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Red carpet interviews are usually pretty forgettable. You might get a quick soundbite, a smile, and then it’s on to the next. But when actor Joshua Jackson was stopped on the carpet at a recent New York City screening and asked to share the best advice his dad ever gave him, something unexpected happened, and it was pretty awkward. Joshua laughed after the interviewer asked her question about parenting, then told her, with total candor, an answer that turned the whole mood awkward. Instead of a nothing interview, this turned into one of the most genuinely moving answers anyone has given on a red carpet in recent memory.
There’s something so authentic about a celebrity just letting it all hang out on the red carpet, metaphorically speaking, of course.
While attending the New York City gala screening of an esteemed designer’s new documentary, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, a slew of celebrities there to support the fashion legend were asked the same thought-provoking question on the red carpet.
Shown in this viral Instagram video, the interviewer asked guests attending the screening to share the best piece of advice their father gave them. When reading the caption of the video, it seems like a fitting question because Bruno was inspired by his own father’s message to “be a good man.”
Viewers immediately took notice of Joshua’s answer. After being asked the question, you can’t help but notice that Joshua is immediately thinking really hard to try and come up with a fitting answer but instead a big laugh comes out. Cut to a few seconds later and he tells the interviewer that his father “abandoned [his] family” accompanied with a fully audible chuckle, which probably came out due to the sheer awkwardness of the situation.
Despite not having his dad in his life, Joshua was able to share some heartfelt advice of his own.
Are you someone who tends to get what they call secondhand embarrassment quite easily? If so, that short interview that Joshua Jackson gave on the red carpet may be too much for you!
Although other celebs interviewed in the video were able to give some cute answers, Joshua was actually able to turn things around after he dropped that collossal truth bomb when he shared, “The best piece of advice my father accidentally gave me in his absence is to be a good and present father.” Awww. That’s actually very sweet.
People in the comments section of the issaclikes_ Instagram video were pretty taken with what the Dawson’s Creek actor shared. Someone commented, “Damn Joshua but I love what he shared in the end.” He totally took a negative situation and turned into a positive with his response.
The comment section was popping off on X as well. One person pointed out how the interviewer was probably absolutely mortified for bringing something like this up to someone in Joshua’s situation. “You can tell the reporter was absolutely horrified by the way Jackson reaches out and pats his shoulder,” the commenter wrote.
Another individual in the comment section on X noted that because we’re living in this digital age, it really doesn’t hurt to do some research beforehand. “Why are these interviewers the absolute worst when it comes to researching,” the person wrote.
That’s actually a completely fair point.
Over the years, Joshua has been fairly open about his family life growing up.
Joshua has routinely had open and vulnerable conversations throughout his career, even when it comes to tough topics, like growing up without a real father figure in his life.
In 2021, he shared with Mr Porter that he was born in Vancouver, Canada, but raised in Topanga, California, until he was 8 years old. In 2001, which was during his Dawson’s Creek days when he was making decent money through acting, he was able to buy his childhood home in Topanga.
He commented on how being able to live with his family in that home — he has since divorced his wife, Jodie Turner-Smith, but they do share daughter, Juno — was healing for him. “My father unfortunately was not a good father or a husband and exited the scene, but that house in Topanga was where everything felt simple, so it was a very healing thing for me to do,” he shared.
Sadly, the actor lost his home in the California fires in early 2025, but he’s spoken out about how he’s excited to rebuild the home he loves so much for him and his daughter.
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