Destined to become an actor since birth, Jack Quaid is not only the son of mega stars Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, but his famous parents named him Jack in honor of Jack Nicholson, who helped Dennis take his first steps in Hollywood.
With a childhood marked by visits to the sets of his famous parents, Jack remembers growing up within the industry. “I went to a school where there were many children with parents in the industry. I didn’t feel different from the rest. Until you mature and discover that it’s not so common for both your parents to be internationally recognized actors. To be honest, it didn’t really impact me growing up with two famous parents, what impacted me was discovering the headlines about their separation because I understood that everyone knew about it. So, yes, that’s when I knew they were famous, but to me they were just my parents.”
Jack attended the progressive Crossroads School in Santa Monica, where Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow also went, and when he was sure of his vocation, he moved to New York to study at the prestigious New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where Angelina Jolie graduated. Before graduating, Jack received the opportunity to participate in the cast of ‘The Hunger Games’ and has been working non-stop ever since.
This week, ‘Novocaine’ premieres worldwide, where he plays a regular guy who suffers from a disease that prevents him from feeling pain. If you are familiar with this young actor’s work, his latest major role is in the Amazon series ‘The Boys’ where he portrays the character of Hughie, who is also a regular guy who has been experimenting with superpowers after regularly consuming a drug known as “V”. Both characters seem to share a similarity regarding a superpower due to abnormal causes in the protagonist’s life. “It is true that there may be a parallel between the two: Nate (Novocaine) is a man unable to feel physical pain, a condition that is much less glamorous in real life. Hughie has also left behind his normal life in a store to take care of a group of violent heroes”.
Quaid shares the same quality as his mother, Meg Ryan, in transcending with his characters by contributing his innate charm. He likes to mix genres in his films, aware that superhero movies are becoming tiresome for the audience. “I was drawn to the idea of Nate being a normal guy. It can be catastrophic if he is seriously injured and, let’s say, loses a huge amount of blood without even realizing it. When I decided to shoot this film, I wanted to make sure that the movie was great and had a brutal tone. It’s not a horror movie at all because the first part is a romantic comedy, but as the plot progresses it turns into an action movie for horror fans due to the amount of blood in it,” the actor explained to us during the Los Angeles Fantasy Festival.
“Nate is a solitary type due to his illness. I have tried to portray him as a simple, insecure person. Without a doubt, he is the sweetest character I have portrayed in my career, but at the same time, he is a true hero because he risks everything for Sherry, the woman he loves. I like that he does not get discouraged even though he has a disability. His attitude is his great strength."
As is the case with most interesting action movies, ‘Novocaine’ tells the romantic story of Nate and Sherry, played by actress Amber Midthunder. As often happens in movies, everything changes when love enters the scene. For months, Nate has been pining for Sherry, a coworker at his bank, and a spilled coffee leads them to have a lunch date that possibly turns into the best night of Nate’s life. Suddenly, he has an optimistic vision of his future and believes he can overcome the limits of his disorder. Just then, Sherry is taken hostage by a group of violent bank robbers. “As an actor, I try to create characters that the audience can identify with. From the very beginning, I found the relationship between Nate and Sherry important; she is the reason he risks his life.” Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen strive to show us how careful Nate is with his disorder. Every sharp edge in his house and office is covered with a tennis ball, and he avoids eating solid foods for fear of accidentally biting his tongue. He has spent his life being overly cautious, but one night with Sherry is enough for him to put aside everything he knows. “Dan and Robert seem like twins without being related. I am fascinated by their ability to understand each other; they walk the same, talk the same. I loved working with them, and if I could, I would always work with them. If there was something I enjoyed while filming this movie, it was preparing the choreography for the action scenes. It’s a film where I had no rest; there is action in every scene. In fact, it reminds me of 80s movies where action was the heart of the whole plot,” Quaid admits.
Young Quaid’s career is not only successful in commercial cinema, but he has also achieved several triumphs in the independent genre, such as ‘Roadies’, which he launched through crowdfunding with Eve Hewson, the daughter of singer Bono; ‘Just 45 Minutes from Broadway’, or ‘Just Before I Go’, in which he was directed by Courteney Cox. “I have always been aware that I had to work twice as hard and prove that I deserved every role I got. I knew the door was open for me in many ways that it is not open for other actors. I try to work as hard as I can to prove that I deserve to walk through every door that is opened for me."
At the same time, Jack Quaid is a prominent voice actor dubbing characters in video games from the ‘Shadows of Mordor’ saga and especially in animation, participating in several animated superhero installments such as ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ and ‘My Adventures with Superman’. “I’m not going to deny what everyone already knows, I grew up obsessed with Star Trek and Superman comics,” he admits. In addition, Meg Ryan’s son triumphs on television in the mentioned series ‘The Boys’, where he plays the endearing Hughie Campbell, a perfect counterpoint to the sociopathy exhibited by most of the characters in the series. It was the series creator, Eric Kripke, who insisted on recruiting Jack after seeing him in the pilot of ‘Sea Oak’, an Amazon Prime Video series that never aired, and in which he shared the screen with Glenn Close.
His metamorphosis in ‘The Boys’ leads him to transform from a passive and shy guy to an incredibly violent one. “Hughie changes a lot. He has gone from being a naive boy who worked in an electronics store to being immersed in this insane world of superheroes where some claim to be one thing and are something completely different. For me, the journey I have had with ‘The Boys’ has been incredible because it has taken me to where I am now. If I look back, and see where I started, I surprise myself. It has been a very, very fun journey."
Just finished the fourth season, the actor assures that the last one has been his favorite. “Without a doubt, the writers have outdone themselves. Each time we shoot crazier things and some scenes are even better than in the comics.” This has been the penultimate installment of the series, as it has been announced that ‘The Boys’ will end with the fifth season. “That was always the plan, but I think the ending will be worth it. My character has to make difficult decisions, starts on one path and then jumps to another. He is one of the few with a very defined moral balance, although sometimes he makes surprising decisions out of pure necessity," explained the actor who is very proud to have chosen his parents' profession. “They taught me what it means to be an artist and I owe my love for this career to them.” The series also features veteran actress Elizabeth Shue. “We are talking about a series that embraces the dark side of heroes who have succumbed to fame and celebrity. Many of us know that dark side of fame and I found it sensational to explore it within this genre.” Violent and raw, ‘The Boys’ has a tone more similar to DC comics than Marvel. “It’s pure dynamite. But we draw from the comics. Everything is written in the graphic novel and we benefit from having an audience eager to see this series.”
Aware of being judged as a ‘Hollywood nepobaby’ for having had better opportunities in the industry than others who do not have famous parents, the actor accepts the criticism with that familiar charm. “No matter what I do, people are going to pay attention to it. I tend to agree," said the 32-year-old star, “I am immensely privileged.”