Lizzie McGuire star reveals parents 'worked in a bar' during Disney Channel fame
Jake Thomas' parents worked in a bar after he found Disney Channel fame.
The 35-year-old actor - who is the son of former radio host Bob Thomas and actress Sinns Thomas - was cast opposite Hilary Duff in the comedy series Lizzie McGuire in the early 2000s, and is still "super grateful" for how his parents gave up their own careers in Tennessee so he could pursue acting in LA.
Speaking on the Zach Sang Show, he explained: "My parents were still acting and writing. My dad wrote two episodes of Lizzie McGuire, but the focus definitely started to become giving me the best shot possible. I am super, super grateful and thankful that they did that for me. They gave me the best opportunity to get where I am today. It's massive. Massive.
"I recongised too,that when I was following along on this success, they had to make sacrifices in their own lives to help support that. You're a kid, you've got to have your parent there the entire time and they're not getting paid to be there.
"My parents have never really talked about this, but they took [jobs] waiting tables, nightshifts, while I was on a TV show, just so that one of them was always earning income and keeping health insurance and stuff like that.
During that time, Jake - who also appeared opposide Jude Law in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and in more recent years has become a director - "hadn't realised" that his parents had given up so much for them, but now admits that he "can never thank them enough" for what they did.
"Looking back on that now, I hadn't realised that growing up, but they worked at the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal Studios. I have memories of us going to Universal and meeting my mom, and she'd still be in her waitress uniform smelling of french fries and we'd pick her up from work go home.
"Now, looking back on that, I'm like 'You went from being on TV, local celebrity to doing this...' Sacrificing that essentially so I could continue my career. I can never thank them enough."
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Being mauled by a great white was the catalyst for Rodney Fox becoming a shark cage diving pioneer, eventually leading him to work on Steven Spielberg's Jaws. In 1963, a spear fishing championship at Aldinga Beach, south of Adelaide, nearly spelled tragedy for Mr Fox who narrowly escaped the jaws of the ocean creature with a mere 462 stitches. "I thought, first of all, I'd been hit by a train," he said. The now 84-year-old recalls being in 60-foot deep water and having his finger on the trigger of a rubber gun to catch a dusky morwong fish when "a huge thump and crash hit me in the chest". In the tussle, Mr Fox gouged the shark's eyes, got his hand in its mouth and gave it a bear hug, but it was after the shark bit the fish float attached to his belt that its line broke and he got to safety on a dinghy. "There was a saying in those days that 'the best shark is a dead shark'... but it wasn't exactly like [how] I felt," he said. 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The scenes Mr Fox was involved with were shot at Dangerous Reef, near Port Lincoln, one of the common places where great whites are found in Australia. Mr Fox became the on-site filming coordinator, taking the director, assistant director and crew on his boat to spots where the sharks were, organising bait, and teaching the stuntman how to get into the half-size cage that was used in filming. During production, a shark got caught in the top of the cage while it was empty, damaging its winch and the side of Mr Fox's boat as it struggled to get away. Those events were caught on camera and upon seeing the footage, Spielberg changed the script where the character, Matt Hooper, who was meant to die, escaped instead. The legacy of Jaws, plus another film Mr Fox had made at the time, helped prompt great white tours from a tourist angle, to the point it became a full-time business, operating around the waters off Port Lincoln. Mr Fox has since gone on to be a speaker, written several books, helped produce dozens of movies, and was an abalone diver. Today, the business has evolved, with his son Andrew and business partner Mark Tozer at the helm. They have a research foundation to learn more about the animals, plus a museum at Mile End, Adelaide. Mr Fox says he takes things day-by-day and has built a family with wife Kay, their three children Lenore, Darren and Andrew, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. "The thing that gives me credibility is I've got the pictures that were so incredible [of] survival, that have left me without a trace of any problem or I've had a shark [bite] except scars and the memories," he said. "I was returned to the sea... and I had made my living and without any trouble." Share your thoughts in the comments below, or send a Letter to the Editor by CLICKING HERE. Being mauled by a great white was the catalyst for Rodney Fox becoming a shark cage diving pioneer, eventually leading him to work on Steven Spielberg's Jaws. In 1963, a spear fishing championship at Aldinga Beach, south of Adelaide, nearly spelled tragedy for Mr Fox who narrowly escaped the jaws of the ocean creature with a mere 462 stitches. "I thought, first of all, I'd been hit by a train," he said. The now 84-year-old recalls being in 60-foot deep water and having his finger on the trigger of a rubber gun to catch a dusky morwong fish when "a huge thump and crash hit me in the chest". In the tussle, Mr Fox gouged the shark's eyes, got his hand in its mouth and gave it a bear hug, but it was after the shark bit the fish float attached to his belt that its line broke and he got to safety on a dinghy. "There was a saying in those days that 'the best shark is a dead shark'... but it wasn't exactly like [how] I felt," he said. 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