Growing up with an Oscar-winning father wasn’t always easy for Mason Gooding.
During a July 28 appearance on Dylan Sprouse and Brenden Columbus’ “Wildmen” podcast, the 29-year-old “Scream 7” star reflected on what it was like being raised by Cuba Gooding Jr., revealing that he often struggled to understand the difference between the version of his father the public saw and the one he experienced at home.
“My father was an actor and grandfather was a singer,” Mason said, referring to Cuba Gooding Jr. and the late Cuba Gooding Sr. Mason said he developed “a stronger relationship and understanding” of who they were publicly than privately because so much of their lives unfolded in the spotlight.
As he looked back on his childhood, Mason explained that his perspective has evolved now that he’s built an acting career of his own.
Mason Says His Dad Tried to ‘Speed-Parent’
Per the podcast interview, Mason said his father’s acting career often kept him away from home for weeks or even months at a time. When Cuba returned, he would try to fit parenting, advice and discipline into a short visit, something Mason now refers to as “speed-parenting.”
“He’d come in for a week,” Mason recalled, explaining that those visits often became a crash course in catching up on everything happening in his children’s lives.
At the time, however, he didn’t understand why the father he saw at home seemed different from the one audiences watched on television.
“You’re so positive and charismatic in these interviews, and then you come home and it’s a different guy,” Mason recalled thinking.
Mason was reportedly born just weeks before the release of “Jerry Maguire,” the film that earned Cuba an Academy Award, per Entertainment Weekly. Looking back as an adult, Mason said he now realizes one of the biggest challenges for actors is spending months away from their families and missing important milestones. He believes his father’s parenting style was driven by a desire to make up for lost time whenever he returned home.
The Experience Changed How Mason Views Parenting
Mason said those experiences have also shaped the advice he now gives to fellow actors who are raising children.
According to Entertainment Weekly, actor-parents have approached him asking what they can do to avoid making similar mistakes with their own families. Mason said his response is always to remember that children consume their parents’ public personas just as audiences do.
Rather than encouraging actors to be someone they’re not, he believes they should simply recognize that the difference between their public image and private behavior can influence how their children understand them and their relationship over time.
Despite reflecting on the challenges of growing up with a famous father, Mason also said becoming an actor himself has given him a greater appreciation for Cuba’s perspective. According to People, Cuba initially hoped his children would wait until they were older before pursuing acting, wanting them to gain more life experience first. But as Mason’s career took off with projects including “Booksmart,” “Love, Victor,” the recent “Scream” films and “Heart Eyes,” Cuba publicly embraced his son’s success. During a 2018 People Now interview, he proudly shared that Mason had landed a role on HBO’s “Ballers” alongside Dwayne Johnson while also starring in an independent film.
Looking back today, Mason said understanding the gap between a parent’s public and private identity has become one of the biggest lessons he carries with him.
“It’s just understanding that that dissonance between who I get at home and who you are on camera will actually be a factor in how I parse out our relationship moving forward.”
