Rob Lowe Prepares for the Apocalypse

Photo by Ed Miller/WTTV Productions Limited

In the mood for an end of the world tale that doesn’t involve zombies and is chock full of dark humor? Than “You, Me and the Apocalypse” is going to be right up your alley. With a comet on a collision course to earth, the show’s characters have 30 days to wrap up their lives. The cast is the modern day equivalent of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” featuring the likes of Jenna Fischer (“The Office”), Megan Mullally (“Will and Grace”) and Mathew Baynton ("Yonderland"). In a recent conference call interview, Rob Lowe talked about his turn in the series as the unexpectedly off-color Father Jude.

Lowe described the series, calling it “a boundary pushing comedy drama that presents the end of the world in a way that you’ve never seen before through extraordinary drawn and interesting characters with plot twists that you will absolutely never see coming.”

When preparing for his role as a clergyman in the sweeping TV epic, Lowe turned to the most popular book of all time. “It was a great excuse to do something that I’ve been putting off forever, which was really, really, really spend some time reading the bible cover to cover,” he explained. “I’ve read bits and pieces of it over the course of my life. But I never really sat down and taken it all in in a sort of scholarly way.”

He also got the chance to take on a role that he feels everyone should tackle at one point or another in his or her artistic career. “There are certain archetypes that an actor should play before they you know move on you know. Cop, check. Cowboy, check. President, check. Priest, check. So I’m working my way down the list now.”

But this troubled character is not your run of the mill man of the cloth part. With time ticking down, Father Jude has a lot to sort out. “As the world unravels, the church teaches that would be not only the time for the savior to return but also the time for the antichrist to return if it is indeed the end of the world,” noted Lowe. “When we realize it is the end of the world, you need the devil’s advocate to sort out and find the antichrist, the real one or the real savior. And so he’s a busy man.”

True, it’s not easy spending the end of days presiding over the struggle of good vs. evil but that is, after all, a priest’s job. As for Lowe, too, he too said he’d choose to stick to his day job if he only had 30 days left. “While there may be a couple of things that you’d consider, I’ve never been to the Rain Forests or whatever. When really faced with it, I would want to do exactly what I’m doing,” the actor conceded, “which would be work hard, be with my family and live the life I’m living.”

While not most people could probably say they’d keep on just doing their normal activities, Rob Lowe isn’t most people. “It actually makes me feel really good and satisfied about my life,” he admitted. “I’m blessed. And you know it’s all good because I don’t feel like there’s a lot of stuff out there that I would feel like I missed out on if it was all coming to an end.”

Besides, anyone who watches Rob’s other television series knows the Grinder never rests. And Rob is more than happy being on the NBC and Fox series simultaneously, even if it is a lot of work. “It is really exciting. Two completely different characters in two completely different types of shows on two networks at the same time is really, for me, sort of an actor’s dream.”

He explained how he juggled the two roles. “I would travel back and forth. I’d do three weeks in Europe on ‘You, Me and the Apocalypse’ and then I would fly back here and work on ‘The Grinder.’ Not only to be doing them both at the same time was a challenge but also really fun. And then we finished ‘Apocalypse’ in a time where I could then really do the meat of ‘The Grinder,’ which I’m still doing today. I’m actually on the set. I’m on the set dressed as a Mexican busboy as we speak. Don’t ask why the Grinder would be a Mexican busboy. You will find out.”

Mexican busboy, check.

Tune in to see Rob Lowe in “You, Me and the Apocalypse” when it premieres on Thursday, January 28 at 8 PM EST/PST on NBC. And stayed tuned to “The Grinder” on Tuesdays at 9:30 PM EST/PST on Fox.