What do you think it would be like to be the child of a celebrity?
How about the cousin or the parent? It's almost weird to think of actors as anchored to the world by family since they bounce from project to project and from person to person so easily.
Still, their families exist. And they must feel some kind way seeing them everywhere.
u/Flightwhite09 asked:
Children of actors or actresses what is it like seeing your parents on tv?
Here were some of those stories.
Almost Always Really Weird
GiphyMy mom's in some really random stuff, and has been for a while. She has her own page on a star trek wiki, she's been in backgrounds of movies like Hangover, and other times she's just a prop for "mean old Asian lady." The weirdest was seeing her on TV at the MTV Awards as Will Ferrell's Asian wife (????). It's almost always really weird.
Buttah
My dad starred in a popcorn commercial in the early 2000's. It ran for like a decade. Honestly it's probably still running somewhere. It opened with just a shot of him looking into a fridge, and the narrator says "Some people. Really. Love. Butter" And he takes a stick of butter out of the fridge and is about to take a bite out of it but he stops because his wife and son are staring at him from the other room. All my friends at school would tell me they saw the commercial all the time. It's been a good conversation starter at parties, because a lot of people actually remember the commercial.
Arrr Ar Ar Ar
Clancy Brown is my uncle, it's nice to remember me as a ten year old taunting him to do the Mr. Krabs voice, I would always tell kids at school that 'Mr. Krabs is my uncle' and they would never believe me. He would always hate the attention but I knew inside he really liked it, he also disliked me talking to the other kids at school about him being Mr. Krabs, but over the years I've learned to get used to it, Yes, A very successful actor is my uncle but Yes, he also has a family. And if you are wondering, the SpongeBob move is in progress and the series won't be ending soon.
My Literal Cousin Vinny
Joe Pesci is my cousin. It's pretty cool because they come back home from filming and live their normal lives with family, then you see them on tv in some hit movie. I guess it's a little different being it's not a parent, but I'd say it's definitely cool, also pretty weird some people go crazy over him. Still.
Acting Vocce
Jason Ralph (Quenten from The Magicians) was in my close group of friends from high school. I have some thoroughly embarrassing pictures of him stashed away. Not that he would care, he's pretty chill.
I can't watch anything with him in it. I just see "Jason, doing his acting voice." It's impossible to ignore if you know him.
He's super nice though. His Mom and my Mom hang out sometimes.
Forever On Film
My paternal grandmother was an actress. She was in a few Little Rascals shorts and a few movies, and also did lots of radio voice acting. I never got to meet her because she passed away from cancer when my dad was 20. I would've loved to, especially because Dad says we're very similar. He says we have the same singing voice. She was also very into fashion and shoes like me and we would've worn the same shoe size. I feel very lucky that some of her movie clips are on YouTube. Watching her act makes me feel close to her, even though I never got to have her in my life.
Weird Mom Questions
I'll reverse the question because I'm the actor, but my mom will watch something and ask really specific, yet completely inane, questions about the production. Stuff like if a scene was shot before or after lunch and if I could remember what I had. My sister steadfastly refuses to participate in pop culture and therefore hasn't seen much of my work.
Unintended Consequences
My childhood babysitter left our small town and headed to Hollywood. She never really hit it big, but did some roles on big TV shows, did a few commercials, and a few B movies with actors past their prime.
It was always pretty cool following her career and going out of our way to watch bad movies she made it on. Plus she had some great stories of which actors were nice and which were dicks.
Weirdest story was she was a murder victim on Criminal minds. In the episode the killer made her call her family and leave a message before he killed them, so her mom watched the episode and the voice recording messed with her pretty bad. Hearing your daughter say goodbye and beg for help is pretty messed up.
It's Slightly Overwhelming
I have family that work in the industry and are a part of the union. It's a ton of fun to see them on TV or their work on the big screen. My uncle has done work on a number of blockbuster films and his partner sold his production company and now works as an actor. So I've also have seen him on a few TV shows. I'm personally involved in my local film community so I have also seen myself (or my work) and friends on the big screen. The only down side is I've also dated some actors and it's odd to see an ex on TV.
Years later I found out my uncles partner played a character in one of the shows I grew up on. That was an odd day but it's hilarious to think about.
Overall it's really exciting seeing some one you know or their work in TV or film. I never in a million years would have though I would see myself on a big screen or the films I've worked on. I'm not in the industry but some of the films I've been involved with have won awards (at film festivals). Ever time it happens we all dress up and make an event out of it. The best part is seeing (or hearing) others reactions in a screening.
When Ya Gotta Deal With Their Babies
GiphyDifferent side of the same coin:
I, for many years, was a teacher and administrator for independent schools in Manhattan. I have had more than my fair share of parent teacher conferences with famous parents (it seemed every NYC character actor, someone from every SNL cast, every NY based late night and morning show, tons and tons of actors and actresses...) and the first thing that changed was I would get a bit starstruck, but after that period of my life I realized that I was having trouble watching TV and movies because I was so sick of seeing people I had just had tough conversations with. Parents with young children in expensive independent schools are not known for their decency with the faculty or admin, and celebrities had a habit of being worse.
What changed for me over the years was that as I became less and less in touch with popular culture I realized that I would have these "oh hell!" moments while watching a tv show or movie and realize that a parents I had assumed was an investment banker or accountant or similar, was actually an actor or actress. A parent I had just talked to in a less-than-happy way was all of a sudden walking across the screen of game of thrones and then the next day another was on the goodwife.
Turned out being out of touch was kind of nice!
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