In short
Rob Lowe interviews 17-year-old actress and musician McKenna Grace about her career since childhood, her music (including writing a Ghostbusters end-credits song), acting projects, and the realities of child acting (school/work-hour rules), plus her film tastes and upcoming work.
Guest backgrounds
McKenna Grace is known for Ghostbusters, I, Tonya, and Handmaid’s Tale. She previously appeared in Rob Lowe’s directed remake/sequel project The Bad Seed as a child (around age 11–12). She’s also releasing/working on music (EP Bittersweet 16) and has a Netflix show/series titled Unstable with her son.
Key claims
She wrote a Ghostbusters song and it was added to the end credits after she sent it to director Jason Reitman. She says acting can be emotionally “beyond your pay grade,” and that modern success requires social media presence even though she dislikes it. She graduated early from on-set schooling, allowing longer workdays.
Notable examples
She describes filming Crater on the moon with space suits in Baton Rouge heat; she recalls a darker American Psycho-esque sequence in The Bad Seed sequel that got cut; she cites top films on Letterboxd (Black Swan, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Stepbrothers, Flower) and recommends There Will Be Blood.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOMcKenna's Journey into Music and Acting
2:30 to 5:04
McKenna shares her experiences in music and acting since childhood.
“First of all, congratulations on your music.”
Behind the Scenes of Ghostbusters
5:04 to 7:19
McKenna talks about her role in Ghostbusters and her fanship of the franchise.
“And I used to carry around a little Slimer with me whenever I was younger.”
Filming 'Crater' on the Moon
7:19 to 9:23
Discussing her upcoming film, Crater, and the challenges of filming in space suits.
“Oh, so then the other people have, I did a movie that took place in a hockey rink in the summer.”
Growing Up in Acting and Film Recommendations
9:23 to 11:18
McKenna reflects on how she started acting and her film recommendations.
“And so it's like, it's so cool to be able to like appreciate it now.”
The Making of 'Bad Seed' Sequel
11:18 to 14:01
McKenna discusses co-writing the sequel to 'Bad Seed' with her dad.
“That's a great one for people listening out there.”
Growing Up in the Spotlight
14:01 to 16:27
McKenna Grace shares her experiences of maturing as an actress while dealing with challenging themes at a young age.
“That makes me love because you are like the most like sunny and light, innocent, like happy-go-lucky person that I know.”
Navigating Modern Show Business
19:14 to 27:46
Discussion on the evolving nature of acting careers and the pressures of social media.
“And you're kind of already have all of the things you need to because you're a content creator.”
Reflections on Child Acting
27:46 to 28:00
Rob Lowe and McKenna Grace discuss the challenges and unique experiences of child actors.
Child Actors and Their Experiences
28:00 to 28:36
Explore the unique challenges and experiences of child actors.
Family Background and Film Influences
28:37 to 29:40
Discuss Mckenna's family and their influence on her film career.
“The famous photo of the dog pulling down the baby bathing suit.”
Show all 21 chapters
Top Movies and Personal Favorites
29:41 to 31:38
Mckenna shares her favorite movies and their impact on her.
Secrecy in Film Production
31:39 to 33:11
The conversation shifts to the secrecy surrounding film productions today.
“It's long, but it's so, Paul Dano, forget it.”
Performing Live and Stage Fright
33:12 to 35:23
Mckenna opens up about her experiences performing live and stage fright.
“But then I also had my first concert in LA.”
Music Influences and Recommendations
35:24 to 37:15
Discover Mckenna's music influences and recommended artists.
“I ran off stage whenever my concert was over.”
McKenna's Film and Movie Experiences
42:00 to 44:12
Explore McKenna Grace's insights on her parents' influence on her film experiences.
“One of the things that I know and appreciate about you is your parents are all over it.”
Balancing Music and Acting
44:12 to 46:01
McKenna discusses her dual career in acting and music, and her creative process.
“performing, writing and performing music and dealing with all of the things music, or you could spend the next two days acting and doing everything that comes with that, which would you do?”
Dogs and Life on Set
46:01 to 47:41
The hosts share fun stories about their dogs and their experiences on set.
“My only experience with that is I did a movie years and years ago called Youngblood.”
Joni Mitchell Influence
47:41 to 49:53
Discussion about the impact of Joni Mitchell on young artists and McKenna's musical journey.
“His name is Gizmo, but that's like, his name is Gizmo for a snack.”
Characters Beyond the Screen
49:53 to 53:29
Rob Lowe reflects on the lives of his characters and their potential futures after shows end.
“McKenna Grace, by the way, her EP, Bittersweet 16.”
Characters Beyond the Screen
54:04 to 55:16
Rob Lowe reflects on the lives of his characters and their potential futures after shows end.
