Rob Lowe Reveals Tom Cruise Once Knocked Him Out – ‘His Eyes Just Went Black’

The Hollywood star Rob Lowe has shockingly revealed that his fellow A-lister Tom Cruise once knocked him unconscious back in the 1980s.

Lowe and Cruise were only teenagers when they met back in the 1980s. At the time, Cruise was living with his fellow actor Emilio Estevez, and he had just finished filming the 1981 movie Taps.

Cruise Allegedly Knocked Lowe Out

While appearing on The Rich Eisen Show, Lowe said that while he has many “favorite” memories of Cruise, one from the set of their 1983 movie The Outsiders stands out from all the rest.

“He’s so competitive that we used to box in the hallway of the hotel we were staying at during ‘Outsiders,’” Lowe recalled. “So much testosterone. We’re 18-year-old guys stuck on location. So we would wear headgear, and we’d have mouthpieces in, but we would legitimately spar.”

In one of these boxing matches, Cruise allegedly “completely” knocked Lowe out.

“And I just remember, Tom was jacked, and I had pipe cleaner arms,” Lowe recalled.

“But I hit him real clean, and I rang his bell, and the next I knew, I woke up – I was coming to, on the floor. And he, like, completely knocked me out,” he continued. “His eyes just went black, but that’s the stuff we did. That’s what guys do. It’s like Fight Club.”

Watch Lowe talk more about this in the video below.

Related: Rob Lowe Reveals How He’s Stayed Married For 31 Years – ‘Marriage Is Hard’

The Outsiders

The classic film The Outsiders was directed by Francis Ford Coppolla and based on the book of the same name by S.E. Hinton. It starred Lowe and Cruise along with Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane. Set in small town Oklahoma in 1964, the movie tells the story of a rivalry between two gangs separated by class. This rivalry then heats up when one gang member accidentally kills a member of the other.

Lowe has been open about how special this movie is to him to this day.

“It was my first time away from home, it was my first movie. I’ll never forget it,” he previously told Fox News. “It feels like it was four days ago, not 40 years.”

Check out some fun moments on the set of The Outsiders in the video below.

Related: Tom Cruise Celebrates ‘Top Gun Day’ As Rumors Swirl About ‘Top Gun 3’ Sequel

Lowe And Cruise Roomed Together

While filming The Ousiders, Lowe and Cruise reportedly shared a hotel room. Back in 2020, Lowe revealed that Cruise went “ballistic” when he learned this.

“To me, what’s great about the story is, there’s certain people who have always been who they are, and that element of them has powered them to where they are today and the rest is history,” Lowe recalled. “And the notion that an 18-year-old actor with a walk-on part in Endless Love and like a 7th lede in Taps could have that kind of like wherewithal.”

“I remember going, ‘Wow, this guy is the real deal,'” he added. “I mean it made me laugh, it was gnarly. But in the end of it, you can’t argue with the results. He’s had his eye on the ball since day one.”

Indeed, both Cruise and Lowe went on to Hollywood superstardom after The Outsiders. It’s fun to hear that they’ve had such a unique relationship behind the scenes for decades!