Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder star in Novocaine, an hilarious action comedy about a man who doesn’t feel pain. It was top at the box office this weekend, although the box office was very weak overall. At my local theater on Sunday there were only two other couples. (To be fair it was a beautiful day, although it was supposed to rain, which is why we went to the movies.) If you like action movies, and horror because there are some real gross out scenes, you will love this film. I was impressed by how much heart and humor it had. A lot of that is due to Jack Quaid, who is incredibly watchable on screen. He’s a definite nepo baby as the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, which he admits gives him immense priviledge in his industry. He obviously puts in a lot of work and is humbler about it. I watched several interviews with him and he’s self-deprecating and happy to promote his projects.

In an interview with JoBlo, Amber called Jack “an icon” and “the Tom Hanks of our generation” as he put his head in his hands and got embarrassed. You can tell she’s done this to him several times and that it makes him uncomfortable. Here are some details of their interview, and the video is below.

Amber Midthunder on Jack Quaid
He is truly just an icon, the Tom Hanks of our generation.

On the possibility of a sequel
Jack: obviously nothing is official, but it’s something I’ve fantasized about from day one. I would love that. I love playing this character. If there’s a sequel I would love that.
Amber: It would be so lovely to live in this world with [Nate and Sherry] together.

Co-director Robert Olsen on casting Jack Quaid
When we were taking our pass on the script, because there are two of us, we always try to cast a dream actor so that we’re writing in the same voice. We were watching The Boys at the time and we were like this this role is so Jack Quaid, never thinking that we’d actually be able to get him to be in the movie. When he eventually signed on it was quite literally a dream come true. This movie doesn’t work if Nate Isn’t So Earnest and likable and sweet and that is Jack Quaid in real life he is that guy he’s one of the just the most nice gracious people that you could ever hope to meet and so you know once we once we all got to set together man it was just such a blast. A;; of the actors had such great vibes and it was an awesome family friendship environment on set and I think you can really feel that energy in the film.

[From JoBlo on YouTube]

In the JoBlo interview, below, he also speaks separately to co-directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen and other castmembers, Ray Nicholson and Jacob Batalan. Nicholson and Batalan said how great it was to work with Berk and Olsen. Berk and Olsen described their process of making the film, which involved adapting a darker script from Lars Jacobson to be funnier. They did an excellent job! It’s also sweet how they dream cast Jack Quaid and felt like it was a dream come true to have him star. You could definitely tell that everyone had a good rapport.

Now that Novocaine is a critical and commercial success, people are talking about a sequel of course and about potential other roles for Jack Quaid. He looks a lot like the lead character in the video game Max Payne, and fans are noticing. Amber might not be that far off in calling him this generation’s Tom Hanks. Like his character in Novacaine, he comes across as a reluctant movie star, just putting in the work and being surprised when it pays off.

Jack with his girlfirend, The Boys costar Claudia Doumit





Photos credit: IMAGO/Dave Starbuck/Avalon