Scott Newman felt burdened by his father's fame, and sought to carve out a distinct identity. In a 1974 interview with New York Daily News columnist Sidney Fields, he said "Out there in Hollywood you can't stand on daddy's feet. You need your own." He told Fields that "as a kid I felt I was entitled to everything my father gave me," but that in recent years he had "made and paid my own way."
Scott confided to family friend A. E. Hotchner:
"It’s hell being his son, you know. They expect you to be like him, or they try to get to him through me. All of f****** Hollywood seems to have screenplays they want me to give to him. Or for him to show up somewhere or another. I’m Paul Newman Jr, you know what I mean? But I don’t have his blue eyes. I don’t have his talent. I don’t have his luck. I don’t have anything . . . that’s me. What do they want of me, Hotch? What do I want of me? All I have is the goddamn name.”