Alfred Molina Says He Disappointed His Father with Acting Career

Alfred Molina and his late father never quite saw eye to eye on his career choice.

Speaking to Vanity Fair in a YouTube interview published on Monday, April 29, the Spider-Man: No Way Home star, 70, became emotional while discussing how he disappointed his father by becoming an actor.  

“When I was very young, my dad got me a job as a waiter in the restaurant where he was working. If I say so myself, I was a good waiter to the point where the management offered me the chance to do a two-week management training course,” Molina explained.

“I turned it down because I got an acting job. My father says, ‘This acting job, how much are they paying you?’ I said, ‘I’m getting union wage, so 15 pounds a week.’ ”

His father, Esteban Molina, could not understand why his son would willingly choose to go from making about £35 ($43.85) a week to half that amount. 

“Wait a minute. You’re making £30 or £35 here. Then you go to making £15?” Molina recalled his father saying. 

The London-born actor continued, “I said, ‘Yeah.’ He looked at me and he had the look on his face that you reserve for the mad and the lost.” 

“He stared at me like he didn’t recognize me. The only thing I could say to him was, ‘This is what I love, Dad.’ He never quite got it. I did disappoint my dad. Yeah. If my dad had lived a little longer, he’d hopefully would have realized I hadn’t wasted my time.”

As he shared his memories, Molina paused to compose himself. 

According to him, he and his father “never really talked about my work.”

When his dad died in 1999, he traveled to Spain for the funeral and was surprised by what he had found. 

“I was with his widow and she drags out this suitcase and it’s full of clippings and photos and bits from magazines and letters from people that wrote to him saying they saw me. He kept all this stuff, but he never talked about it,” Molina recalled.

Since then, he has gone on to star in notable films such as Chocolat, The Da Vinci Code and Frida. Molina also played the villain Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

In a November 2016 interview with The Guardian, Molina said he and his father were “cordial but not very close, and I never quite reconciled with him before he died in 1999, which I regret.”

“I have nothing but respect for him, because he worked like a Trojan all his life,” Molina continued. “He’d fought in the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War and then worked hard as a waiter.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Before concluding with Vanity Fair, Molina stated that he always supports his children. 

“I’ve always tried with my kids,” he said. “All you can do is tell them how brilliant you are. That’s all you need to do.”

His next film, Harold and the Purple Crayon, costars Zachary Levi and arrives in theaters on Aug. 2.