Actor Rob Lowe opened up about his decision to leave the Emmy Award-winning show The West Wing over two decades ago, calling it “the best thing I ever did.” He revealed he felt “very undervalued” on set and “did not have a good experience” playing Sam Seaborn, the deputy White House communications director. “You could be in an environment where people sandbag you, want to see you fail, don’t appreciate you, whatever it is,” Lowe told the Podcrushed podcast in an episode that aired Wednesday. “[My stories] would make your hair stand up… I shared some of them in my book, but I purposely didn’t share half of the other ones because it would make the people involved look so bad that I didn’t want to do it to them.” While Lowe said he “tried to make it work,” he ultimately likened working on the show to an “abusive” relationship. “I walked away from the most popular girl at school, but I also knew that it was a super-unhealthy relationship,” Lowe said, adding that everyone told him The West Wing was “‘so popular, it’s so amazing, it must be amazing’” before he made his exit.
