John Ritter's son Jason Ritter felt overwhelmed by "insecurities" when he was compared to famous dad during his early auditions.

Jason, 46, has followed his late father into the entertainment industry but he always worried he wasn't as funny as his dad and the pressure made auditioning for comedic parts incredibly difficult for him.

During an appearance on the Brotherly Love podcast, Jason explained: "I would go into a comedy audition and my hands would just be like shaking.

"So many times, people would be like: 'Oh, I just want to say before you start: Your dad was so funny.'

"I love hearing that, of course, but hearing: 'He would open his mouth and we would be rolling on the floor,' and then I would open my mouth, look around, no one's rolling on the floor.

"Then, all my insecurities just come overwhelming me."

Jason went on to explain he ended up trying out for more dramatic parts instead of following his father's comedy style, adding: " So, it was funny that like the first couple of parts that I got were in the sort of more dramatic auditions because, for some reason, I didn't feel as much pressure or comparison or something like that."

John died a week before his 55th birthday on September 11, 2013 after suffering an aortic dissection on the set of 8 Simple Rules.

Jason previously revealed how he still keeps a connection to his dad all these years after his death.

He told the Joy 101 podcast: "I go, 'I need you in this corner right here, dad,' and I just sort of sit him down and talk to him.

"There's so much about this world that's such a mystery, and whether he's out there somewhere, or I know him so well that he's within me somewhere, it doesn't matter. I know him.

"There are times where I can ask him a question that I don't necessarily know the answer to, and I filter it through what I knew about him as a father and as a person, and I can kind of guess what he would say."

The I Love Boosters star, who has an eight-year-old daughter with his ex-wife Melanie Lynskey, revealed he also stayed close to John through sunsets in the months after his passing.

In 2021, on the anniversary of his death, Jason painted his own child a sunset which made him think of his late father.

He recalled: "For some reason, the whole sky was purple, and that was one of his favourite colors. He even painted his car this purple… before I had gotten over my embarrassment as a teenager where I was like, 'why does my dad have a purple car? Are you the Joker?' "

But he loved purple, and the whole sky was purple on that day. There are things like that where I absolutely understand that I have the choice to go, 'That's just a coincidence.

"The world is random, and it's all chaos.' And then it just gives me more joy and more happiness to choose the other option, which is that there are things at work I don't understand."