John Candy's Son Admits He Was 'Scared' to Become an Actor Like His Dad

Chris Candy loved and admired his dad, John Candy — but that didn’t mean he wanted to follow his dad’s acting footsteps, too.

Chris, 40, opened up about his dad in the Nov. 25 episode of Nostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia. Chris was an executive producer of John Candy: I Like Me, the new documentary about his dad’s life. John, who starred in beloved films like Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Uncle Buck, died in 1994 at the age of 43. Chris was 8.

Asked if his dad would have encouraged him to go into show business, Chris admitted, “I don't know. I think he would be totally proud with where I'm at now on it because I figured out my own approach to it.”

Chris explained, “I really was scared to become an actor or get into entertainment because I didn't want to be really related to that career. As I was growing up, I really wanted to find my own way.”

But Chris’ love of performance shone through, even if he tried to ignore it. “It wasn't until I was in my early 20s I realized that I really loved doing plays in grade school and high school, and I was playing music, and was just genuinely, like, optimistically creative. And that's when I wanted to attempt to do it professionally,” he said.

He joked that he was “naive,” however, and thought it would be “super easy” to get into acting. “But once I realized the challenges that came with it, I got really into it and took some great classes and then slowly but surely started getting some fun work under my belt,” he said.

Chris also ended up performing comedy at the Second City theater in Los Angeles. His dad, John, had been a member of the original Second City in Toronto beginning in 1972, and had starred on the theater’s TV show SCTV. 

But Chris originally didn’t want to go to Second City because of the connection with his dad, and instead was “dancing around it” for years, doing improv at other theaters. “I wanted to, again, figure it out my own way,” he said. “And it was the best, because I think I needed to learn my own voice, and by the time I got to Second City, I had all these different approaches to it,” he said. “And now I feel like I've got a cool voice within the improv world that's uniquely my own.”

Chris' credits include TV series like Private Eyes and Adulthood. He's also a writer.

Sibilia also asked Chris if he realized how big a star his dad was when he was growing up. “I knew from an early age because you'd go to these movie sets, and I'd be on the set of Uncle Buck or Who's Harry Crumb, and you would see he was the center of attention,” he said.

But his parents “put a lot of effort” into making sure Chris and his sister Jen didn’t become obsessed with stardom. “That was because of their upbringing, too. My mom and dad more or less grew up lower to middle class in Canada, and so that was the way they parented,” he said.

John’s attitude about his films was “Yeah, this is my job, this is what I do,” and Chris said he “never let it get to his head.”

“He was never so obsessed with the culture around Hollywood that he needed to have that be his life,” Chris said. Still, he added with a laugh, “With that being said, we grew up in a really nice house. We had a really kind of, like, a Hollywood upbringing in that regards.”

John Candy: I Like Me is streaming now on Prime Video.