Donald Faison’s children gave him the ultimate compliment after they watched his new show, Extended Family.
“My kids for the first time ever looked at me and [they were] like, ‘Dad, you’re such a good actor.’ Both of them,” Faison, 49, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting the new series. “Both my youngest, my 8, and my 10-year-old. I was like, ‘Really?’ [They said], ‘You’re my favorite actor around right now. You’re my favorite actor.’”
Faison confessed that he asked his youngest children, son Rocco, 10, and daughter Wilder, 8, whom he shares with wife CaCee Cobb, if he was a “better” actor than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. And they replied, “Way better than The Rock.’”
After receiving praise from his kids, Faison shared he felt “real good” especially since Extended Family was one of the few projects of his they’ve seen.
“They’ve never seen Scrubs,” he told Us. “My daughter recently watched Clueless, but I don’t think she remembers it. If we were to put it on again, she’d be like, I don’t know. And they’ve seen Remember The Titans.”
Donald Faison.
In addition to Rocco and Wilder, Faison is also the father of son Kobe, 22, and twins Dade and Kaya, both 24, whom he welcomed with late ex-wife Lisa Askey. He also shares son Sean, 26, with ex Audrey Ince.
While Faison is happy to have his children’s approval for Extended Family, the best part of working on the comedy was getting to work alongside Jon Cryer. The sitcom follows Cryer’s character, Jim, as he and ex-wife Julia (played by Abigail Spencer) navigate coparenting as his ex moves on with her new fiancé, Trey, portrayed by Faison.
“Working with Jon Cryer has been a dream of mine actually,” he gushed about his costar. “And certain things in Hollywood, you don’t expect to happen.”
Faison shared he was a big fan of Cryer, 58, and Pretty In Pink was one of Faison’s favorite movies. He confessed that Cryer’s character in the ’80s romcom was an inspiration for him as a teenager.
“I wanted to be Ducky. If you look at any photos of me in high school, I dressed just like Ducky and Dwayne Wayne from a different world,” he teased. “So you combine those two, you combine Jon Cryer and Kadeem Hardison. You got Donald Faison in high school.”
Faison revealed that when he first met Cryer on set, he was starstruck after the actor approached him.
“He came up to me and was like, I love your work,” he shared while reenacting his fangirl reaction. “But now I try every way I possibly can to get a laugh from him because he’s my work buddy.”
Extended Family airs on NBC on Tuesdays at 8:30 pm ET and is available to stream on Peacock the next day.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
