Dawson’s Creek star Joshua Jackson has always been incredibly open about his difficult non-relationship with his father, John Carter.
In as early as 1998, the actor told the Seattle Times that his parents' divorce was “a very traumatic experience,” noting that afterward: “It was just me, my sister, and my mother, and we went it alone.”
He shared some more details about the divorce in a 2021 interview with Porter, where he revealed that he had bought back his childhood home, which the family had lost when his mom and dad split. Joshua explained: “My father, unfortunately, was not a good father or husband, and exited the scene, but that house in Topanga was where everything felt simple, so it was a very healing thing for me to do.”
The previous year, the star had told OK! magazine that he will “never get over” his dad disappearing from his life when he was a kid, telling the publication, per Today: “You never really get over it. I don’t think you can. You just metabolize it. It just becomes a part of your life.”
And in April of last year, Joshua admitted that he feels “sympathy” for his dad after his death, having since welcomed a daughter of his own. He said on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s On Me podcast: “I am now a grown man with a child. I have my father, who I never became close with, [who] also passed away, and I find myself, for the first time, with a great deal of sympathy for him, because the pain he must have lived with to have four children in the world and essentially no relationship with any of them…”
So, with all of this in mind, people have been left with serious second-hand embarrassment after watching an awkward red carpet interview with Joshua that was filmed earlier this week.
The 47-year-old star was at the New York gala screening of a new documentary about Italian fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, when the mishap happened, with online blogger and interviewer Isaac Hindin-Miller asking every guest at the premiere: “What is the best piece of advice your dad ever gave you?”
To be fair to Joshua, he handled the situation like a champ, immediately bursting into laughter upon hearing the question. He then told Isaac: “My father abandoned my family,” laughing loudly again as he placed a comforting hand on Isaac’s shoulder.
Even more impressively, Joshua was still able to come through with a pretty solid answer, telling the reporter: “You know what? The best piece of advice my father accidentally gave me in his absence is to be a good and present father!”
And the whole thing is now gaining traction on social media, with one person sharing the clip to X alongside the caption: “I laughed out loud they did not just ask that.” The clip has since been viewed more than 194,000 times, with many sharing their reactions in the replies and quote-tweets.
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