- - Lewis Pullman Says Fans Always Approached Famous Dad Bill Pullman 'Whenever We Did' Go Out for Dinner as a Kid

Eric AnderssonJanuary 6, 2026 at 11:58 PM

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Lewis Pullman on Dec. 14 (left) and with dad Bill Pullman in 2004 (right). -

In a new interview, Lewis Pullman recalled going out to dinner as a kid and fans approaching his dad, Spaceballs and Independence Day actor Bill Pullman

"I was always like, ‘Well, what’s the big deal? I mean, he’s the best dad ever, but they don’t know that,'" he said in Interview Magazine

Lewis, also an actor, stars alongside his dad in the upcoming Spaceballs 2

Growing up, Lewis Pullman didn’t realize why his dad, Spaceballs and Independence Day star Bill Pullman, was such a "big deal."

In a new conversation with friend and fellow actor Paul Walter Hauser for Interview Magazine, Lewis, 32, who followed his father’s footsteps into show business, remembered wondering why strangers approached Bill, 72, when their family would go out to dinner.

“I think one thing that me and all my siblings got a pretty good radar for was ulterior motives. Even as a kid, you could pick up on like, ‘Why does somebody want this from my dad? Why do people expect this from him and where is that coming from?’” the Top Gun: Maverick actor said after Hauser asked him when he realized his dad was famous.

Lewis — one of three siblings raised in L.A. by dad Bill and mom Tamara Hurwitz, a dancer — added that his family “rarely went out to restaurants growing up. It was always my mom making dinner. But whenever we did, there’d be somebody coming up.”

Chris Weeks/Liaison

Bill Pullman, wife Tamara Hurwitz and their children in 2000.

“And I was always like, ‘Well, what’s the big deal? I mean, he’s the best dad ever, but they don’t know that.’ And then once I dabbled in acting and started understanding the magnitude of his talent, that was when I was like, ‘Okay, there should be a lot more people asking for him to do this Independence Day speech,’” said Lewis, referencing the 1996 action movie in which Bill plays the U.S. president at a time when the world is attacked by aliens.

Elsewhere in the interview, Hauser said he was a fan of Bill’s movies Newsies (1992) and While You Were Sleeping (1995), which he watched when he was a kid, adding “I always looked at your dad as being a relatable, pure guy.”

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Bill Pullman in 'Independence Day.'

“That resonates, absolutely,” Lewis replied, mentioning he “wasn’t allowed” to watch Bill’s more adult-oriented fare like the 1988 horror movie The Serpent and the Rainbow.

“But then once I got interested, I did a whole deep dive and I spent a month watching all this stuff. And I do think that he has a natural warmth and comfort, and that’s a strength that he used and utilized whether he was aware of it or not, but then he actively subverted that. You can watch him make those decisions where that wasn’t really feeding him anymore.”

The father-son duo recently filmed Spaceballs 2, the follow-up to the 1987 Star Wars spoof from comedy legend Mel Brooks and starring Bill.

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Lewis Pullman on Dec. 9.

Making the movie “was a dream come true,” Lewis told PEOPLE in December at the premiere of his new film The Testament of Ann Lee. “We just wrapped, and … every day was such a trip. It was kind of like a … felt like a bizarre simulation. I just couldn't believe my luck.”

“We've been wanting to do that forever and we never knew whether we could get the chance or not,” he added.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year, the Emmy nominee said “in the beginning” of his career, he “felt a lot of pressure” to fill his dad’s shoes.

“Once I realized that it was an impossible pair of shoes to fill, I kind of found a sense of relief in knowing that if there was any future for me in film that it would be by doing it my own way and trying to blaze my own trail,” he added.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”