‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Star Wyatt Russell Had No Idea What His Famous Parents Did for a Living
Wyatt Russell comes from a very famous family! Before playing John Walker in the second Marvel Cinematic Universe series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Russell’s name was already well-known in Hollywood, thanks to his superstar parents and A-list siblings.
Though Russell’s family has part of the entertainment industry for years, he hasn’t always been aware of their immense fame. In fact, as a child, the actor had no clue what his parents did for a living, which comes as a bit of a shock.
Who are Wyatt Russell’s parents?
Some fans know Russell for his roles in films such as 22 Jump Street, Ingrid Goes West, and Shimmer Lake. But those who’ve been following his career since the beginning know him best as the son of Hollywood legends Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
The couple first met in the 1960s but didn’t start dating until they worked on their 1984 film Swing Shift. Two years later, Hawn and Russell welcomed Wyatt, who is their only child together.
Though the actors never married, they have been living happily together for nearly 40 years. In addition to being one of Hollywood’s most beloved celebrity couples, Hawn and Russell are also doting parents, not only to Wyatt, but to their other three children — Oliver Hudson, Kate Hudson, and Boston Russell — who are also actors.
Wyatt Russell didn’t know what his parents did for a living for the first few years of his life
Though Hawn and Russell have been household names for decades, it turns out that their son didn’t know what they did for work until he was a preteen.
While speaking with the National Hockey League in 2012, Wyatt touched upon his Hollywood upbringing, sharing that he had no clue what his parents did for a living for the first few years of his life because they never brought their work home with them.
“I walked in the room and it was Leslie Mann with Judd Apatow. It was intimidating,” he said while explaining his experience shooting a scene for the 2012 comedy This Is 40. “He said just talk about hockey. Do you know anything about hockey? He didn’t know that’s what I did. You could see there was a shift between their work and home life. That’s the way I was raised. My parents are actors and never brought work home. I didn’t even know what they did until I was about 10 years old. We never talked about it.”
Wyatt Russell always wanted to make his own way in Hollywood
Eventually, Russell found out what his parents did for a living and has been following in their footsteps these last few years.
But despite being Hollywood royalty, the actor has never relied on his family’s fame to get a leg up in the industry.
Instead, he embraced the learning curve.
“In anything — journalism, acting, being a lawyer, being a plumber — if you think the new job doesn’t give you some form of a learning curve, then you’ve got an issue,” the retired hockey player told the New York Post in 2018. “Because there’s something new that happens every time. Having parents or people who were in the industry before you does not substitute for learning on the job.”
He continued, “How people react to you is not how people react to your parents. They’re going to react to you in a certain way and you have to learn how to utilize that and make it all work. So [my family background] helped, of course, because my parents are good people — but it didn’t help me to think about what they would have done. They’re not in my shoes and I’m not in theirs.”