“And believe it or not, someone is allowing us to have a podcast.”
Characters Beyond the Screen
55:20 to 55:36
Rob Lowe reflects on the lives of his characters and their potential futures after shows end.
“Eligible items are in stock and available for free local delivery.”
Transcript
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1:29Rob Lowe:hey everybody welcome to literally today is an historic notice i said an historic that's how you say it my mother the english teacher would be proud today is an historic day on literally because we have our youngest guest and one of the nicest guests and one of the most talented guests. I had the pleasure of casting. This young woman now was a little girl then in a movie that I directed and starred in called The Bad Seed, which I think you can find on Hulu or somewhere. It was a remake of the famous Bad Seed movie. McKenna Grace is her name. She is the star of Ghostbusters, the big hit, came out last year.
2:20Young Tonya Harding in I, Tonya also appears on Handmaid's Tale.
2:25Rob Lowe:She's kind of everywhere. New music career. And it's super fun to talk to a young woman, 17 years old, who's making it happen. Let's bring on McKenna Grace.
2:42hi how are you i'm good how are you that's when i worked with you how old were you when when we did bad seed together were you like 12 i must have been 11 or 12 oh my god you're turning what now i'm turning 17 in june it's so funny it's like you've become five different people
3:02Rob Lowe:since I've known you. For sure. Yeah, it's so strange. First of all, congratulations on your music. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations to you. You just had a show come out that you made with your son. Yeah, it's called Unstable. It's on Netflix right now. It was super fun to do. We just did basking in the response because, you know, you never know and people seem to really like it. That's so amazing. Congratulations. I've been seeing it all over. Thank you. Thank you. McKenna and I did Bad Seed together. I directed her and played her dad. And you had your ukulele and you were just learning then.
3:42Rob Lowe:Is that right? Was that the very beginning of your music? It might have been. And then I started learning in like 2017, 2018, I think. Yeah. You had that little ukulele. I remember it. Yeah, it must have been around then. Do you remember what the first song was that you learned to play? I'm sure it was Grace VanderWaal, that girl who won America's Got Talent. I'm sure it was one of those. That's amazing. So you wrote a song for the Ghostbusters movie. I did. That was so cool. It's in the end credits, am I right? Mm-hmm. It was so special because I didn't write it for the film. I just wrote it and I sent it to our director, Jason, asking him for his opinion or if he'd want to direct a music video for me or something.
4:33And he was like, can I put it in the end credits out of nowhere? So I was like, yes. And so it was so weird and surreal getting to see it because we did a surprise screening for 3 ,000 people at Comic-Con and then getting to hear my song play over the end credits. And nobody knew it was my song. It was so cool.
4:53Rob Lowe:Did you grow up with Ghostbusters in your sort of sphere of knowledge of films? Oh, yeah. I was a massive Ghostbusters fan. I think maybe the Halloween right before or after we worked together, I was a Ghostbuster for Halloween. And I used to carry around a little Slimer with me whenever I was younger. I was a really big fan. I still am. It's so weird. the Ghostbusters mobile by the way might be my favorite but even better than the old school Batmobiles I'm really down with the Ghostbuster mobile I think it's super sick yes the Ecto-1 the Ecto-1 it's the coolest car I mean come on it's so sick so iconic do you remember the first day that rolled up on set and you're like holy crap I'm really doing a Ghostbusters movie the Ecto-1 is here no every time I'm on set I'm always freaking I'll never get used to like Like seeing myself in a flight suit and getting to like, because in our film, we have a little gunner seat that swings out of the Ecto-1 and I get to sit in it and it's the coolest thing ever.
5:59Rob Lowe:You also have a show coming out where you are playing somebody who grew up on the moon, right? Mm-hmm. Okay, tell me a little bit about that because I'm kind of obsessed with that area. Tell me a little bit about that show. It's crazy. We did a film back in 2021, I think, called Crater. And it's kind of like, I think they were going for like a little bit of like a stand by me type of like group feel where it's a group of kids that go on a road trip, but on the moon to a crater that's really significant to one of them and their father. so um it's just a group of kids and they go on a road trip across the moon to this crater which was super crazy to film I've never shot anything that takes place like I don't know in outer space on the moon and so we got to like we were in wires and space suits every single day but it was so bad because we were shooting in Baton Rouge in the summer and we had like these five layer space suits every day and it was so hot.
7:05Rob Lowe:Oh, no way. Let me guess. You're in some like converted warehouse with like bad air conditioning, right? Air conditioning was great. Actually, they kept it super cold. So everybody else on set was freezing, but we were sweating because of the space suits, but they kept it really cold. Oh, so then the other people have, I did a movie that took place in a hockey rink in the summer. It was night. like 100 degrees outside, 90 % humidity, and then, you know, 40 degrees inside. So everybody was sick every week because you'd be in the cold to the hot to the cold to the hot. See, that's the stuff that people don't realize about what it really means to be an actor and be shooting stuff, right?
