Alfred Molina received an offer to be the manager at a restaurant his father worked before kicking off his acting career but chose to pursue arts instead. The ‘Spider-Man 2’ actor told Vanity Fair:
“When I was very young, my dad got me a job as a waiter in the restaurant where he was working. 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.”
He continued:
“I turned it down because I got an acting job. My father says, ‘This acting job, how much are they paying you?’ I said, ‘I’m getting union wage, so 15 pounds a week.’”
The Actor Thought He ‘Disappointed’ His Dad
Molina’s decision confused his father as he would make around 30 pounds if he accepted the restaurant position. The actor recalled:
“‘Wait a minute. You’re making 30 or 35 here. Then you go to making 15?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He 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.”
He teared up at this point in the interview and shared:
“I did disappoint my dad. Yeah. If my dad had lived a little longer, he’d hopefully would have realized I hadn’t wasted my time.”
Molina’s Father Didn’t Show Open Support
Alfred Molina and his father ‘never really talked about my work’ until the latter’s death in 1999. He explained:
“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 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 they saw me. He kept all this stuff, but he never talked about it.”
His stepmother asked him whether he wanted to keep the memoirals:
“I couldn’t handle it. I said no. I’ve always tried with my kids. … All you can do is tell them how brilliant you are. That’s all you need to do.”
Molina is now starring in Broadway’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ opposite Steve Carell and gearing up for ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ movie release on August 2.
