Having grown up in the spotlight, the son of Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould sure
has led an interesting life.
From spending time as a film director to breaking into the music industry, this is the truth
about Jason Gould.
Forget Hilary Swank's Oscar-winning turn as a tragic boxer in Clint Eastwood's 2004 drama.
The original "Million Dollar Baby" was Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould's first, and only,
child.
Even before he was welcomed into the world, Jason Gould was creating headlines, and it
was all down to his due date.
Allison J. Waldman recalled in "The Barbra Streisand Scrapbook,"
"In 1966, she had planned a twenty-city concert tour (in stadiums) which was projected to
earn her well over $1 million — a staggering sum for that time."
But when she became pregnant in the spring of that year, the "Funny Girl" star had no
choice but to wave goodbye to both the planned shows and the seven-figure sum that came with
them.
Perhaps not too surprisingly, the cancellation received a lot of attention.
Waldman wrote,
"The press dubbed the unborn child 'Barbra's Million-Dollar Baby,' a term she found offensive
and crass."
Even so, Streisand didn't seem too concerned about missing out on such a bumper payday.
In an interview with the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, which was given shortly after her
pregnancy was revealed, she said,
"A stage performance is different.
You do it and it's gone forever.
It's not a tangible thing, is it?
Having a baby.
That's a tangible success."
Just three years after welcoming Jason Gould into the world, Barbra Streisand and Elliott
Gould decided to go their separate ways.
And by 1971 the pair had officially divorced.
Fortunately, their one and only son has continued to maintain a strong relationship with both
of his parents over the years.
And it appears as though both parties couldn't be prouder of how Jason turned out.
In 1999, Streisand gushed to The Advocate,
"I would never wish for my son to be anything but what he is.
He is bright, kind, sensitive, caring and a very conscientious and good person.
He is a very gifted actor and filmmaker.
What more could a parent ask for in their child?
I have been truly blessed.
Most parents feel that their child is particularly special, and I am no different."
And Elliott proved he was just as doting when he talked to Closer in 2017.
When asked who Jason takes after, Elliott responded,
"Both of us.
He's got my eyes.
And he's brilliant.
He sings.
He's artistic.
In some ways he and Barbra look alike."
Jason Gould had no choice over, or awareness of, his screen debut.
The youngster was only a toddler when he appeared in "Up the Sandbox," a curious 1972 fantasy
drama, which starred his mother Barbra Streisand as a frustrated housewife.
It would be another 16 years before Gould added another acting credit to his resume,
appearing as Henry in an episode of the inner-city high school drama series "The Bronx Zoo."
And the teen seemed to enjoy the experience because in 1989 he landed his first notable
role as partygoer Mike in Cameron Crowe's classic rom-com "Say Anything."
"This is great, this gives me hope."
Gould went on to show up in Kirk Cameron's college debate drama "Listen to Me," act in
the Kevin Bacon comedy "The Big Picture," and play opposite his real-life mother again
in her directorial effort "The Prince of Tides."
He even wound up much higher on the bill than usual in the action B-movie "Subterfuge."
But following a brief stint in the 1997 London staging of acclaimed play "The Twilight of
the Golds," Gould seemed to disappear.
"Who wants to know?"
In 2001, he told The Advocate,
"I still act.
I admit I haven't pursued it with the intensity of some young actors, probably because I grew
up around the business."
In 1991, while shooting "The Prince of Tides" alongside his mother Barbra Streisand, Jason
Gould was outed by the tabloid press.
Not only did they reveal to the world that Gould was gay, but they also claimed he'd
gotten married.
According to Closer, Gould had already come out to his parents on his own terms three
years earlier.
But he was still left stunned at how the media was able to publish the story without his
consent.
In 2000, Gould told SFGate,
"It was shocking because it's so untrue.
It was just so grotesque to me that they could make up a story like that and claim they had
seen pictures of my wedding to a man.
And then print this story even though I deny it [...] I never was hiding the fact that
I was gay.
I never felt like I needed to come out [...] I'm pretty comfortable with my sexuality."
Gould also revealed that the story impacted his career, saying,
"I did get a lot of attention for 'The Prince of Tides,' but I think with (the tabloid exposure)
going on at the same time, suddenly the industry knew I was gay.
So the only roles I would be offered were gay roles.
And most of those were stereotypical gay roles, which I had no interest in playing."
"You know, you turn into like a real jerk every time my mother's around."
Jason Gould followed in the footsteps of his mother Barbra Streisand once again in 1996
when he took to the director's chair.
"Inside Out" was a 27-minute short film about a celebrity offspring who's wrongly reported
to have married a man by the tabloid press.
It was a storyline plucked straight from Gould's very own personal life, of course.
Indeed, back in 1991, Gould faced the exact same scenario himself.
And nine years on, he told SFGate that he enjoyed blurring the boundaries between truth
and fiction, saying,
"I knew I was being provocative.
I liked walking that line.
I knew that may be confusing, but I thought that would be interesting [...] I'm the inspiration,
I guess, but the character is not named Jason.
And when I see it, I see a character, a story.
I don't see a re-creation of my life because it's not that."