7:51Rob Lowe:It's like, oh. It's not too glamorous shooting in Baton Rouge with that kind of heat. now we have stuff in common we i started acting when i was eight you started with even younger i think right uh five i think five because people come up to me all the time and say you know my son or my daughter wants to be an actor and what do you recommend what do you think you know and then they talk about what does it take and then longevity and all those kind of questions i'm i'm curious somebody like you the business is unrecognizable from what it was when i was coming up how did it occur to you you wanted to be an actor let's start with that my uh my me mom my great grandma she gave me a massive collection of shirley temple dvds and i got really obsessed with those whenever i was younger and i guess i decided i wanted to be like her but my mom was like no way I'm not gonna like I don't know that's weird how am I gonna like put you in acting classes or make you an actor you're like so young and so um I was really obsessed with Shirley Temple and I think I just begged my mom for like a year maybe before she let me go into acting classes and then um they were like oh she actually enjoys this my mom was like yeah I told you that but they're like yeah a lot of people say that though but I don't know I just I really I really liked it whenever I was younger I think I thought it was really fun and exciting and luckily I've always had parents that support what I do and it's not something that they were like you should do this it's something that I made a decision on which now is weird to think because I was so young how did I like make a decision but it's like my favorite thing and um it's been nice as I've gotten older to be able to really, I love, I love acting.
9:43I love what I do so much. And so it's like, it's so cool to be able to like appreciate it now. Yeah.
9:48Rob Lowe:I sound like I'm hearing my own story told back to me. I was the same. I told my parents I wanted to do it. They're like, what, what does it even mean? And I started, you know, in local theater and whatever. And sometimes there are people like us that just know, we just knew. And, you know, and again, when I worked with you. You were super, super young still. And, but like, it was obvious. That's not only are you really great at it, but that's your focus. There's no, there's no version of you being a dilettante. We're like, yeah, I kind of like this and I kind of maybe do it. And I don't know, who knows?
10:21Rob Lowe:Maybe I'll, it's like, uh, it's like, this is what we're doing. And a little bit of like, we're both too young to have total knowledge of anything, really. And we don't know that any of the pitfalls, any of the odds, any of the, any of it other than just the unicorns and roses and we're going to go for it. Right. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's such a weird industry, but I really love just getting to make, like, it's just so fun getting to create. And like, I'm such a big film buff now. Like I love watching movies. I'm in London right now. And I think I've watched like 60 films since I've been here.
10:59I've been here for about a month or two.
11:02Rob Lowe:60? Jesus. Maybe more. I don't know. That's what I do is I go to work and then I come home and watch like a movie or two before I go to bed. That's a film literacy is a lost art and a good one. Are you working your way through, for example, the AFI top 100? That's a great one for people listening out there. The American Film Institute every year adds to the greatest movies of all time. And if everybody has opinions about it but if i could recommend anybody starting anywhere to work their way through movies they should in quotes see afi top 100 is is a good one what what is your list and how are you choosing i haven't uh i haven't seen that i i didn't even know i yeah it's a good one i'm obsessed with this little app where you can log your movies called letterboxd and so yeah i just have a massive watch list on there and i guess it just kind of depends on what I'm in the mood for or while I'm at work I'll ask for recommendations or see what people are talking about.
12:01Rob Lowe:Do you have any prejudices about like black and white or quote-unquote old movies or well no wait a minute you love Shirley Temple what am I talking about clearly you're down to clown you're like like Shirley Temple. Something I forgot that I thought was that was special to me whenever we were shooting it was we had Shirley Temple and our film was me and my babysitter were watching Shirley Temple on the couch and I loved that I I was so excited. Yeah, when you told me that you liked Shirley Temple, I wrote it into the script. It was so cool. Yeah, I don't know how much you, I basically wrote that.
12:35Rob Lowe:I uncredited wrote it. So anytime I would hear something like, McKenna loves Shirley Temple, I was like, get out of here. Oh, that is going to be great. I'm going to have this precocious, seemingly wonderful, but really evil kid obsessed with Shirley Temple and the bored sort of TikTok watching babysitter just be like, ew, gross. It just made me laugh so much. That was so cool. I was like so excited whenever that was put in there. And then you did the sequel to Bad Seed. You co-wrote with your dad, right? I did. I did. Well, originally the script we wrote was too dark. Too dark? Yes. No way. Okay, wait a minute.
