“That’s the last thing I want to do, is try my hand at that”: Why Rashida Jones didn’t follow in her father’s footsteps

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Children of famous musicians are usually presented with a choice early on: choose the same path of your parent and face a lifetime of always been compared unfavourably to them. Or go your own way.

Rashida Jones has been talking about why she chose the latter. The actress is the daughter of the production titan Quincy and has told the SmartLess podcast how her dad’s legacy was simply too huge to live up to.

“My dad’s a musical genius. That’s like, the last thing I want to do, is try my hand at that,” said Jones. “But I love it. Like, I have a deep ache for music and I just don’t ever feel like I’m good enough to do it. Like, I’ll never be good enough to do it, so I just don’t.”

So Rashida chose acting – she’s appeared in Parks And Recreation, the US version of the Office and in the film The Social Network. She has dabbled in music though – indeed she sang backing vocals on Maroon 5’s first two albums – but it’s only ever been as a hobby. “I love it so much and I kind of like, sing for fun,” she explained. “I’ve written for fun, and I’ve sung backup on some albums and things like that… I can write (music), my reading is limited.”

Rashida made a documentary - Quincy - about her father and his achievements in 2018. “He’s so well-documented, he’s so accomplished, that it’s almost impossible to spend any time storytelling who he is as a person,” she said of the documentary.

“You have to cover so much ground with just what he’s contributed to the world and culture. I wanted to do something that felt like it captured his personality, ‘cause nothing ever has… My dad is a beast, and he has cheated death so many times. 91 and still crushing it.”

Though she hasn’t chosen a career in music, Rashida has spent her life in close proximity to musicians, and not just her dad. She was engaged to Mark Ronson briefly during the Noughties, has appeared in the videos for Aaliyah’s More Than A Woman and Foo Fighters’ Long Road To Ruin and is currently in a relationship with Vampire Weekend main man Ezra Koenig. The couple have a 5-year-old named Isaiah.