It’s time for Rob Lowe to hit “The Floor” again.
The fourth season of “9-1-1: Lone Star” alum Lowe’s trivia challenge debuts on Fox Wednesday with a few new twists, including a USA-themed competition and a chance to really screw with your fellow competitors.
“The stakes are bigger and we have a couple of new wrinkles to the game that I think are super, super cool,” Lowe told Variety. “First of all, this year we’re playing state against state, so every state and country is represented, which is really fun. I was born in Virginia, raised in Ohio, lived my whole life in California, so I was rooting for those three states. That was fun. But we also have a category swap. Now if you win three rounds in a row, you could look out on The Floor and go, ‘I want your category,’ steal someone’s category, and then they have to play yours.”
See below for more from Variety‘s chat with Lowe about the Season 4 premiere of “The Floor,” his upcoming horror movie “The Third Parent” and film project “The Musical,” and if he’ll reprise his “9-1-1: Lone Star” role Owen Strand on brother Chad Lowe’s new ABC series “9-1-1: Nashville.”
How do you prep for playing “Host Rob” on “The Floor”? Does it come naturally at this point?
The thing that has surprised me the most is how much I look forward to doing the show every year, and it’s because I get to utilize muscles that I don’t get to utilize in other work. It’s part one-man show, it’s part stand-up comic act. You have to think like a producer on the spot, like, what do you lean into? What do you talk about? What do not talk about? It’s part air traffic controller, because you’ve got someone in your ear reminding you of the gameplay and the stakes and where the game is headed. It’s all on a big, beautiful stage, there’s a live audience. There’s so much stimuli that I get really pumped doing it. And I think my favorite part of it is being able to ad-lib. The banter with the players, that’s for sure my favorite part.
What’s a particularly good incident of banter you can tease from “The Floor” Season 4?
Well, when I realized that one of the categories was “Brat Pack,” I was like, “Boy, if my picture isn’t first, there is going to be hell to pay.”
You have two movies coming up, one being “The Musical” with Gillian Jacobs and Will Brill.
Yes! This is one of the smartest and most audacious scripts that I have read in years. And it’s a first time writer for basically a first time director. And to see newcomers with this level of craft and intelligence and confidence, it kind of reminds me of when I read “Thank You for Smoking” years ago, and it very much was giving me like young- Alexander Payne-“Election” vibes.
There’s also the horror film “The Third Parent,” which is based on a viral internet horror story.
Yes, it’s a movie with Bleecker Street that I made in the spring that will be coming out I believe with a February release date. It’s based on a sub-Reddit of really weird, bizarre, sort of cult IP about the legend of a maybe-person, maybe-creature, maybe-robot alien that gets into people’s homes and then holds them hostage. It’s extraordinarily creepy. And I play the father, and when they told me who was playing the strange alien and said it was Crispin Glover, I was so in.
Just as you exited Ryan Murphy’s “9-1-1” franchise with the end of Fox’s “Lone Star” spinoff in the spring, your brother is at work on ABC’s new spinoff, “9-1-1: Nashville,” which premieres this fall. Have you been keeping up with what they’re doing and comparing notes on the new emergencies?
I’m really excited. I’ve been getting live updates from my brother Chad, who’s the executive producer/director, and it’s all my friends on it. I play golf with Chris O’Donnell. Kimberly Williams-Paisley I’ve worked with twice, who’s the most adorable, wonderful woman. And there are a couple other folks on the show that I know, and I keep hearing people go, “It’s crazy! We’re hanging from a bridge!” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s what you’ve signed up for!” I’m just glad I don’t have to wear the fireman outfit in the Nashville summer; that’s the number one thing I’ve been thinking about.
Do you see yourself reprising your own “9-1-1” franchise role as Owen Strand for “Nashville”?
I love Owen Strand and I love how people miss that character. It means a lot to me that the people really related to him and liked him. And I don’t ever rule anything out, but at the moment I don’t think there are any plans to do it.
This interview has been edited and condensed.