13:24Rob Lowe:Stop. Give me an example of like an incident in it that they thought was too dark. There was a lot. There was a lot that was too dark. I think we had like this. I mean, there were so many sequences that were different and taken out and like changed. But like my favorite that I hated that we had to change was we had like a whole American Psycho-esque sequence with a raincoat and like a whole homage to it. Amazing. We went really dark with it, but it was really cool. That makes me love because you are like the most like sunny and light, innocent, like happy-go-lucky person that I know. and the notion you're like, you know what?
14:12Rob Lowe:I'm doing American Psych. It was just, it's too good. It would have been fun. I mean, come on, it would have been so cool. So when I was watching you in Handmaid's Tale, I go, how does McKenna even know those themes? I felt like I was your parent. I was like, how's my little McKenna talking those things and saying those things and playing those themes? That's the thing that's crazy about growing up on camera, right? You have to access and deal with stuff that is maybe beyond your pay grade emotionally, chronologically. I mean, for sure. It's definitely strange. I love getting to do dark and dramatic things.
14:53I think it's so fun. But I mean, it is definitely weird being not even 17. And I think I've been married or engaged like three times now. Three or four, I'd have to think. But it's like a running joke for me.
15:13Rob Lowe:Look at it this way. When the time comes, you'll have had plenty of practice. Yeah. You'll know what you like and you know what you don't like. And what you don't like are actors. Avoid them. Avoid them at all costs.
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19:13Rob Lowe:What are you finding it's like to navigate through the modern day sort of show business? And you're kind of already have all of the things you need to because you're a content creator. You know, my son John Owen is a new actor too. And like when I was a young actor, literally all we had to do is audition and study, watch movies. And that's what it was. Now it's like you have to have a social media presence. You know, you have to create your own content. You have to create your own content. You can't just wait for the phone to ring. It's so different coming up today than it was in my era. It's very different.
20:01I hate it. I hate the social media aspect of the film industry. Like, personally, I love, I think that making little videos and behind the scenes things while I'm on set, I find it really fun. And I think that it's fun to be able to post that after shooting. But I hate that it's, like, necessary. Because it's fun, but then it's, like, I don't know. It drives me nuts. but I mean it's very difficult it's so it's so weird it's so weird I don't understand any of it
20:38Rob Lowe:I'm not a social media person well also you you come into this like I did for the the what I consider the right reasons we like the process that's what we do it the rest of it is like we don't may not even like it like the promoting the red carpets this i mean some people love it some people i for me it's like i never considered any of that when i when i got into i just loved to act i loved movies i loved and now there's so much more attached to it how do you how's your red carpet you got a red carpet face you got a blue steel you throw down for mckenna over here look mckenna mckenna over here mckenna mckenna oh there you go you're doing oh that's a good one no it's so strange i always feel so out of place at like i like that i like that but no i i you just gave me a really good red carpet face i have see see if you can you you can make your own version of mine i have three looks i have like i stole from obviously um from uh uh ben stiller i have blue steel right i was about to say this is making me think of zoolander yeah you gotta get you got to have your blue steel look, right?
21:47Rob Lowe:That's a go-to. Then, then I, I like man of the people is really a good one. Man of the people is super, super good. I highly recommend it. That's like where you like, you just go wild and you go to the fans and you take pictures and you're like, just, you're just a man of the people. Okay. Tom, Tom Cruise does a very good man of the people. And then what's the third one? Oh, iconic. Of course, iconic. Iconic? Iconic. And iconic is, you know, it's sort of the, it's like, you know, when they take the pictures of the presidents for their portraits and they're kind of looking off wistfully into the distance.
22:33Rob Lowe:You know, you're trying way less hard than Blue Steel. Blue Steel is like right down the lens, you know, 110 smolder, you know, temperature. and iconic is much cooler and sort of just a little maybe a little pensive maybe a little thoughtful and um yeah so my my friend chris pratt um my favorite thing ever i was telling him this on parks and recreation and we were laughing about this bit so um years go by and phone rings he goes hey man it's pratt uh i'm on the way to the jurassic park premiere what was it What were the three iconic man of the people? What was the other one? That's so funny. This is my favorite thing.
23:16We all just got a crash course and red carpet looks. Yeah.
23:21Rob Lowe:And then, and then you got to do the red carpet sweep. If you're with your parents or your other cast mates, or if you're, if it's not just you, you do the red carpet sweep. And of course the red carpet sweep is you pick one side of the photographers. and then you just very slowly work your way down because otherwise you have pictures where everybody's looking in different directions. It doesn't look, looks dumb. I'm trying to think of what other red carpet sweep. Oh, and this is my favorite. Apparently, the Olsen twins created a thing where they, where they say the word prune and it makes your, it makes your lips go into the perfect formation to have your picture taken.
