The cardinal rule of Hollywood nepo babies is that if you’re chill about it, nobody really cares. Thankfully, The Boys’ Jack Quaid is totally chill. In an interview with The Daily Beast’s The Last Laugh podcast, he acknowledges that he’s “immensely privileged” to have doors opened for him just because he’s the son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. Because of nepotism, he “was able to get representation pretty early on, and that’s more than half the battle.” Knowing that, he’s “tried to work as hard as I possibly can to prove that I deserve to walk through that door.”
All that said, he is inclined to avoid romantic comedies on account of his mom being “the undisputed queen of rom-coms,” which is a shame because his movie Plus One with Maya Erskine is delightful. But if he does a rom-com, “It’s got to be something that feels different enough from what she’s done,” he says. “I’m not looking to take her place or anything.”
For her part, Ryan is clearly proud to see her son follow in her footsteps. (She cast him in her directorial debut Ithaca.) Last year, she said that the “nepo stuff is so dismissive of his work ethic, his gifts and how sensitive he is to the idea of his privilege.” Quaid’s observation is that she was just being a mom, worrying that the label “undermines” his talent. “I don’t think it undermines my talent. I know that I work hard, and I know I’ve heard ‘no’ way more than I’ve heard ‘yes,’” he says. “But I also know that this industry is insanely hard to break into, and I had an easier time doing that than most. Both things can be true.”