Rob Lowe has been vocal about his disdain for the fact that film and television production has been leaving Los Angeles in favor of other, more financially affordable cities. Although the actor says the state of filming in Hollywood is \u201cgetting better,\u201d Lowe feels it\u2019s \u201cstill criminal that we\u2019ve ceded this entire industry to other states; other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to sound incredibly self serving, but a large part of the budget for tax credit is above the line,\u201d Lowe says, referring to the salaries of actors, writers, directors and producers. \u201cAll of these other territories give you credit for above the line and L.A. doesn\u2019t. Until they do that, they\u2019re never going to get any of the big shows back.\u201d<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Due to new tax incentives for independent features, Lowe was able to stay in Los Angeles to shoot his latest movie, \u201cThe Musical,\u201d which premieres at the Sundance Film Festival on Sunday. Directed by Giselle Bonilla\u00a0and written by Alexander Heller, the zany comedy follows a frustrated playwright and middle school teacher named Doug (Tony-winner Will Brill) who discovers that his ex-girlfriend (\u201cCommunity\u201d star Gillian Jacobs), a fellow educator, has started dating the principal of the school (Lowe) where they all work. Driven by spite, Doug stages a wildly inappropriate school musical in an effort to ruin the principal\u2019s chances of winning a prestigious award for academic excellence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought a lot about \u201cSchool of Rock\u201d if it were filmed like \u2018Apocalypse Now.\u2019 That guided us for a long time,\u201d Heller said at the Variety\u00a0Studio presented by Audible.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an adage in Hollywood: Never work with children or animals. \u201cThe Musical\u201d cast pushed back on that notion, with Brill calling the inclusion of several young actors one of \u201cthe most audacious\u201d aspects of the film. Added Lowe, \u201cMost of us were kid actors ourselves and have experienced what the kids experience in the film of not getting the part [in the musical] that they\u2019d like; I never made it out of the chorus. So getting to be around kids, when we were once those kids, is really fun and satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n In line with the theme of \u201cThe Musical\u201d \u2014 being motivated by spite \u2014 the cast and creative team thought about the pettiest thing they\u2019ve ever done or had happen to them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe list is long,\u201d said Lowe, before bringing up a time he was accepting a trophy at an award ceremony. \u201cThere was a particular actor behind me who was trying to take off the bra strap of the other actress, grabbagging and pulling focus from my speech. I didn\u2019t like it.\u201d Lowe continued, \u201cBy the way, there\u2019s no group pettier than actors, so it\u2019s not surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n Although he didn\u2019t specify the incident, there\u2019s a grainy YouTube video that seems to fit the description with Lowe accepting the drama ensemble prize at the 2002 SAG Awards on behalf of \u201cThe West Wing.\u201d In the background, his co-star Bradley Whitford appears to be teasing and toying with Allison Janney, who then start to giggle while Lowe is speaking at the podium.<\/p>\n As for Bonilla, an occasion where she admits she was the perpetrator of some pettiness ended up having an outsized (positive!) influence on her career.<\/p>\n \u201cMy high school boyfriend cheated on me with a mediocre film student who didn\u2019t get into NYU. I submitted out of spite, and it\u2019s the only film school I got into,\u201d Bonilla said. \u201cSo that is why I stand before you today.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rob Lowe has been vocal about his disdain for the fact that film and television production has been…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":541052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,238716,14107,224,45131,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-541051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-film-and-television-production","tag-hollywood","tag-los-angeles","tag-rob-lowe","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115953964341564148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}