James Marsden Calls Fatherhood ‘The One Thing I’m Most Proud Of’
By Movieguide® Contributor
James Marsden’s favorite holiday tradition? Spending time with family.
“I’ve traveled so much and it’s always great and I love what I do and get to move around quite a bit, but there’s something about just feeling like you’re home and doing those Christmas traditions that we do with my kids, to get all my kids together and everybody and just being home,” the actor shared. “I know it sounds like the most obvious thing, but boy.”
Marsden shares Jack, 22, and Mary, 18, with ex-wife Lisa Linde, and William, 11, with ex-girlfriend Rose Costa.
In a 2018 interview, Marsden called fatherhood “the one thing I’m most proud of.”
“It is the most fulfilling. I’m always self-deprecating, but I don’t have a problem saying that I am a great dad,” he continued.
Part of being a great dad is letting his kids see how he handles his mistakes.
“It takes seeing the hero mess up or fail at something to become a man,” he said. “That, to me, has become more important than being this superstar, movie star, or an actor. It’s integrity and substance of character — it’s like when [stuf] happens to you in hard times, who do you become because of that? Your kids look at you and that’s how they define who and what they’re supposed to be.”
Despite his high-profile career in Hollywood, the SONIC THE HEDGEHOG star says his kids are unimpressed with celebrity.
“My kids have always been in the best way, kind of wonderfully underwhelmed with what I do,” he said. “They think it’s cool and they’re proud of me, but…I’m Dad. They like me to be Dad.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Marsden’s thoughts on family:
Actor James Marsden recently starred in the sequel to the video game movie, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, and brought his three kids to the premiere.
Marsden attended the Los Angeles release with his three children, Jack, 21, Mary James, 16 and William, 9.
“My challenge [right now] is to take a break for a second and actually pump the brakes,” he toldPEOPLE at the red carpet event.
“It’s great to have all this work and Covid shut down everything for a good year and a half. But then when it came back, it came storming back, which was awesome and I’m so grateful to be working, but right now it’s like, I’m having to make sure I stop occasionally to take a breath, reintroduce myself to my children and live some life,” he added.
Marsden said that he is thankful for the growth he sees in his relationship with his family.
“Everything grows. Your relationship with your family grows, your objectivity about and your enthusiasm and curiosity for new projects grows, your appetite to create grows and sometimes you can just get spread too thin,” he said. “I never want to sound like I’m ungrateful for the work, I’m not, but if you sometimes just take a breath, it allows you to reevaluate everything, it makes you excited to go to work again and then you create memories outside of the set.”
