Michael Douglas did such a good job of shielding his daughter from his Hollywood life, she grew up thinking her dad was a pancake expert.
Teenager Carys and her mother, Catherine Zeta-Jones sat down for a joint interview with Town & Country magazine recently, during which they discussed the 15-year-old's upbringing as the daughter of famous parents.
And Carys revealed she had no idea what her father, the son of acting legend Kirk Douglas, did for a living when she was a kid.
"I thought my dad was a pancake maker," she told the publication. "I didn't know he was an actor. Honestly."
That naivete changed when Carys first started experiencing the paparazzi.
"I used to get really upset," she added. "They (paparazzi) would jump on the subway (in New York City) and sit right in front of me. I was, like, six. I was confused.
"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'."
But the attention her parents received didn't put the youngster off pursuing a career in showbusiness, and Carys is now hoping to become an actress – but she wants to make it without relying on the Douglas name.
"When I was younger I didn't like the idea of having his (father's) name attached (to mine), this kind of 'Douglas Dynasty' stuff," she explained. "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."
Catherine, who also shares 17-year-old Dylan with Douglas and is stepmother to his 39-year-old son Cameron, is very proud of her daughter, insisting she raised her to be a privileged kid with manners.
"What I instilled in my kids, and I'm very, very proud of it, is manners," the actress said. "There's nothing worse than a privileged kid without manners. I drilled it into them like boot camp… She (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."
