort of very high threshold or otherwise you never get anything done because it just it's just funny all the time we do a thing on parks and rec called the fun run and the fun run is once we've done the scene enough we do one version where we get to do whatever we want and i mean say what we want and sometimes some of our best stuff comes from that and that in that fun run we always laugh you know you're very political would you ever run for office i admire people who do and i think i do too much they stand up they stand up and they say i don't use in november that we don't they do although we do have ratings you know but we have art of these days with agent you know but his mother loved ones knows that nothing like rejection of a tuesday in the know and the scrutiny now that comes in you're on your private

life i think. prohibits so many people from from running who would be great i think . but you know i you know you never know i'm so happy doing what i what i'm doing now i think it's easier to play the guy behind the desk than to be the guy behind the desk my friend read dickens came up with a great competition for twenty sixteen jeb bush and hillary clinton who boy you know she's in the clinton's back at well you know it'll be hillary i mean we know that that's a foregone conclusion definitely but the bet everything on it you're a big colts fan right yeah i am why do you live in the in of little baltimore like we say why like i shouldn't be a colts fan or want a cold and i well you know to have any team there are no lazy no it's isn't it which is so disgusting that we don't have a team or it's a couple things one is i'm friendly with jim irsay the owner the other is. was a huge and i am a huge peyton manning fan and that's what brought me to the colts in the first

place also my family my father is from indiana that whole wing of my family so it's really it's really about peyton it was about peyton and i've still stayed in love with him he like look i do do to have done scenes with among parks and rec i work with oh yeah he was he was great he's funny and right good really bright we have some social media questions for you doug muzak on twitter as are you is of says that with your diet as your parks and rec terakhir is no no. i still like to eat like i'm a teenager you know pizza again would think anybody no idea it a lot that's make up a lot of its make up it was he had so little and i wore my clothes in a certain way real i am a man on instagram have you ever court years of jumping into character when talking to people off set yes yes i can still go into the kennedy voice sometimes. the my eddie nero character i play on californication i think somebody so it's such

a crazy show julie warman on twitter as so of all the characters you play. you have a favorite. boy i've been able to film you were well i have to say that i could have played j.f.k. forever i really could i lie love got to be like raymond massey unwilling to just do nothing but tour. someone said he would not be happy until he's assassinated. only i that's hilarious. i mean j.f.k. is up there but i think if i had to pick one it would probably be sam seaborn from west wing alex townsend on facebook wants to know which actors have inspire you the most paul newman my number one favorite. paul newman redford. daniel day lewis. i mean there are a lot of them ok is a game go if you only knew just. first girl you kissed julie ziggler she was a jitterbug in the wizard of oz in a eighth grade production that was munchkin did you kids are at school you know

under under the under the stage and you'll love this larry because she said to me let's kiss and i said ok and she said i want to french you and i said what the hell does that mean i thought it was some kind of a food so then of course she stuck her tongue in my mouth and i was like whoa whoa whoa whoa what eighth grade or whatever i was one of the harbor to her i actually when i wrote my book and i wrote this story in the book we got back in touch and she was living in back in ohio and after all of these years we got to we got to reconnect first on said tourist. mean literally on a setters have to be an actress. that's not known or a full day off. my memories foggy i plead the fifth on advice of my counsel for me is close to eva that's a really long list i mean amy poehler. chris pratt mike myers dana carvey

crisp early david spade ricky gervais's i mean i mean a lot of i've been really lucky if i had to choose one billy hicks sort of curtis or danny martin billy hicks soda pop curtis. i'm going to go sort of pop curtis because that character in the outsiders continues to mean so much to people because every year every almost every seventh grade class in the united states has to read that book as part of the curriculum so every year i get a new batch of thirteen year old boys and girls who discover that character story you're most nervous to put in your memoir. i don't look i think i think although i'm real i'm i have no problem being honest about it and it's such a big part of who i am today i think that writing about sobriety and recovery. is probably the most influential filmmaker in your career in my career well i think probably has to be coppola because he is one of the most influential filmmakers

ever and he gave me my first movie starring role what movie of yours would you like to make a sequel to. wow a couple of them i'd like to do a sequel who've seen elmo's fire i'd like to do sequel to about last night. and i'd like to see what about influence there's some good ones that don't there are some ones that if you could play a role in one of your films other than one you put trade what would it be i would like to play dr evil. if i would larry i'd be good. biggest cultural difference when you moved to california from the mood was so easy don't wear levi tough skin jeans in the summer in malibu. don't do it you will be beaten up any regrets no you know what i'm so glad that i don't do people ever answer that question say they do have them do they all have that does there is a few actors they regretted turning down some whirls yeah but even that role i

turned down grey's anatomy. to do a show called dr vegas. ok so don't tell me you know i can pick them but you know that but honestly even even that really even that i don't regret because i wouldn't have been this i there's no guarantee that my experience would have been the same this writer dempsey's there's no excuse he's got away he owes me a lot of money. get a best rob pay thank you that was the quickest thirty minutes in history i want to thank my guests rob lowe you won't want to miss him this president john f. kennedy in the national geographic channel's killing kennedy on november tenth a piece of rubber you can find me on twitter at king's things get blinded with rob lowe i'll see that stuff.

i would rather as questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on r.t. question or.

i was a new alert animation scripts scare me a little movie. there is breaking news tonight and they are continuing to follow the breaking news naming a lawyer alexander's family cry tears of joy at a great things rather that there had to be adequate regard and a call for a wall around. there's a story made for a movie is playing out in real life.