Rob Lowe Recalls Tom Cruise Going 'Ballistic' Over This During The Outsiders Auditions

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"It was gnarly," says Lowe.

Right before Tom Cruise really blew up as a name in Hollywood, he was allegedly blowing up about not being treated like a superstar.

Appearing on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast this week, Cruise's "The Outsiders" costar Rob Lowe recalled the audition process for the film and spilled on some of Tom's behavior at the time.

When Cruise was auditioning for a role in the 1983 film, he had only appeared in bit parts in "Endless Love" and "Taps."

"My memory of it is auditioning for months," recalled Lowe of trying out for a role in the Francis Ford Coppola-directed film. "Every single breathing actor that you remotely knew, you would see there. Everybody did it at the same time."

"All of the L.A. people survived the L.A. auditions, and then the hand-picked people had to go to New York to face the New York version," he continued. "So it was me and Tom Cruise and Emilio [Estevez] and C. Thomas Howell."

Saying it was the first time he had ever stayed at the Plaza Hotel, Lowe added, "We check-in and Tom finds out that we're sharing a room and just goes ballistic."

"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," he continued.

"And the notion that an 18-year-old actor with a walk-on part in 'Endless Love' and like a seventh lead 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 at the end of it, you can't argue with the results, he's had his eye on the ball since day one."

After "The Outsiders" dropped, Cruise's career would soar when both "Risky Business" and "All the Right Moves" were released that same year. "Top Gun" in 1986 would make him a bonafide leading man.