Jane Fonda has said she bought the rights to the play and pushed to make On Golden Pond specifically because she wanted to work with her father before it was too late, knowing he was seriously ill at the time. The film's story of a complicated father-daughter relationship mirrored their own real dynamic closely enough that the experience became something deeply personal for both of them. Henry died five months after the film came out, and the two made history as the first father-daughter pair to receive Academy Award nominations for the same film, with Henry winning Best Actor and Jane accepting the award on his behalf. | © MGM
Rumer Willis played Demi Moore's daughter in the 1996 film Striptease, a role she reportedly wanted badly enough to ask for an audition, which Moore then arranged after talking it over with then-husband Bruce Willis. Moore was open at the time about having no issue with her daughter watching her play a stripper, describing their household as one with a relaxed attitude toward the body. The mother-daughter bond has clearly stayed close over the decades, with Rumer speaking warmly in recent years about the kind of open, physical closeness that has defined their family dynamic. | © Columbia Pictures
Billy Ray Cyrus spent five seasons playing Robby Ray, the father of Miley's character on Hannah Montana, making their on-screen dynamic a direct extension of their real one. The Disney Channel series ran from 2006 to 2011 and became one of the defining pop culture moments of that era, launching Miley into a level of fame that went well beyond the show itself. In a 2024 interview, Miley reflected on how much her father shaped who she became, saying that without him, not just her career but her entire sense of self wouldn't exist. | © The Voice
Sean Penn directed and starred alongside his daughter Dylan in the 2021 film Flag Day, a project that Dylan has described as something close to family therapy performed in front of a crew full of strangers. She was reportedly nudged into taking the role by her mother, Robin Wright, who told her that Sean was the best director she had ever worked with. It turned out to be a deeply personal project for both of them, with Sean saying he saw his daughter's face in the character from the beginning. | © MGM
Jaden Smith had a small cameo in Men in Black II before landing his first real acting role opposite his father in The Pursuit of Happyness in 2006, where he played the son of Will's struggling single father character. Getting the part wasn't a given despite the family connection, with the studio initially reluctant and Jaden having to audition repeatedly before winning them over at six years old. The two played father and son again in the 2013 sci-fi film After Earth, and daughter Willow also joined the family screen tradition by appearing alongside Will in I Am Legend in 2007. | © Sony Pictures Releasing
Meryl Streep and her daughter Mamie Gummer played a strained mother and daughter in the 2015 dramedy Ricki and the Flash, a casting choice that was Streep's own idea, reportedly delivered by casually handing her daughter the script and waiting for her to read it on the spot. It wasn't the first time the two had shared the screen, with Gummer appearing as Streep's baby in the 1986 film Heartburn and later playing a younger version of her mother in Evening in 2007. Few actors can claim they've played both their mother's child and their mother's younger self across different films. | © Sony Pictures Releasing
All three of Chris Hemsworth's children appeared alongside him in Thor: Love and Thunder, with son Tristan playing a young Thor, daughter India playing the child of villain Gorr the God Butcher, and son Sasha making a small cameo as an Asgardian kid. The family collaboration continued with the Disney+ docuseries Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, where all three appeared alongside their father again. India has since taken things a step further, reuniting with Hemsworth on the big screen in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in 2024, this time with her father playing the film's main villain. | © Sony Pictures Releasing
Margaret Qualley reportedly pushed to have her real mother cast opposite her in Netflix's Maid, a miniseries that earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and put both women in the spotlight at the same time. The show's dynamic mirrored their real relationship in an almost uncomfortably close way, with MacDowell playing Qualley's troubled mother on screen while being her actual mother off it. MacDowell has joked about the experience of benefiting from her daughter's industry clout, calling it reverse nepotism and admitting she's now cool by association. | © Netflix
Fresh off her Oscar win for Girl, Interrupted, Angelina Jolie took on the role of Lara Croft in the 2001 action film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and her real-life father, Jon Voight was cast as Lara's missing father, Lord Richard Croft. Voight spoke admiringly of his daughter at the time, saying she had "that thing" that makes a star, which, in hindsight, reads as a considerable understatement. Their relationship has been complicated in the years since, but the film marked a turning point that launched Jolie from indie favorite to full-blown action superstar. | © Paramount Pictures
Maya Hawke has had the rare experience of working with both of her parents on screen, and her collaboration with her mother, Uma Thurman, came in the 2023 comedy thriller The Kill Room. Thurman played an art dealer using her gallery as a front for money laundering, while Maya played one of several artists caught up in the chaos around a hitman's unlikely rise to art world fame. Maya has spoken warmly about getting to show audiences a side of her mother that not many films had made room for before. | © Shout! Studios
Sadie and Sunny Sandler have been showing up in their father's films since they were small, starting with cameos in Grown Ups and That's My Boy before graduating to bigger roles over the years. The family's most notable collaboration came with the 2023 Netflix film You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, where both daughters took on starring roles alongside Adam. The partnership has continued off-screen too, with Adam producing Sadie's 2026 film Roommates, suggesting the Sandler family business is very much still open. | © Sony Pictures Releasing
Maya Hawke made her name playing Robin Buckley in Stranger Things, but one of her most meaningful collaborations has been with her father, Ethan. The two first worked together on the 2020 historical miniseries The Good Lord Bird, where Maya played the daughter of Ethan's character John Brown, a role Ethan has spoken about with obvious pride. They reunited in 2023 for Wildcat, with Ethan directing and Maya taking on the role of Southern Gothic writer Flannery O'Connor. | © Showtime Networks
Wyatt Russell actually played a younger version of his father Kurt in the 1998 film Soldier, which made it fitting when the two were cast decades later to play the same character across two timelines in Apple TV+'s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Kurt has said that watching Wyatt's performance changed how he approached the role, describing the experience as less of a father-son moment and more like studying the same person at a different point in their life. The second season of the show premiered in early 2025, meaning the Russell family collaboration is still very much ongoing. | © Warner Bros. Pictures
Billie Lourd made her feature film debut in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, playing Lieutenant Connix, a Resistance officer serving directly under General Leia, the character her mother, Carrie Fisher, had played since 1977. Lourd later wrote about the experience, including the moment Fisher insisted she wear the iconic Leia buns on set, joking that carrying on the family hairstyle was her version of a family tradition. Fisher passed away in 2016, and Lourd has spoken openly in the years since about keeping her mother's memory alive for her own children. | © Walt Disney Pictures
Laura Dern grew up with acting in her blood, and her most meaningful on-screen partnership turned out to be with her own mother. The two first shared the screen properly in Wild at Heart in 1990, and in 1992, they made Oscar history by becoming the first mother and daughter nominated for the same film with Rambling Rose. They worked together repeatedly over the decades and in 2023 released a book together, a relationship that clearly ran a lot deeper than just a shared career. | © MGM
Some actors bring their craft home, and a few have taken it a step further by sharing the screen with their own kids. These 15 celebrity parents turned family time into something a little more memorable than a weekend at the park.
