There’s no doubt that people who have famous parents have a hard time making their own way into the world. Amid the many problems that come with being the child of a celebrity, includes the fact many people will try and take advantage of you to try and gain access to their parents.
Moreover, many celebrity children have explained how difficult it is to escape their parents’ shadows. Even if you choose a completely different career path, people will accuse you of having a massively unfair advantage.
Denzel Washington‘s son, John David Washington, 36, has struggled with being in the spotlight as well. Fans of the actor know that Denzel and Pauletta have been married for 37 years and have four kids. It’s been a tough challenge for them to take care of their kids and balance fame at the same time.
During a new conversation with Mr. Porter, Washington reflected on his father’s influence on his decisions to become an actor. Before he was 10-years-old, Washington said he already knew he wanted to be an actor because he would look at his dad on the TV screen and marvel at the possibilities.
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CDj5TOLlezc/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading[/embed]As the years went by, however, John says he feared being judged by other people in the industry. He explained how in many ways, being related to Denzel was actually a disadvantage, rather than an advantage.
John David said to Mr. Porter that he would frequently lie about the identity of his father. John David would claim his father was in prison or a construction worker, just to establish a sense of normalcy. He says there was no way people would look at him seriously if they knew his father’s real identity.
“They would always judge me,” the actor noted, so he chose to hide that part of himself. Following his graduation from Morehouse College, Washington was signed to the St. Louis Rams, but his stint in the NFL didn’t last long.
Since moving on from his career in the athletic world, John has starred in films like Tenet, Ballers, and BlacKkKlansman.