24:09Rob Lowe:It's when you think of like, say cheese, what does that mean? It's meant to make you fake smile. When you say cheese, your mouth goes into a smile thing. That's why people say that. Say cheese. Cheese. I did it. Cheese. Oh my God. Cheese, right? So, but the new version of that is prune. Prune. Oh my God. That's hilarious. Isn't that great? I love that. But just the notion of standing next to them on the red carpet and just cheering under their breath, I'm going, prune, prune. That's so funny. That's great. I'm just going to start laughing saying prune on red carpet. Yeah. You're welcome for this little lesson.
24:49Rob Lowe:Thank you. So welcome. But that is the stuff that just makes me laugh about. Okay, let me ask you this. Okay. So do you still have a guardian on set or did you emancipate yourself or whatever they call that now where you get your own? You don't have to have a guardian. You take a test or whatever. I'm graduated now. I've been graduated for maybe. So technically, I'm like legally 18 or whatever. I work a dollar. So you can work the long. So what this is, you guys, is under 18, you can only work certain hours on a movie set. And it's a really big deal. A really super big deal. And once you are 18 or graduated, then you can work the full 12 hours or even longer.
25:36But anytime you have kids on set, they're super focused on the amount of hours.
Read the full transcript
25:40Rob Lowe:So now you can just grind it out for a 14-hour day. I've done my first overnights. I've done some super long days working like Saturdays and whatnot. It's so different because growing like as a child, you know, it's so specific. It's like nine and a half. then once you turn like 16 then it's 10 and a half and then once you hit this age then it's xyz and then 18 is just like free and so i graduated early and so and also on set you have to get three hours of school or occasionally five if you're banking like it's so wild and i'm so happy i don't have to do that anymore remember those days do you remember i mean i remember getting yanked off of some of the set of the bad seed because I kept on because I would like go one minute over the hours I was supposed to work.
26:30Rob Lowe:Yeah, we had a very, we had like a fascist on set person for bad seed. That woman and I did not see eye to eye. We tangled a lot. I remember that. I remember it. You have, by the way, McKenna, you have no idea how insane that whole thing was but but i get it listen i was that kid too i remember you know you'd do a scene and you'd be feeling good and you'd have your co-stars and you'd want to talk to them or just you know decompress and then they'd be nope back to school and you're like but but but and then you'd be in school and you'd hear through the walls like all your fellow actors like having fun and you're in there like doing driver's ed yeah and it's the worst whatever you're like i don't know i would always finish my school and then I just have to go to school and like sit and just like do nothing and like just like I don't know go like two weeks ahead of school because I finished all my work like it was just it was so insane I always hated it because and I'd hate it if I got like pulled out of a scene or if I had to rush or anything because I don't know it's the worst yeah now did you did you also go to actual actual school when you weren't working I've never been to school so it's homeschool but you work so much though that that's it would be incredibly difficult i i toggled back and forth between you know um public schools and and um working and it's hard because you get ahead you get way ahead of the class and then you're and then of course you have schools and teachers that don't look kindly on it they really don't want kids in the kids shouldn't be working they should be so you do it just i love talking to you about this because this is the stuff that only child actors know right it's so specific to it's so funny that i'm talking about myself as a child actor right and jesus i always forget i always forget right that's so crazy Well, you know, you always have reminded me of Jodi Foster.
28:36Rob Lowe:And Jodi, you know, started when she was six. She was the original Coppertone baby. The famous photo of the dog pulling down the baby bathing suit. That's Jodi. That's her? Yeah. And, you know, people always worry about child activists. We can turn out okay. It can happen. Yeah. You've got a good family around you. How are your folks? How are they doing? They're great. My dad's actually in London, so my dad actually just came out this week to visit me. It's so nice. And we've been writing a ton. We love writing scripts together, so that's really nice. Because neither of my parents come from any, no one in my family comes from any sort of film background.
29:20Like both of my parents, my mom comes everywhere with me now, but they were both in medical business. uh my dad still is so it's fun to be able to my dad's such a movie buff so i feel like that's
29:32Rob Lowe:where i get it what are your um okay so what move back to your movie list what are currently your top three movies of all time of all time um now here's the thing it can change so it's it's it's changes it's a exactly it's a high stress question i realize this right now okay my thing i'm so obsessed with letterboxd my top four films on letterboxd are black swan mr and mrs smith stepbrothers and this um independent film called flower okay i don't know flower but i do know that all of those movies are great movies you mentioned how great is mr and mrs smith so good like it's so good i like honestly if i could do any kind of a movie it would be that i feel like it's so fun it's so it's like a modern bond they're so they're so good the film they're so funny and sexy and cool and badass super great like i have now now have you gotten into um there will be blood no i that's on my watch daniel day lewis uh mckenna mckenna mckenna tonight there will be blood I can watch it with my dad tonight you have to watch it I mean Daniel Day what a shocker Daniel Day Lewis he's good who knew that to me is one of those movies where when I watched it I really really liked it but more than liking it I respected it and then as the years have gone on it's more important to me with each passing year and now it's like I think it might be one of the best movies ever made But interestingly, when it came out, I was like, yeah, no, that's great.