The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival, and in 2000 it was included in an anthology
of LGBTQ shorts titled "Boys Life 3."
By this point, Gould was able to recognize that the movie had a different purpose than
what he'd first thought, as he told SFGate,
"When I made it I didn't really realize what I was communicating through the film [...] It's
taken me a little bit of time and depth perception to see that it really is about self-acceptance."
As the son of two Hollywood A-listers, Jason Gould was thrust into the spotlight from a
very young age.
But even with his years of being trailed by the paparazzi, the entertainer has never quite
gotten used to the idea of fame.
In 2000, Gould told SFGate,
"When I was a kid I couldn't go anywhere without photographers in our face [...] I don't like
cameras snapping in my face.
It's like being attacked."
He went on to explain that the constant attention was one of the reasons he essentially quit
the acting game following 1991's "The Prince of Tides," adding,
"I don't like fame and what goes with that.
I grew up in it."
After appearing to retreat from the limelight for more than a decade, Jason Gould made a
surprising return to showbiz in 2012 when he launched a music career.
The one-time actor and director released a self-titled EP featuring a mixture of both
originals and covers.
Gould put his own spin on several other classic songs on his first full-length studio effort,
"Dangerous Man," in 2017.
And alongside renditions of Fred Astaire's "The Way You Look Tonight," Donny Hathaway's
"For All We Know" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," the singer also
contributed several self-penned numbers.
Gould told Billboard that songwriting has always been in his blood, explaining,
"That's really how this journey all began for me.
I was a kid who came up with melodies.
I would sit at the piano and work out chord progressions I liked, but I never had the
confidence to complete a song."
Luckily, Gould was given the confidence by a pretty impressive name, as he explained
to People,
"Quincy [Jones] had heard my version of 'Nature Boy' and he came up to me and said, 'We're
going to make an album together.'
And I said, 'We are?'
And now we have.
That he would want to work with me is still sort of stunning to me."
For a certain generation, Barbra Streisand will always be the ultimate gay icon.
As Playbill recounted, at the turn of the ‘60s, she kickstarted her glittering career
at The Lion — one of Greenwich Village's most popular gay joints — and has since
become a vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights.
However, in 2001, Jason Gould told The Advocate,
"At one point I was very uncomfortable with it.
Now somebody can be a fan of hers and it's not threatening to me.
There was a time when I was uncomfortable and not sure whether people like me for me
or liked me because they liked her.
But that can be pretty transparent after about 10 minutes."
Gould appeared to be even more at ease 16 years later when he was asked by Billboard
about navigating the dating scene as the son of a gay icon, saying,
"Well dating is challenging, period, isn't it?
But I'm pretty comfortable in my own skin now.
It's hard to tell what other people may know or not know, or project, or assume about you.
All I can do is be myself."
Contrary to tabloid reports, Gould has never married, and details about any long-term relationships
appear to have been kept under wraps.
During his most revealing interview with The Advocate in 2001, Jason Gould claimed that
he had no interest in becoming political like his mom Barbra Streisand, saying,
"It separates people and creates these polar opposites — Republican, Democrat, liberal,
conservative — and it's not realistic.
What it does is create differences in people who are not really that different.
And so do the terms 'gay' and 'straight.'
I don't really want to support any of it."
Nearly 20 years later, Gould's Instagram page suggests that his attitude toward political
matters has drastically changed.
Indeed, his account is littered with quotes and images featuring liberal figures such
as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Obamas.
It also contains its fair share of anti-Republican content.
Following Joe Biden's successful presidential election bid in November 2020, Gould wrote
on Instagram,
"I hope America can heal from the divisiveness and dishonesty of these past years."
His mother Streisand had also been a vocal supporter of Biden, having performed in a
virtual fundraiser for his campaign several months earlier.
Just like he appears to have been influenced by his mother's political leanings in recent
years, Jason Gould now seems to be channeling Barbra Streisand's feminist streak, too.
In 2018, he was asked by HuffPost what three wishes he'd like to have granted if a genie
suddenly popped up, and the singer's first answer would no doubt make his mom proud.
As Gould shared,
"I'm very excited about women claiming and reclaiming their power.
I think we're in the midst of a revolution of female energy.
I'd love for more women to step into positions of power in terms of politics."
Gould was echoing similar sentiments made by his mother, who told the Associated Press,
"I think women are still treated as second-class citizens [...] We still don't get equal pay
[...] The average woman [...] gets 77 cents on the dollar that a man gets.
I'm so involved in women's heart disease and trying to raise awareness and funds; Even
in medical research, women are not treated equally."
Jason Gould might have inadvertently cost his mother one million dollars before he was
even born, but that's small change compared to the money that Barbra Streisand reportedly
has in her bank account.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, the "Woman in Love" singer is worth $400 million, making
her one of the wealthiest women in the music industry.
Elliott Gould, Jason's father, might not be anywhere near his ex-wife in the showbiz rich
list.
Still, the $20 million that he's reportedly accrued over the years is nothing to be sniffed
at, either.
As for Jason himself, Celebrity Net Worth says the singer apparently has $15 million
to his name.
While he's led a career of his own, having two superstar parents probably doesn't hurt
the bank account.
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