BAFTA award winner Alfred Molina opened up about failing to live up to his father’s expectations in a heartbreaking clip.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, actor Alfred, 70, broke down as he said he ‘disappointed his father’ by pursuing an acting career and he sadly died before he was successful.
Alfred said that his father wanted him to become a waiter and while he did do that for a bit, he took a lesser paid acting job because it is ‘what he loved’.
But he said his couldn’t understand it and looked at him like he was ‘lost’
Alfred had a hugely successful West End career and made his film debut as Satipo in Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, going onto receive two BAFTA Award nominations for his roles as Diego Rivera in Frida alongside Salma Hayek in 2002.
Welling up, Alfred said: ‘I think if my dad had lived a little longer I think he hopefully would have realised that I hadn’t wasted my time.’
Heartbreaking moment BAFTA winner Alfred Molina got emotional as he claimed he ‘disappointed his father’ by pursuing an acting career and wished he had lived longer to see he didn’t ‘waste his time’
Alfred had a hugely successful West End career and made his film debut as Satipo in Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, going onto receive two BAFTA Award nominations for his roles as Diego Rivera in Frida alongside Salma Hayek in 2002, (pictured)
In the two-minute-long video, Alfred recalled a heartbreaking conversation with his late father.
He said: ‘My dad got me a job as a waiter, in the restaurant where he was working and if I say so myself, I was a good waiter.
‘[This was] to the point where management offered me the chance to do a two-week management training course and I turned it down because I’ve got an acting job.
‘So my father said: “This acting job, how much are they paying you?” I said I’m getting union, unions get paid £15 a week’.
His appalled father remarked: ‘”15? How much do you make in here?” to which the budding actor said: “About 30, 35’.
“‘Wait a minute, you’re making 30, 35 here then you go to do 15?” and I said “Yeah” and he looked at me and he had that look on his face that you reserve for the mad and the lost.
‘He just stared at me like he didn’t recognise me. And the only thing I could say to him was “This is what I love dad” and he never quite got it’.
In a tragic heartfelt moment the Frida star confessed: ‘I did disappoint my dad, yeah’ before visibly tearing up in front of the camera.
The Frida star confessed: ‘I did disappoint my dad, yeah’ before visibly tearing up in front of the camera
‘I think if my dad had lived a little longer I think he hopefully would have realised that I hadn’t wasted my time’.
Viewers were quick to write sweet things about Alfred’s poignant moment on social media and aimed to reassure him about his father.
They wrote: ‘If my dad had lived a little longer” is a painful thought’.
‘What a wonderful man Alfred Molina is’.
‘He never disappointed his dad, him saving all the articles and letters shows he was proud of his son just probably had trouble with telling him that’.
‘No matter how old we get, we’re all kids hoping we can make the ones we love proud. I’m sorry he’s gone through this’.
‘I don’t think the dad was disappointed, just didn’t understand’.
‘Oh my goodness! If parents only realized how much power they hold over their children’s soul & happiness’.
‘I appreciate his vulnerability and being willing to show his feelings. emotional intelligence, vulnerability, humanity…so attractive’.
Viewers were quick to write sweet things about Alfred’s poignant moment on social media and aimed to reassure him about his father
Alfred at the Uncle Vanya Broadway Revival Opening Night at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York on 24 Apr
