{"id":193673,"date":"2025-09-17T22:30:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/london-calling-josh-duhamel-talks-fatherhood-and-parenting-guilt\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T22:30:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:30:53","slug":"london-calling-josh-duhamel-talks-fatherhood-and-parenting-guilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/17\/london-calling-josh-duhamel-talks-fatherhood-and-parenting-guilt\/","title":{"rendered":"London Calling: Josh Duhamel Talks Fatherhood and Parenting Guilt"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Josh Duhamel<\/strong><\/a> took home a new commitment to raising his sons after playing a deadbeat dad in his new film, London Calling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun to look at some of the things that I could even do better as a dad,\u201d Duhamel, 52, exclusively told Us Weekly<\/em> ahead of the film\u2019s Friday, September 19, theatrical release. \u201cI work a lot, and I often have a lot of guilt about not being there as often as I could be. So I try to maybe overcompensate or do things to be there often.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cBut at the same time, you want your kid to look and see [that] this is what you have to do to provide for your family. So on the one hand, you can\u2019t be there all the time, because you\u2019ve got to be setting an example. But on the other hand, you might be missing out on life moments that you\u2019d [be there for] if you were a 9 to 5 dad who went to work every day and came home. So it\u2019s a constant struggle in this business. It\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckily for Duhamel, he has two incredible women on his team. The Ransom Canyon<\/em> star credits his \u201camazing wife<\/a>,\u201d Audra Mari<\/strong>, and ex-wife Fergie<\/strong> \u2014 \u201can amazing mom\u201d \u2014 in helping him be a more present dad despite his demanding work schedule. (Duhamel shares Shepherd, 20 months, with Mari, and Axel, 12, with Fergie.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n Related: <\/span>Josh Duhamel Says Things Are ‘Better Than They’ve Ever Been’ at Age 52<\/span><\/a>
\n\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\t\t\tDavid Higgs Josh Duhamel may be 52, but he\u2019s feeling as young as ever. \u201cI gotta say, things are, things are probably better than they\u2019ve ever been,\u201d Duhamel says of being in his 50s in the latest edition of Us Weekly. \u201c[I\u2019ve got] two healthy boys, brand new, 1-year-old. [I\u2019ve] got an amazing 11-year-old. [I\u2019m] [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe all have to work together to make sure that this thing works,\u201d he told Us.<\/em> Duhamel stressed that when he\u2019s home, he\u2019s \u201cwith\u201d his kids<\/a> \u2014 but shooting on location can be tricky. That\u2019s particularly true for a project like London Calling, filmed halfway across the world in Cape Town, Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cif you\u2019re in Vancouver or New Mexico, it\u2019s one thing. But when you\u2019re in Cape Town, there\u2019s no going back and forth on the weekends,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou\u2019re either there you\u2019re not. So it\u2019s a struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning how to balance career and personal life is certainly a running theme of London Calling<\/em>. The actor stars as Tommy in the action-comedy, a washed-up killer for hire and disastrous dad who\u2019s tasked with mentoring an 18-year-old (Jeremy Ray Taylor<\/strong>) he doesn\u2019t even want around. For Duhamel, the role cut close in more ways than one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things I\u2019m good at and there\u2019s a lot of things I need to work on. And I think that that\u2019s one of the things I loved about this script and the story is that this guy inherently was a good dad, but had missed a lot and hadn\u2019t stepped up as much as he realized as he should have,\u201d Duhamel told Us<\/em> at the film\u2019s Los Angeles premiere on Monday, September 15. \u201cAnd I think that Jeremy [Ray Taylor\u2019s] character in the movie makes him realize that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"LONDON<\/div>

\n Josh Duhamel<\/span> Quiver Distribution<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To be clear, Taylor\u2019s character, Julian, is not Tommy\u2019s kid \u2014 he\u2019s simply a teen neglected by his own dad (Rick Hoffman<\/strong>) and is desperate for some paternal guidance. Despite Tommy\u2019s initial dread over having to take on a mentee while already struggling to keep his own head above water, the unexpected \u201codd couple\u201d pairing turns out to be a blessing in disguise for them both.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is sort of a coming of age for both of us, in a weird way. [Tommy is a] guy who\u2019s probably had some Arrested Development, and never quite measured up,\u201d Duhamel said of his character. \u201cHe definitely wasn\u2019t stepping up as a dad like he should have. Jeremy\u2019s character is a kid who always feels like he\u2019s disappointing [people], and has to hide what makes him feel creatively liberated. \u2026. But I think that in [their] experience [together], we find that maybe [Tommy\u2019s] the dad that he never got to see, and [Julian\u2019s] the kid that [Tommy] never properly fathered.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cI think that that\u2019s the beauty of this movie. It\u2019s action packed. It\u2019s [a] comedy. It\u2019s beautifully shot, but at the end of the day it\u2019s about fathers and sons and stepping up as a parent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"LONDON<\/div>

\n Jeremy Ray Taylor, Josh Duhamel<\/span> Quiver Distribution<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Duhamel joked that being a \u201cterrible father\u201d is one thing he has in common with Tommy \u2014 surely his kids would disagree \u2014 the actor saw plenty more similarities between fact and fiction. Tommy always chasing the next big job, for example, is something someone with a decades-long career in Hollywood could maybe find relatable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like an athlete who\u2019s at the end of his career, who knows that he\u2019s who thinks that he\u2019s still got it, still got the fastball, still got all the speed, but now you start to lose a step as you get older,\u201d Duhamel said. \u201cAnd I think that anybody at my age starts to feel that. You know, his eyesight is not quite what it used to be. He\u2019s not as good of a shot as he used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

One big difference between the two? Tommy is clearly at the end of his run, while in many ways, Duhamel is just getting started. London Calling<\/em> latest big screen feat, but he\u2019s also crushing it as the mourning and widowed heartthrob Stanton Kirkland on Netflix\u2019s Ransom Canyon<\/em>,<\/a> which was recently greenlit for season 2.<\/p>\n

\n
\n