Jack Quaid is the 32-year-old son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. I honestly didn’t realize that he’s in his 30s already, for some reason I thought he was, like, mid-20s. Time flies. Anyway, Jack is an actor, like his parents. He’s been in films like Oppenheimer, Scream (the reboot) and Logan Lucky. He’s doing/done TV shows like The Boys, Vinyl and Star Trek: Lower Decks. He’s not a scrub, he’s a working actor and someone I would put more in the “character actor” category rather than lead-actor. Well, Jack Quaid has heard all of the nepo baby chatter and he has something to say:

Jack Quaid doesn’t shy away from being called a “nepo baby.”

“No matter what I do, people are going to call attention to it. People have called me a ‘nepo baby.’ I’m inclined to agree,” said the 32-year-old “The Boys” star, whose parents are Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. “I am an immensely privileged person, was able to get representation pretty early on, and that’s more than half the battle.”

Meg Ryan recently defended her son against being called a “nepo baby” in a Glamour magazine profile. “Jack is really talented. He’s more of a natural than I’ll ever be,” Ryan said. “That nepo stuff is so dismissive of his work ethic, his gifts, and how sensitive he is to the idea of his privilege.”

Quaid addressed her comments in The Daily Beast interview by saying, “She’s being a loving mom. But I don’t think she’s trying to say that I’m not a nepo baby. I think she’s just trying to say that, in her opinion, it undermines my 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.’ 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. So no, I don’t think she was trying to say that I’m not a privileged person. She knows. She must know. I think she was being a mom.”

[From Variety]

I love his answers, honestly. I’ll say this too – while he is a nepo baby and he’s gotten a leg up from his famous name and his famous parents, it helps that he doesn’t really look like either parent. He’s a mix of them, but you don’t look at him and say “oh, that’s Dennis Quaid’s son, for sure.” That alone has helped him carve out his own niche, his own career. But yeah, this is what I want from nepo babies. Acknowledge your privilege, acknowledge that you had an easier time.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.