In some ways, it’s tough—and in others, not tough at all—to be Brendan Wayne. On the one hand, he co-stars in the new Jon Favreau–directed sci-fi blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens, which was a hit at last week’s Comic-Con in San Diego and opens tomorrow (July 29) pretty much everywhere. Despite being the lowest rung in an all-star cast, Wayne has received almost as much press coverage as his more famous co-stars, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, and Daniel Craig. But on the other hand, he is incessantly asked questions about his grandfather, who happens to be American cowboy icon John Wayne. It’s not just that Brendan Wayne has big shoes to fill; he might as well be an amputee and the shoes are the Grand Canyon. He would literally have better luck doing anything else in the world besides acting in a cowboy movie. It’s why Bob Dylan’s grandson, Pablo Dylan, recently announced that he’s making a hip-hop album. What was he going to do, record an album of folk protest songs? Good luck with that! I called Brendan on the set of his new movie, The Red House, as he was sitting in the makeup chair and having fake blood applied to his face. For somebody who gets asked about his grandfather approximately every 30 seconds, he was remarkably funny and gracious.

Eric Spitznagel: Did you ever tell a reporter, just to fuck with them, “I don’t want to talk about my grandfather”?Brendan Wayne: I did, actually. I said it to somebody last week. I was like, “Could we not talk about John Wayne so much? We were never on good terms.”

No you did not.

I did! And the guy was like, “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry.” He got pretty flustered by it. And I finally broke and said, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” I do like doing that from time to time. Sometimes when people ask what he was like, I’ll catch them by surprise. “He was a bastard. Don’t let anybody tell you different.”

“He punched me when I was a baby.”

Right, you think you had a rough childhood? Try having a gun pointed to your head by John Wayne.

Did you ever consider saying no to Cowboys & Aliens, just because doing it would lead to a lot of John Wayne questions and comparisons?

Not for a second. There’s a two-fold answer to that. With the John Wayne association, you get to a certain point in this business and you realize that you have to be marketable to a studio. How do they justify keeping me in the film? I’m in a cast that includes Keith Carradine, Clancy Brown, Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, and Olivia Wilde. Why, exactly, do they need me? You know what I mean? I want to be a part of this group, so how do I make myself valuable? Also, there was no way I was saying no to being in a Western like this, even before I knew who was in the cast. Like most other kids, I grew up wanting to be a cowboy, playing the sheriff or whatever. So playing a cowboy in this movie was the easiest thing for me to tap into imaginatively. I can ride a horse, and I can do stunts on a horse. At least I found out I could do stunts on a horse.

You found out? I assumed you came out of the womb on a horse.

[Laughs.] No, I waited until I was a little older. I thought I was pretty good at riding horses until I got on this film and I was working with guys who were rodeo champions. That’s a different type of riding.