31:33Rob Lowe:I like, oh, for sure. No, it's great. And it takes sometimes years. That one is going to blow your mind. It's long, but it's so, Paul Dano, forget it. Oh, I love him so much. I forget that he's in that. I've been wanting to see it. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. So that one is my recommendation. Tell me this. What is the thing that I should be mentioning just in terms of that you want the people out there to know about? I mean, I'm really just working on music right now. And then I have so a lot that I'm working on in acting, but it's so like stinky because I can't talk about any of it.
32:19That's one of the things that drives me insane.
32:22Rob Lowe:By the way, that's a new thing, too, is the secrecy thing. Really? The notion that people can go and shoot an entire movie in abject secrecy. That just never, that never happened. Yeah. And it's amazing. It's amazing. You think it'd be harder today because of eyes and ears. Everybody has a cell phone. You think it would be impossible, but people do it. You're doing it. No, let me just say. People know what we're shooting. like it's just so funny because the secrecy thing I feel like is so dumb because it's like people know what we're shooting they know where we're shooting like people are taking pictures of the set and then it's like why can't I talk about it it's so exciting I feel like that's how it always is with like films that are like you gotta stay like hush hush everybody knows I know I know it is it's so it's so silly um are you ever going to perform your music live do you have any aspirations to do that?
33:20Rob Lowe:I did. When? Oh, that's right. What was it? It was a show, right? A morning show. What was it? I did the morning show. That's right. But then I also had my first concert in LA. In LA, I had my first concert. Come on. Where? What venue? I did it at the Moroccan Lounge. It was so cool. It was so cool. Now, are you playing guitar while you sing? I did that for one song. I've been playing ukulele for like four or five years now, but I've always had a guitar in the house, but I've only really been learning guitar since I'd say December because I just got my first guitar. so I didn't feel like I was ready to fully play on stage because it was, when did I have my show?
34:10I think it was in February or March. So I hadn't been playing too long, but I played a cover of You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette.
34:25Rob Lowe:Amazing. Out of the blue the other day, Alanis texted me literally two days ago. two days ago. And she's like, I got your number from, you know, a friend. My son is in the Outsiders school play. Could you do a video for the actors in their little Outsiders school play? That's so cool. That's so funny. Isn't that funny? I love Alanis Morissette. She's amazing. I like, I love her. And it was so cool because I was trying to decide, like, I don't know, it was my first show and I've never done plays or anything like that growing up. I just kind of went straight into TV and film and commercials. So I never have been, I have stage fright.
35:16I don't know, I hate speaking at an award show or something like that. I get so nervous. So singing in front of people, it was so scary. I ran off stage whenever my concert was over. I said goodbye and then I ran off stage and threw up. Like I was so scared. Amazing. And I wanted to do like a song that I, I love that song. It's like my go-to karaoke. So I was like, if I'm playing anything, it has to be this.
35:44Rob Lowe:Smart. Go with what you know. Who are you listening to? Who are your favorite artists at the moment? Ooh, that's so hard. I love music. I like, I listen to so much.
35:59what am i listening to right now i really like um i really like lon bell ray if you know her she has such a magnificent voice and i think what about casey musgraves are you do you like i haven't really listened to her i haven't really listened to her but i've heard a lot about her
36:17Rob Lowe:that first i mean i think she has a few out but that first album is unbelievable oh because you have that so it's you have there will be blood and the first case musgraves album okay and and and to work on prune you have you have like homework i'm so excited this you're in in rainy dreary london you know sitting around on a top secret project now now you know you can you have stuff that you can do now you can work on i'm excited Are you a Joni Mitchell fan by chance? I've never heard of it. No. Joni Mitchell is the, by the way, isn't this the greatest? This is like, I know people listening are like, how sweet is McKenna Grace?
