Rob Lowe recalls shooting longest 'West Wing' walk-and-talk for 9 hours (original) (raw)

"There was never a moment when we went, 'Oh we got it,'" Lowe says.

Published on July 29, 2024 05:03PM EDT

The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin perfected the art of the walk and talk ... but that doesn't mean it was easy.

Sitting down for Entertainment Weekly's Reel Wisdom video series, which pairs two actors of different generations to share advice and experiences, Rob Lowe tells his son and Unstable costar John Owen Lowe all about filming the episode 3 walk-and-talk on the beloved political drama.

"It's the entire teaser, it's a oner," Rob tells his son of the scene. The scene in question involves President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his entire team — a.k.a. the entire main cast — leaving a banquet and making his way to his car (and it's a long way). Not only was the scene filmed in one take, but Sorkin famously liked his episodes to be word perfect, which created quite the task for the actors.

Rob Lowe and Richard Schiff on 'The West Wing'.

NBC

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"We rehearsed it for 6 hours, went to lunch, and then shot for 9 hours," Rob says. "We did 35 takes. Some of them uncompleted. I think we had 5 completed takes and we never finished it. The producers pulled the plug. There was never a moment when we went, 'Oh we got it.'"

But they did, in fact, get it.

For more of Rob's discussion with his son, which touches on other projects, including Parks and Recreation, watch the video above.

Unstable season 2 premieres Thursday, Aug. 1 on Netflix.