John Owen Lowe Says He's 'Set a Lot of Boundaries' with Dad Rob Lowe: 'Therapy Has Been Very Helpful for Us'

Mar. 15, 2025

ForJohn Owen Lowe, art imitates life.

On the latest episode of SiriusXM’sThe Jess Cagle Show, the writer and actor, 28, opened up about initially blurring the line between reality and fiction while working with fatherRob LoweonUnstable.

John Owen admitted that creating the character of Jackson, the son of eccentric entrepreneur Ellis Dragon (Rob), on the Netflix comedy was “really difficult,” adding, “I wanted it to be very reflective of my experience, but also not a direct pull of me because there was a version of the show we initially pitched that was honestly moreCurb Your Enthusiasm-esque where we were playing Rob and Johnny.”

The pair decided they could “have more fun and get more out of it if we put it in a different world than ours,” John Owen explained of co-creating and co-executive producingUnstablewith his dad.

Kevin Mazur/Getty

“It’s why it’s in the biotech world and he’s playing this eccentric, insane billionaire and I’m playing somewhat more of an introvert that I am because we thought that that would highlight our differences even more because a lot of our banter is pretty subtle, so we were like, ‘How can we make this slightly less subtle?’” he explained. “But it’s also just more fun to create a character and put your personality into them and your relationship into that dynamic, but then you don’t have to go, you don’t have to get too introspective.”

“I would say in the second season, truly we really opened it up to like core memories from my childhood and pulled from a lot of real experiences from my dad and I,” he revealed. “There’s a lot of, if people knew how much of what they were watching were real things I’ve experienced, I think they’d be shocked.”

From left: Rob Lowe as Ellis and John Owen Lowe as Jackson on “Unstable”.John P. Fleenor/Netflix

John P. Fleenor/Netflix

When asked for an example of a storyline lifted directly from his life, he pointed to Ellis’ interest in son’s romantic life on the show’s second season.

“Throughout the season, he’s trying to manipulate and control my dating life and pick who my partner is, and he has this absurd line in the season finale where he says like, ‘I get final breeding approval, which is absurd. He’s never said that, but he’s said things adjacent to that before,” John Owen admitted.

John Owen shared that his father also likes to dig into his love life off camera, sharing, “You know, he’ll call me, and he’ll be like, ‘How was that date last night?’ and I’m like, ‘How do you know about that?’ and he’s like, ‘I called one of your friends.’ Stuff like that.”

He explained that Rob is “really, really involved” but the pair have “since set a lot of boundaries.” He added, “You know, therapy has been very helpful for us.”

From left: John Owen Lowe and Rob Lowe attend the Netflix Unstable S1 premiere at Netflix Tudum Theater on March 23, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.Rich Polk/Getty

Rich Polk/Getty

On SiriusXM’sAndy Cohen Livein July, John Owenopened up about working with father, sharing that he has found a “healthy perspective where it’s like you should feel grateful that you get to do this for a variety of reasons.”

HostAndy Cohentold John Owen that he thinks the experience “will weirdly be therapeutic for you.”

“I agree. I hope so and I believe so too, but you know, I’m walking through it right now,” John Owen responded.

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Unstableis available to stream on Netflix.

source: people.com