Exclusive | Rob Lowe reveals A-lister nemesis who beat him out for iconic movie roles in 80s, 90s

They didn’t show Lowe the money.Rob Lowe revealed to The Post the one A-lister who kept getting the roles he was up for back in the ’80s and ’90s: “That dastardly Tom Cruise was always a nemesis.”“I remember reading ‘Jerry Maguire’ ..

.and they were like, ‘Tom Cruise.’ I also remember reading ‘Top Gun’ and going, ‘Oh, this movie is going to be f–king massive.’ They were like, ‘Tom Cruise.'”The Brat Pack actor, 62, also dispelled the rumor that he was in the running for the lead in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” which ultimately went to Matthew Broderick.“No, that’s a big regret,” said Lowe, adding that the director of the 1986 hit comedy was never interested in casting him.

“John Hughes never got what I was selling,” he said of the famed late filmmaker who was behind ’80s classics like “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles.”“I met with John once and it’s not like he didn’t have a lot of parts I could have done.When you really look at it, there were more than a few parts, multiple parts in some movies.

Never, phone never rang.”Lowe, who got his breakthrough role at 18 in 1983’s “The Outsiders” and went on to star in films like “St.Elmo’s Fire,” “Youngblood” and “About Last Night,” believes he knows why he wasn’t considered by Hughes.“I have a theory about it; I think I was actually already too well known,” he said.“John put in people who [weren’t] already well known.

He made people well known.At least that’s what I tell myself to make myself feel better for not getting a role in ‘The Breakfast Club.'”In his new movie “The Musical,” out Sept.

18, Lowe plays a middle school principal whose budding romance with a teacher causes another instructor who dated her first to spiral out of control.Lowe, who grew up in Dayton, Ohio, said he was “an outcast” when he transferred to Lincoln Junior High School after his family moved to Malibu, Calif.“I was surro...