Yes, Jack Quaid Loves When Harry Met Sally as Much as You Do
The one thing all romantic comedies have in common? They celebrate the two things everyone wants in life—rom and com, of course. To honor that, we’re devoting a whole week to the genre. More on the rom-coms we love, past and present, here.
Jack Quaid was born to rom-com royalty (his parents are Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid) and already has one under his belt: Plus One, a charming story of two best friends who agree to be each other’s dates during wedding season and, well, you can guess what happens. But at the moment he’s shooting the second season of Amazon’s The Boys, which is a decidedly darker comic book story that finds his character, Hughie Campbell, living in the aftermath of a trauma that leads him to join a group of vigilantes fighting against superheroes.
He can’t give much away but says, “You will see things you’ve never seen on TV before. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but we’re definitely going to surprise people. We get a lot deeper with the characters. I think people are going to be really excited.”
The self-professed nerd will also voice a character in the animated series Star Trek: Lower Deck for CBS: All Access and Harvey Girls Forever! on Netflix, in which he plays Richie Rich. “I’m such a nerd for cartoons, and the fact that I got to be in a few these past couple of years has just been my dream come true. Something about them warms my soul. I don’t know how to describe it.”
Quaid was also totally game to answer some of our Inappropriate Questions, Glamour’s column that asks all the cheeky, slightly off-kilter stuff best saved for a second (or better yet, third) date. Naturally, we had to ask him if he had a favorite rom-com starring his mom...
Glamour: Which character that you’ve played do you feel like is the most like you in relationships?
Jack Quaid: I would say I’m probably the most like Hughie [Campbell, his character on The Boys]. I think I have a little bit more confidence than him, but how he reacts to things throughout the show…I think that’s the exact same way that I would. Though he actually might be a little braver than me, if I’m thinking about it. I have more confidence than him, but less courage.
What are your favorite rom-coms?
When Harry Met Sally— I mean, I know it’s in the family. But that’s the one I watched when I was doing Plus One because the banter that my mom has with Billy Crystal is just…it was such a thing I was trying to get down in terms of the rhythm of that. I think that’s a really important staple [of rom-coms]: having a good back-and-forth with your scene partner. Not that I took everything from that, but that’s a good jumping-off point when I started the process. It’s just a classic. Even if [my mom] wasn’t in it, I would love it.
Is there a dating or relationship rule that you think is B.S.?
I’ve been in a relationship for three years, so I’ve been out of the game for a bit. But if anyone was like, “Should I call her?” I’d be like, “Just call her, man.” If there was a connection, then the other person is probably waiting for you to text or call. We live in a much faster world than we used to, so I think that taboo is kind of done. I mean, probably don’t text immediately, but you can do it the next day. I don’t think that would throw me. I think if I had a really good time with someone and they texted me the next day, I’d be like, Great, that’s awesome. I don’t think we have to go by a calendar when it comes to texting. As long as you’re not being creepy about it, go for it.
You have a full day to binge-watch whatever you want: What do you pick?
I’ve been having some days off set lately, so I can tell you. I binged the latest season of Mindhunter basically within a day. I’m a true-crime nerd. I love that stuff. I just think that show strikes the right balance of being accurate historically, but also taking liberties and making sure that it’s a show about the characters. I’ve been through Gravity Falls again when I had a day off earlier this season.
Also, I don’t know why I do this because most of them are not great, but I watch a lot of UFO documentaries just to, I don’t know, believe in something. I go on Netflix, and there are so many that are made. What I always find fascinating about them is that it could be a documentary that makes you think about stuff or just present evidence to you or something. But they all have to be very like, “Ooh, aliens,” and they use green font and weird graphics to get into the kind of like X-Files aesthetic of it, and it’s like, we don’t need to do this. I will believe you more if you don’t get into the “ooh, so scary and creepy!” science fiction aspects of it.
Also, around Christmas my girlfriend and I get way too into these Hallmark movies. You have to. They all have the same tropes, and they’re a great watch. I’m never heartwarmed or anything. It’s more so just like, “Oh, another movie about a cottage. Interesting.” They always go to this one outdoor market that I think is used in 50 of them. We’ve developed a bit of a drinking game to it. It’s a good time.
Speaking of drinking, what’s your favorite hangover cure?
This is going to sound so lame, but I think a good one is to buy a Nalgene bottle and fill it up with water. Drink the entire thing before you go to bed. It’s simple, but it just does the job. I try to go for a jog the next day. It sucks, and I’m hungover, but I sweat everything out and it’s fine.
Screw, marry, kill: weed, pizza, or a cocktail.
You have to marry pizza. It just seems stable and warm. Screw the cocktail because I like cocktails. Cocktails are great, but if you marry cocktails that can get dangerous. I kill weed only because when I was in college, I had the worst weed experience in my life that was really just me getting too high for the first time. I had a panic attack that lasted for about a week, I would say, because it was the first time I had ever experienced that. It was just like, No, I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know if my body works well with this, so kill weed. That’s an easy one.
You stop by a convenience store on your way to a house party. What are you buying?
There was a time in my 20s where I did this thing with miniature airplane liquors. There was a couple of times where my friends threw these costume parties, and I always went as a wizard. This is very specific. I had this cloak, and then underneath the cloak I had a fishing vest that hid various miniatures of alcohol. What I would do is I would distract people with one hand. And with the other hand, I’d reach into the cloak, unbeknownst to people, and then I would memorize this pocket held with miniatures. So I’d be like, “Expecto Patrón” and then immediately pull out a little Patrón bottle. People, for a second, believed in magic. I don’t do that anymore, but party wizard lives on for sure.
Who was your first celebrity crush?
It’s from when I was a baby—I remember my parents told me that I apparently had a crush on Vanna White from Wheel of Fortune. I think maybe I met her and got really shy.
What’s your type?
Smarter than me. Not that I’m highly intelligent and someone has to best me. No, I’m a dumbass, and I just need somebody to help me out with stuff. Someone who’s in the arts—my girlfriend is a comedian at the Groundlings, and it’s cool to have something in common to talk about. She does sketch comedy. I do sketch comedy. I’ve never dated someone who wasn’t in some way involved in the arts. I guess that’s kind of my type: smarter than me and artistic.
What’s the worst thing you’ve done on a date?
When I was in high school, I took a girl to the movies and didn’t specify if it was a date or not. To me it was a date, but I think to her it was just the two of us going as friends. About halfway through the movie, I put my arm around her, but she didn’t really snuggle into it that much. So I was like, Okay. Then my arm was just there, and I was too afraid to move it back. I was propping my own arm up on the chair, pool of sweat slowly forming on my left armpit, and he was up there for a while. I just didn’t know what to do with my arm. It was so unbelievably awkward. I finally went to the bathroom and took my arm away and never put it back up there. I never had more sweat coming out of just one armpit I think, ever.
You’re alone in bed, about to fall asleep: What are you thinking about?
Lately it's just what I have to do the next day. But I’m trying to meditate into sleep a little bit more lately, or I just put on a podcast and that kind of does the thinking for me and then I can slowly drift off.
What’s the most romantic thing you've ever done?
I just went on an amazing vacation with Liz, my girlfriend, a year ago right before I started season one of The Boys. We went to Mexico, and I had never done vacation in another country with a significant other. It was really great and romantic. We had a week and just laid on the beach and sipped margaritas and swam. It was awesome. I think the entire trip as a whole was superromantic, and it felt very adult for the first time. It was adult in the sense of like, Oh, we actually planned a trip together and executed it and figured out and everything went amazing.
Abby Gardner is a contributor at Glamour.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