37:05Rob Lowe:Does not know Joni Mitchell. Hey! She's 17. She's 17 people. It just seems like she's a full grown adult. I'm writing this all down in a little note. Okay. So Joni Mitchell is the original female singer-songwriter. You'll know all. There will be a couple songs that you'll know for sure. But she's the Bob Dylan. She's the Bob Dylan of – a lot of people say she's better than Bob Dylan. She's the best singer-songwriter who ever lived, probably, and Canadian. Are you Canadian? No, I'm very. you just work in Canada I'm just in Canada all the time you're just in Canada all the time it's like me I feel like I should have dual citizenship at this point I know that's what I always say I love Canada okay so Joni Mitchell okay I'm going to give you a couple songs to listen to oh all you got to do is just listen to California and then you're either in or out okay right after this
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42:03Rob Lowe:One of the things that I know and appreciate about you is your parents are all over it. they are on the case which by the way is why you're you're normal and not not a you know well you're you know normal person so i know they're they're all over everything so are there still any movies that they won't like first of all thank you i definitely try to be a normal person um but that's funny because my mom yes but my dad he's always in trouble like growing up for like letting me watch movies like i think yeah dad yeah but he's the movie buff he's the movie buff between my parents he's the reason i'm like so into films my thing with my boys and boys and girls are obviously a little bit different and every age has a different thing too you know where you are developmentally but my thing was always i would rather show them something that might be quote unquote inappropriate that's great than anything that's bad that's great my i mean i think i saw like alien i remember it i think that was like my first r-rated film was alien and i was like six or seven and i remember i was terrified but i loved it it is it is funny because my my son john owen who's now 27 my youngest who's now the writer actor and he remembers walking in i didn't let him see it but he walked in to our room we were watching movies at the house and it was the very end of invasion of the body snatchers the og one with donald sutherland it's amazing and there's the very famous meme still of donald Sutherland like pointing and going, ah, and it's so disturbing.
43:59Rob Lowe:And he said it traumatized him beyond belief. Still thinks about it. Okay. Maybe. But I didn't have him watch it. He just walked in. That's not him. It's honestly, that's his fault. So you could spend the next two days performing, writing and performing music and dealing with all of the things music, or you could spend the next two days acting and doing everything that comes with that, which would you do? Well, that's funny because I feel like that's kind of like a week for me. I mean, tomorrow, I've had the past two days off and I've just been watching movies, but tomorrow I'm going back to work and I'm working on acting.
44:43And then this weekend, one of my music producers and like my co-writer are flying in and they're going to stay with me because I have like a week off and we're just going to write music. So I feel like that's, I feel like I do that. But right now, I would say, I'd say that for like, I'd want to perform music or play music for the next two days, just because I've been in acting world for a minute now, but I'm always switching between.
45:12Rob Lowe:it's good to have both it's really nice it's good to have i mean when you can creatively not have all your eggs in one basket it's it's the best it really and it correlates really well in my opinion because it's it's fun i am i'm always writing music for the films i'm in i'm always like trying to pitch them like in credit song ideas and i i just did this independent film and I wrote a lot of music for it. I think I have like three or four songs in the film and I'm always messing with them. And I'm like, I feel like I need to have like a credit for, what's it called? You should. Composition for, yeah, you should.
45:57Rob Lowe:Well, you should. Imagine if it was in the film, like it's a joke. My only experience with that is I did a movie years and years ago called Youngblood. It was a hockey movie. Patrick Swayze was in it. And he had this song. He would be up all night writing songs and this and that and come to this. And he wanted us to have this song. We go, I don't really get it. Do you get it? How do we tell him no? And we didn't use it. And then he does a movie called Dirty Dancing. The song is in Dirty Dancing and goes to number one. It's number one hit all over the world called She's Like the Wind. That's so crazy.
46:32Rob Lowe:He wanted it in Dirty Dancing. I mean, in Youngblood. It ended up in Dirty Dancing. So, I mean, you know, it could happen. What if you got a number one hit? Would you be psyched or what? It's like my dream right now to be, because I think acting will always be number one for me because I don't know. It's just, it's like my dream job and I get to do it and it's so cool. But right now after playing my first show, it's like my dream to be able to like do well enough to play more shows or go on tour or something. And so that would be like the dream come true. well i cannot wait you got to come up and like find a club in santa barbara or get back get back when you get back stateside as they say look me up i you got i have new dogs you need to meet did you find a new dog we have um two two jack russell puppies now we've got the big dog who's the german shirthaired pointer and then of course um teacup egg who's the little um greatest name in the world is the rescue.
47:38So you've got to come see him.
47:40Rob Lowe:And you have your dog. What is your dog's name again? His name is Gizmo, but that's like, his name is Gizmo for a snack. Benjamin, Cheese, Wiz, Fee, Bad Boy, Chicken, Nugget, Fruit Snacks at DiCaprio. But we call him Gizmo. But he's a little Yorkie and he's so cute and too fat because all he does is eat people food. Of course he does because I think there's some bad person feeding it to him. And that person might be named McKenna Grace. Oh, it is. I say he needs to go on a diet but then it is half me but it's is he having fish and chips on location he is loving London food he just loves food he's such a oh my god gizmo oh yeah no does he go to the set every day he always goes everywhere with us it's the best he comes everywhere he flies he's always on set it's it's so good to have a dog i i get to pick each morning i pick which dog comes with me to work and they audition at the door they they each try to be cuter than the other one and then and then i pick one of them and they're all like happy and they look over their shoulder at the other dogs like see i'm going with daddy it's very funny so cute i i would feel so bad for the other dogs I just take them all with me.
