Even after four kids, Peter Facinelli says his 2-year-old son shows him things he still needs to “work on” when it comes to fatherhood.
“There’s a part of me that teaches them, and there’s a part of me that learns from them,” the actor tells Page Six while promoting his upcoming film, “The Unbreakable Boy.”
Facinelli, 51, explains that when his son, Jack — whom he shares with fiancée Lily Anne Harrison — gets frustrated, he catches himself reacting the same way in response.
“I’m like, I need to work on that, you know? So he’s kind of a mirror for me sometimes as the things I still need to work on,” the “Twilight” star tells us.
Facinelli’s newfound perspective on fatherhood stems from “The Unbreakable Boy,” a true story about the love and struggles of a father whose young son has autism and a rare brittle-bone disease.
After reading the book, written by Scott LeRette, the “Nurse Jackie” says it helped him look at his son and see the parts of himself that “are unhealed and broken.”
“Just the other day when he was frustrated and crying — and a lot of times you get anxious because they’re throwing a little tantrum — I kind of sat down on his level and I just hugged him,” he shares.
“I said, ‘I see you’re frustrated.’ And it was so beautiful because my calmness calmed him down and I didn’t have to be like, ‘Hey, don’t do that’ or ‘Stop crying.’”
Facinelli adds that taking a breath and “allowing that space for [Jack] to be” was a new concept for him whereas before he would “try to fix it with words.”
The “Can’t Hardly Wait” actor also shares three daughters — Luca, 27, Lola, 22, and Fiona, 18 — with ex-wife Jennie Garth.
Garth, 52, and her husband, Dave Abrams, stayed with Facinelli after they were evacuated from their home during the Los Angeles wildfires last month.
“The family, the kids, all were, kind of, sitting on the couch waiting to see if my house was going to get evacuated next,” he says, adding that “it got scary for a minute but, luckily, we were able to all seek shelter there.”
The “Beverly Hills, 90210” actress said in an emotional video on Instagram at the time, “Peter and his family took us in and have been so kind.”
Family, off-screen and on-screen, has been a prominent theme for Facinelli, who plays a pastor in “The Unbreakable Boy” and serves as a producer on the film.
The “Fastlane” alum says the project serendipitously fell into his lap after LeRette had a chance encounter with his brother-in-law, which led to the pair meeting in LA.
“[The book] just resonated with me on so many levels: being a dad, being part of a family and and the struggles that Scott had with his family and the messages of brokenness and healing and, you know, faith and inspiration and resilience and being in the moment,” he explains.
“One of the biggest themes that I love is authenticity. His son just is so authentic to who he is, and he’s not ashamed of who he is. And he’s just a beacon of joy all the time because of it and just radiates this light and is always present. And I was like, I want that. I want to be present all the time and just, you know, radiate with joy and gratitude. It’s hard to do.”
“The Unbreakable Boy,” which stars Zachary Levi and Meghann Fahy, hits theaters Feb. 21.
