Cuba Gooding Jr.’s youngest son, Mason Gooding, said his famous father “speed-parented” him as a child because of his busy career.
“My father was an actor and grandfather [Cuba Gooding Sr.] was a singer,” the “Heart Eyes” star said on the “Wildmen” podcast Tuesday.
“I have probably a stronger relationship and understanding based on who they were publicly than who they were privately. It wasn’t until I was older that they could — not my grandfather [who died in April 2017], God rest his soul — but like my dad would have been able to articulate like a lot of the lessons I learned as a kid,” he added.
“‘Cause when you’re a parent who’s an actor and you’re gone for so long, then you come back, you try to … the word would be speed-parent … ’cause you come in for a week, and you’re like, ‘Why is that broken? Why are you failing school? Why are you fighting?’”
Mason, now 29, said he was unsure how to approach the “Jerry Maguire” star — who won an Oscar for best supporting actor months after the “Scream VI” star was born.
“At the time, I didn’t really understand that relationship ’cause I was like, ‘You’re so positive and charismatic in these interviews, and then you come home and it’s a different guy,’ and I didn’t get that correlation or lack thereof,” Mason recalled.
The “Fall” star said there are people who “come up to me on set and ask a very polite version of ‘How do I not f–kup my child?’”
He said his answer is to “recognize … their public persona as being capable of being consumed by their child the same way an audience does.”
“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,” Mason shared.
Page Six has reached out to Cuba for comment but did not immediately hear back.
The “Men of Honor” star, 58, shares sons Spencer, 32, and Mason and daughter Piper, 21, with his ex-wife, Sara Kapfer.
Over the course of his career, Cuba has been the subject of several scandalous headlines.
In 2022, the “Radio” star pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to one count of forcible touching for kissing a waitress without consent in 2018.
He completed six months of alcohol and behavioral counseling, which allowed his plea to be reduced to a harassment violation with no jail time or criminal record.
In June 2023, Cuba settled a lawsuit with a woman who accused the actor of raping her twice in a New York City hotel room in 2013.
Cuba has also been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women — claims he has vehemently denied.
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