Rob Lowe is many things: an award-winning actor, a prolific podcast host, a spokesman and a dad. In fact, as he tells host Krista Smith in the latest episode of the podcast Skip Intro, he never really knows what people will recognize him for. 

“This is my favorite thing of all time,” he says. “I don’t know what they’re going to say. Literally, I was surfing the other day — I’m on a wave — and a guy goes, ‘Yo, Atkins.’ Because I’m the spokesman for Atkins, and [have] been for the last four years. I have had people go, ‘I miss your DirecTV commercials.’ Or, [they call out] ‘Hey, Sodapop!’ [referring to Lowe’s breakout role in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film The Outsiders.] And that to me is what’s so cool. I have friends who are super famous for one or two things, and that’s what it’s going to be always.”

For proof of Lowe’s range, look no further than his 2023 résumé. He just released Unstable, a new workplace sitcom co-created with his real-life son John Owen. Lowe plays eccentric biotech genius Ellis Dragon, whose struggle to move on from his wife’s death leads his son Jackson (John Owen Lowe) to return home to help run the family business. The comedy comes on the heels of Lowe’s emotional turn in Dog Gone, released in January and based on the 2016 true story written by Pauls Toutonghi about a father and son searching for their missing dog, Gonker. And before you ask, Lowe assures, “The dog does not die.”

For more great celebrity interviews, check out Skip Intro on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.