48:59Rob Lowe:I know. Yeah. Oh, no. You can't have a pack. It's too many dogs, even for me. Too many dogs. Well, McKenna, thank you for filling us in on everything that's going on. I cannot wait to see the Top Secret Project. And I want to know what you think of the movies that I gave you and Joni Mitchell. You have to text me. Text me at Joni Mitchell. In all seriousness, your parents will know about Joni Mitchell. You got to say, give me your thoughts on Joni. As a young singer-songwriter, you have to at least have an opinion. You don't have to like it, but that has to be something you know well, for sure.
49:37No, I'll let you know. I'll let you know. I'm excited.
49:41Rob Lowe:Well, thank you. Great to talk to you. So fun. Thank you. It's so good to see you. You too. Give your parents a big hug for me. I will.
49:56Rob Lowe:McKenna Grace, by the way, her EP, Bittersweet 16. You guys can get that online, I'm sure. Is she the new Joni Mitchell? That is the question. I wish I could have watched her face listen to Joni for the first time. That would be amazing. All right, just one more thing before we end today's episode. Let's check the lowdown line.
50:21Rob Lowe:Hello, you've reached literally in our lowdown line, where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep. Hey, Rob, this is Julie from Westchester, New York. I'm a big fan of the show and of you and of all the characters that you've played. Here's my question. Do you ever think about what happens to your characters after the show's over? Specifically, I'm really curious. It's not you, but Kitty in Brothers and Sisters. Do you think she lives? And Sam in The West Wing, do you ever think he becomes president or what happens to him? So do you continue with these characters in your head or show's over?
51:14I'm on to something new. Thanks so much. Bye.
51:18Rob Lowe:What a great question. Thanks, Julie. That's a really good question. Well, I remember the first time I ever considered what would happen to a character I played was when I made my first movie, The Outsiders. And S.E. Hinton wrote the book, obviously. It's gone on to become a legendary book. And she, in passing, said to me one day that she felt like Soda Pop Curtis, my character, went to Vietnam and didn't come home. And it made me super sad. And that was the first time I ever really considered that these characters have lives that continue on, particularly in the mind of the writer who wrote them.
52:04Rob Lowe:I don't know so much about in the actor who acted them, but for sure in the writer who wrote them, definitely. late um you know um when when when and you you you uh referenced my character in brothers and sisters um yeah as you know robert was in a car crash at the end and and died and they the producers in the network wanted to like tease the audience into watching next year and we're trying to be coy about it like maybe he didn't die and maybe it was a big kind of brouhaha i was like no no he's dead he he died um and uh sam seaborne you know obviously martin sheen said that sam would run for president one day in one of the it was actually in the episode that we redid for hbo uh during covid we had a reunion and we did that episode again and i was always really moved by that because i would would have loved to have seen my character um run for president one day Sam would have loved it.
53:05Rob Lowe:Thank you for a really good question. Appreciate it. Keep watching. Anyway, thanks, you guys. I hope you love Sweet McKenna as much as I did. And we will be back next week with more Literally right here. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Nick Liao, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar, researched by Alyssa Graw. The podcast is executive produced by Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and myself at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd, music by Devin Bryant. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe.
53:55Rob Lowe:This has been a Team Coco production.
54:03Hi, I'm Jenny Slate. And believe it or not, someone is allowing us to have a podcast. I'm Gabe Liebman.
54:10Rob Lowe:I'm Max Silvestri. And we've been friends for 20 years. And we like to reach out to kind of get advice on how to live our lives. It's called I Need You Guys. Should I give my baby fresh vegetables? Can I drink the water at the hospital? My landlord plays the trombone and I can't ask him to stop. You should make sure that you subscribe so that you never miss an episode. I need you to go.
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From the publisher
This week, we're looking back at Rob's 2023 conversation with actress and musician Mckenna Grace! Before her work in "Regretting You," "Hunger Games," and "Scream 7," Rob and Mckenna discussed how Shirley Temple inspired Mckenna’s career, child acting laws, the challenges of being on social media, Mckenna’s songwriting process, and the greatness of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. This episode originally aired in May 2023. Make sure to subscribe to the show on YouTube at YouTube.com/@LiterallyWithRobLowe! Got a question for Rob? Call our voicemail at 323-570-4551. Your question could get featured on the show!
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