Alfred Molina Gets Emotional Talking About His Father

Alfred Molina is going viral with a touching story that has resonated with a lot of people.

The actor sat down for an interview with Vanity Fair about his career. He started with a captivating story of how he knew he wanted to be an actor before he was 10. He joked, “I can’t imagine that at the age of nine I actually knew what the heck I was talking about.”

Towards the end, the British actor mentioned disappointing his late father. “When I was very, very young, my dad got me a job as a waiter in the restaurant where he was working. And if I say so myself, I was a good waiter to the point where the management offered me the chance to do a two-week management training course. I turned it down because I got an acting job,” Molina confessed.

Molina then recounted a conversation he had with his father, “My father says, ‘Well, this acting job, how much are they paying you?’ I said, ‘I’m getting union. Unions get 15 pounds a week.”

Sadly, his father expressed disappointment at his son’s decision since Molina stood to make more than double that amount as a manager. 

“My father looked at me and he had the look on his face that you reserve for the mad and the lost. He stared at me like he didn’t recognize me. The only thing I could say to him was, ‘This is what I love, Dad.’ He never quite got it.”

The actor took a long pause as he composed himself. 

“My father and I never really talked about my work,” he said. “He wasn’t phoning me up saying, ‘So what are you up to? What’s going on?”

“We didn’t have that kind of relationship.” 

“When he passed away, I went to Spain for the funeral and I was with his widow, my stepmom, and she drags out this suitcase and it’s full of clippings and photos and bits from magazines and letters from people that wrote to him saying ‘Oh, I just saw Alfredo in this thing.’ He kept all this stuff, but he never talked about it,” Molina narrated.

“My stepmom said, ‘Do you want any of this?”

“I couldn’t handle it. I said no,” he added.

“I’ve always tried with my kids, my daughter, and my stepsons, and now I have a stepdaughter with my wife. All you can do is tell them how brilliant they are.”

“That’s all you need to do,” he reiterated.

Back in 2016, in an interview with The Guardian, he shed light on their father-son relationship, describing it as, “cordial but not very close, and I never quite reconciled with him before he died, which I regret.” 

Continuing, he shared, “I have nothing but respect for him.”

“I did disappoint my dad. Yeah,” the actor can be heard saying in his latest interview. 

“If my dad had lived a little longer, he’d hopefully would have realized I hadn’t wasted my time,” he continued. 

Despite the difficulties, we’re sure glad Alfred Molina took a chance on himself. The actor rose to fame and has 228 credits to his name. One of his more recent movies is the indie-dramedy When We Get There, currently in post-production.

The actor is also set to perform on Broadway in Uncle Vanya.