Many children look up to their parents while they’re growing up, and some may even dream of one day following in their footsteps and doing what they do for a living. What happens when what you do for a living happens to be living life in the public eye as a famous and successful actor?

That’s the life John Owen Lowe has lived his entire life. The 29-year-old actor is the son of Rob Lowe, and he ended up deciding to follow in his father’s footsteps.

John Owen has admitted that living in his father’s shadow has been both a good thing and a bad thing. While it may be helpful for his career in the entertainment industry, it is sometimes bad for his mental health.

On Radio Andy, John Owen opened up to Andy Cohen about the Netflix show “Unstable” that he costars on with his father. The show is about an eccentric tech genius, played by Rob, and his son who finds himself living in his father’s shadow, played by John Owen.

Father and son are both credited with creating the show along with Victor Fresco who produced “My Name Is Earl.” So, yes, they are somewhat acting out their reality as father and son, but there was one moment when that really hit home for John.

John Owen told Andy that creating “Unstable” with his father “was a terrible idea.” Then he shared a “very real” story about something that happened while filming the first season of the show.

He shared that part of the reason they created the show is because he was “going insane” while working as a writer on his dad’s show “9-1-1 Lone Star.” John Owen explained, “it drove me bonkers” writing for his dad for four years.

Then John Owen got into the real story. He explained that he had a “mental breakdown” two weeks into filming the first season of “Unstable.” He said that he went to his trailer and had the epiphany, “I was trying to become my own person and get distance away from him, and I am now his costar. My face is next to his on a one-sheet, and I will be doing press with him.”

He added that his first thought was, “I’ve gotta call my reps,” and his representatives were the ones to tell him to “chill out.” They told him, “You should feel grateful you get to do this for a variety of reasons.” One reason was mortality. He said, “My dad won’t be around forever. It’ll be amazing that we shared this together.” The second reason was that “it’s hard to work in the entertainment industry.”

Andy told John Owen that he hopes that working with Rob on “Unstable” ends up being “therapeutic.” While John “hopes” Cohen is right, he’s not quite there yet since he’s “walking through it right now.”

This isn’t the only time John Owen has opened up about working with his dad on “Unstable.” On The Tonight Show, he shared some funny yet true things about his father with host Jimmy Fallon. For example, on the positive side, he shared that his dad is “an incredibly hard worker.”

He couldn’t let the answer end there though. He had to add a funny truth about this father. He said, “His hair, and I’m not kidding, takes 30 minutes every morning.”

Hear more of what John had to say about his dad in the video below.