Spider-Man 2 star’s heartbreaking story about his dad goes viral
Sony Pictures/Marvel StudiosSpider-Man 2 star Alfred Molina has left fans emotional after sharing a heartbreaking story about his father’s attitude towards his acting career.
While Molina is widely known for his villainous performance as Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2, the actor took a moment to be vulnerable with the world by sharing a deeply personal story about his difficult relationship with his dad.
During a career retrospective interview with Vanity Fair, the actor explained how his father never understood why he chose to pursue acting at the start of his career since he made such little money.
“My father got me a job as a waiter in the restaurant where he was working. If I say so myself, I was a good waiter, to the point where the management offered me the chance to do a two-week management training course. I turned it down because I had got an acting job,” Molina recalled.
“So, my father says, ‘What is this acting job, how much are they paying you? I said, ‘Well, I am getting union. You know, unions get £15 a week.’ He said, ‘£15? How much do you make here?’ I said, ‘About £30-35.’ My father said, ‘Wait a minute. You are making £30, £35 here, then you go to do making £15.’ I said yeah.
“And he looked at me and that look on his face that you reserve for the mad and the lost. He just stared at me like he didn’t recognize me. And the only thing I could say to him was: ‘This is what I love, dad.’ And he never quite got it. I did disappoint my dad. Yeah. I think if my dad had lived a little longer, I think he hopefully would’ve realized that I hadn’t wasted my time.”
Molina went on to reveal that, after his father’s death in 1999, his stepmother tried to give a trunk full of newspaper clippings, magazine cutouts, and fan letters all about the actor that his father kept over the years, but never spoke about.
Molina was overwhelmed by his seemingly silent support, but he refused to take the collection. Years later, his father’s in-person indifference to his career is the real reason why he always tries to “tell [his] kids how brilliant they are.”
Alfred Molina says Spider-Man 2 role “changed his life”
Despite his father’s disapproval, Molina seems to be happy with his career choice. In the same interview, he reflected on the most fun role he got to play over the years: Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2.
When talking about reprising the role for Spider-Man: No Way Home, Molina said: “I was delighted, obviously. Apart from the fact that it’s great fun to play, playing that part, in all honesty, completely changed my life. I mean, it did. It just took everything not just to a different level, but also to a whole other group of cinema fans.
“There’s a fan group that loved all the movies like Chocolat and Enchanted April and Frida and all those movies, and now suddenly the children of those people are kind of digging Fred Molina ’cause he’s playing Doc Ock.'”
No Way Home brought the character out of retirement thanks to Peter accidentally causing his universe to blend with Tobey Macguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man universes.
Though there’s no telling if Molina will ever return to the character in any upcoming Marvel movies, fans can rest easy knowing how much the role meant to the actor.
If you want more Spider-Man news, check out everything we know about Spider-Man 4 and other upcoming movies in May.