Luke Murray, son of actor Bill Murray, has been hired as a graduate assistant for the University of Arizona men’s basketball staff. “For me, working at Arizona, particularly under Coach Miller, is a dream opportunity,” said Luke, “and I eagerly await the start of the 2009-10 season.”
What’s relevant about this to Kidglue is that Luke is happily avoiding the trap of following in his famous actor father’s footsteps. While obviously not always the kiss of death to a young hopeful’s career — see Angelina Jolie — the pressure to continue the lineage has got to be tremendous. Sometimes these actors film one movie then disappear for years, only to one day show up on some reality show, and no one wants that.
Moreover, being the child of a comedian must bring its own particular stress: “Hey, do something funny!” As parents, we all want what’s best for our kids, but we must balance their own desires against that. I’d wager that a lot of young adults go through a phase where it feels like acting is a viable career option, and probably a good percentage of the parents of those kids try to dissuade them from that choice; there are a lot of non-working actors out there looking for their big break. Who knows how long Bill Murray struggled before making it big?
So let’s try to remember not to lean on our budding adults too hard as they try to figure out for themselves what they’d like to try as a career. There’s no point in making them feel bad if they decide not to do what you want, and they’ll let you know themselves if they’re interested.
