"My mom is like a fashion icon to me."
Like mother, like daughter!
Catherine Zeta-Jones and her 15-year-old daughter, Carys Zeta Douglas, have fans doing double takes! The mother-daughter duo appears on Town & Country's September cover, which is the magazine's annual Modern Swans issue. While Carys is the daughter of A-list actors Catherine and Michael Douglas as well as the granddaughter of Kirk Douglas, she tells the publication that she is focused on making a name for herself outside the "Douglas Dynasty."
“When I was younger I didn’t like the idea of having his name attached, this kind of ‘Douglas Dynasty’ stuff," she admits of being connected to her famous father. "I think what bothers me the most is that people think I don’t work hard for it, that I don’t need to work hard for it. That anything I do gets handed to me. When, honestly, I feel like it’s the opposite. I feel I need to constantly prove myself to people -- that I am not just my parents’ daughter.”
Carys has been in the limelight since she was little, and though she is an aspiring actress, the Hollywood heir hasn't always been comfortable with fame.
“I hated it. I used to get really upset. They [paparazzi] would jump on the subway and sit right in front of me. I was like, six. I was confused," she recalls. "That’s when I knew, ‘If this is going to be what it’s like, I need to focus on who I really am, and this is going to be something that’s just going to happen, and I can’t do anything about it.”
As for her mom, Catherine couldn't be more proud of of her children -- she also has a 17-year-old son, Dylan, with Michael -- and the kind of people they're becoming.
“What I instilled in my kids, and I’m very, very proud of it, is manners," the 48-year-old Feud star says. "There’s nothing worse than a privileged kid without manners. I drilled it into them like boot camp. The teenage years…[Carys] knows she cannot roll her eyes at me, or huff and puff around me. I never did it to my mother; and she’s not doing it to me.”
“My parents do a really good job of reality-checking me and being like, ‘Look around you. The life you have is extraordinary,’” Carys agrees.
She also looks up to her mom when it comes to her style. “Fashion has been so important in my life, because my mom is like a fashion icon to me," she gushes. "I’m always looking through her closet.”
That's something that the teen has called out on her Instagram by sharing multiple pics of herself posing with the Oscar winner at fashion shows.
“She has her own individual style,” Catherine notes. “She’s modern but age-appropriate. I’ve never had to turn to Carys and say, ‘I think that’s a little inappropriate.’ Once she said, ‘Mom, I really like this romper.’ I went, ‘Mmm, but don’t you think it’s cut a little too long? Shouldn’t it be shorter?’ She went, ‘Mom, you’re the only mother in the world that would tell a 15-year-old girl that the romper should be shorter.’”
Back in 2015, Michael revealed that both of his kids with Catherine -- he also has a 39-year-old son, Cameron, with ex-wife, Diandra Luker -- want to get into acting.
"My son and my daughter both want to be in the business. They both want to act and I've told them to be ready for rejection," he told Variety at the time. "That's the one part I always warn everybody starting out in the business. You have to be able to take a hit and keep on going no matter what."
The 73-year-old actor continued, "It's hard, but you have to deal with it because it's going to happen. I experienced lots of rejection in my career and it's never easy. You have to keep on going and someone will say yes."
Catherine echoed those statements two years later.
"You know, it's going to be hard for them because they've got their grandfather, Kirk, they've got me, they have Michael, but they so inherently love it and they're good!" she shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live at the time. "They go to summer camp every year, they do, like, three musicals and straight plays, and they love it."
"I've had a wonderful life in this business, so if they want to do it, they know the hardships and the percentages of who makes it and who doesn't," she added. "I just think that they've got the talent and I know that they have the drive."
Watch the video below for more on the famous family:
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