Jack Quaid at SXSW 2017
Michael Buckner
For years, Jack Quaid, the progeny of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, has dreamed of attending SXSW. “I’ve been to Austin countless times,” notes the 24-year-old, who has “tons of family” in the offbeat Texas town. “But I made a deal with myself that I wouldn’t come [to the festival] unless I had something here.” The project that made his dream come true: his role as the “unrequited” love interest of one of the main characters in “Tragedy Girls,” a slasher comedy for the social media set, which also happens to star Josh Hutcherson, Quaid’s costar in “The Hunger Games.” “It was a ‘Hunger Games’ reunion but we never actually saw each other,” he laments.
PROVENANCE: Los Angeles. “Growing up, you’re able to at least see the culture projected out there, like the Hollywood nonsense, and you’re able to see it for what it is — nonsense. I had great parents. They really kept me away from that thing, that Hollywood-ness.”
GOING HOLLYWOOD: “I did just move to Hollywood, so I guess I’m very Hollywood now. I’m on my own for the first time,” says Quaid, who previously lived with a roommate in Santa Monica.
BIG BREAK: “I knew based off of the excitement around the book it was going to be a big thing,” says Quaid of landing his first role — Marvel in “The Hunger Games” — while studying theater at New York University. “I had no idea to the extent because I’m a very minor character. There were people with fan sites of me and the movie hadn’t come out yet, and I was like, ‘Guys, I barely do anything, calm down,’” says Quaid, who also appeared in “Vinyl,” an HBO series directed by Martin Scorsese.
GETTING LAUGHS: “I always had the performing bug. I would do magic shows for family growing up. Terrible magic tricks. Like, ‘You see this pencil? Now it’s gone,’” laughs Quaid, who recalls playing Bottom in a middle school production of “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” “I got my first laugh onstage, and I was like, ‘Now I want to do this forever.’”
MAMA’S BOY: “Nobody knows you better than your mom, so it was absolutely perfect,” Quaid says of acting in his mom’s directorial debut, “Ithaca,” a war melodrama released last year. “Our shorthand is incredible. I tried to somehow keep it professional,” he says, adding of his famous parents, “They’ve always been super supportive. They know how hard it can be, but once they saw I was passionate about it, they never wanted to restrict that.”
LOCAL HANGOUTS: “Barton Springs Pool is incredible. I know this is cheesy, but there’s Hulu Hut by the lake. And of course I love Matt’s El Rancho. Anything with chili con queso, I’ll be there.”
UP NEXT: If his role in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming star-packed action comedy, “Logan Lucky,” fails to draw buzz, he has a backup plan: “I’m working on a one-man show about a wizard who parties. It’s just like a thing I’ve done at parties that I’ve somehow managed to turn into a 45-minute comedy show. So we’re gonna see if it works,” said Quaid, who also writes and performs in Sasquatch Sketch Comedy.
