Rob Lowe crowned Nastassja Kinski his best on-screen kiss on live TV, calling her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and admitting the scene left him terrified.
The 62-year-old actor answered the question during a game of “Plead the Fifth” on Watch What Happens Live with host Andy Cohen, and he did not hedge.
Cohen ran through a long list of Lowe’s on-camera partners, including Demi Moore, Rashida Jones, Kim Cattrall, Calista Flockhart, and Meg Tilly. Lowe still went straight to Kinski.
His reason was blunt.
“Have a look at her.”
Lowe did not stop there.
“At that moment in time, she was probably the most beautiful woman I’d certainly ever seen.”
He also said the moment shook him.
“I was, like, very, very scared.”
Lowe and Kinski, now 65, shared the screen in the 1984 film “The Hotel New Hampshire.” Tony Richardson directed the movie, adapted from John Irving’s 1981 novel.
That early-career pairing is what Lowe reached for when Cohen pressed him on the best on-camera smooch of a long Hollywood run.
Off camera, Lowe’s real-life romance list has also drawn attention over the years, including exes Melissa Gilbert and Princess Stéphanie of Monaco. The kiss he rated highest, though, stayed in the movie column.
Lowe’s home life has been steadier than his 1980s tabloid years. He met makeup artist and jewelry designer Sheryl Berkoff on the set of 1990’s “Bad Influence” and married her in July 1991. They have two sons, Matthew, 32, and John Owen, 30.
He has said sobriety was part of making that future possible. In a 2022 conversation with People, Lowe described knowing Berkoff was different.
“I had the feeling that if I was ever going to be able to make it work with anybody, it was Sheryl.”
He also framed the trade-off in plain terms. He said he was glad he lived the life he lived and had no regrets, but he was ready for ordinary family duty, coaching Little League, carving pumpkins, reading books, and serving hot lunch on Wednesdays. And he said he loved that chapter.
“I really, really loved every minute of it.”
On SiriusXM’s “Andy Cohen Live” last Thursday, Lowe turned to a different kind of Hollywood scar tissue: the Academy Awards.
He said he felt a flash of relief when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, hoping the melee would finally outrank his own 1989 opening number at the 61st Academy Awards.
“When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, I was the only person happy. Because I was like, ‘Oh, good. So now that’s the worst moment in Oscar history.’”
Then came the punchline he has learned to live with.
“But it turns out not really.”
Lowe said he is “dragged, dragged every year,” and he has called that 1989 musical turn “the worst opening ever.” In other words, the internet still prefers his old awards-show clip to a one-off slap.
A leading man can survive bad press, messy years, and a dreaded Oscars replay. Naming the one kiss that still stands out, decades later, is the easier confession.
