Maya Hawke is refreshingly honest about the whole “nepo baby” thing
Hawke says she has absolutely gotten parts for "nepotistic reasons," including Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood
Aux News Hawke
The conversation around Hollywood’s dreaded “nepo babies”—i.e., the kids of famous folk, who it’s hard to deny have at least some leg up in the entertainment industry, thanks to a combination of access, resources, and basic name recognition—is always a little fraught. There’s not a human being on the planet, after all, who likes being told they don’t deserve their accomplishments, which helps explain why the reactions of the performers in question, when hit with that particular label, have ranged from acceptance all the way up to accusing anyone who brings the concept up of indulging in misogyny.
Which is why it’s honestly kind of refreshing to hear Maya Hawke—one of the break-out stars of Stranger Things, and the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman—addressing the topic in a genuine and straightforward way. In a recent interview with The Times Of London, Hawke acknowledged that, for instance, being the daughter of one of Quentin Tarantino’s most frequent collaborators absolutely contributed to her getting a part in 2019's Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, noting that “I never meant to imply that I didn’t get the part for nepotistic reasons — I think I totally did.”
Hawke was referencing an interview she gave closer to the film’s release, which she says she got made fun of for on the internet, where she talked about auditioning for the film through regular channels. (Albeit, regular channels that involved sending in an audition tape featuring an appearance by Ethan Hawke.) Still, though, she was happy to get into the topic in more detail in this new interview, giving one of the better, and more thoughtful, answers we’ve seen on the whole issue since people started making fun of nepo babies a few years back— even if it does sort of amount to “Hey, what are you gonna do?”
“Deserves” is a complicated word. There are so many people who deserve to have this kind of life who don’t, but I think I’m comfortable with not deserving it and doing it anyway. And I know that my not doing it wouldn’t help anyone. I saw two paths when I was first starting, and one of them was: change your name, get a nose job and go to open casting roles. It’s OK to be made fun of when you’re in rarefied air. It’s a lucky place to be. My relationships with my parents are really honest and positive, and that supersedes anything anyone can say about it.
Hawke has recently worked with both her parents on projects; she appeared in The Kill Room with her mom, and was directed by her father in 2023 Flannery O’Connor biopic Wildcat.
157 Comments
I thought Once Upon a Time in Hollywood purposefully cast a bunch of nepo babies for the Manson family? Kevin Smith’s daughter, Andie Macdowell’s daughter… thought there were others too?
Rumer Willis
Lena Dunham
Lena Dunham is a nepo baby? I mean I think her parents had money, which is also a huge advantage, but I did not think they were in the industry/
They’re fine artists and her mom made an experimental musical film starring Meryl Streep and a bunch of puppets. Maybe not direct film industry nepotism, but mighty close.
Her parents are artists. Not the same thing as being actors, producers, etc.
Absolutely. And their part wasn’t big at all.
Where nepo babies are concerned, in front facing entertainment there’s at least a filter…if you’re a shitty actor or singer, no matter how A+ list your parent is, you’re going to get sidelined.It’s nepo babies like John Fisher that need all of the scorn heaped upon them.
Yeah, they might get a break or two that someone else wouldn’t get, but if they stink, they won’t get jobs.
Except the economic motivations of those hiring nepo children isn’t to fill a role that sells a lot of tickets, it’s to create a generational talent with access to the same network of contacts and producers that the parent had. Lily Rose-Depp, Scott Eastwood, Zosia Mamet. These aren’t actors getting jobs because they’re good, they’re actors getting jobs because their parents have decades in the industry.Think about Blake Snyder, of Save the Cat. People bragged about him being one of the highest-selling indie screenwriters of his day (pre-internet) and used that as a reason why his book was so important to read. Except the dude’s Emmy-winning producer parents had 40 years of industry insider experience and connections and people just optioned his scripts because he was constantly able to get in the room.And his combined average RT rating is 18%.Combined.Just because people keep getting jobs doesn’t mean they’re good at their jobs. It means someone finds it economically valuable to keep giving them jobs in exchange for something else.
To be fair, Save the Cat doesn’t promote his (admittedly terrible) Stop or my Mom Will Shoot! as the screenplay you should emulate. He actually analyzes a lot of good movies. If there’s a complaint to be made about the book it is that he seems to like when great films follow formulas more than when they subvert them.
The issue with “Save the Cat” is that for a while it was being taught in script writing classes as the Bible to always follow. That leads to a lot of movies just being the same beats over and over. It’s not bad advice if you want to make a formulaic movie. And it’s never a bad thing to see how others form their scripts. It’s just that many Screen Writing 101 course don’t explain that to innovate you need to break the rules.
Because if you teach a bunch of 101 writers you need to break the rules, all you get are a bunch of incomprehensible “rule-breaking” screenplays. Film schools are already full of 18-year olds who come in thinking that their story with unmotivated characters and aimless plot will be an earth-shattering revelation to filmmaking.
Breaking rules only works if you know them backwards and forwards in the first place, because it needs to be done with intention for the story.
You’re half right. It isn’t to create generational talent, but it is to get access to the the network of contacts.A similar thing happens in the world of defense contracting. It isn’t “nepotism,” but it’s called “double dipping.” It’s when a high ranking officer (typically Colonel or higher) in the Pentagon retires and goes to work for a major defense contractor (your Lockheed-Martins). He isn’t hired for his skills, he’s hired for who he knows at the Pentagon. He can open doors that others couldn’t. An ex-Navy 4 star admiral was just arrested for taking this a step too far by promising a company a lucrative contract in exchange for a high salary at that company after he retired.
It even happens within the public sector. People who were program officers at the NIH or NSF (that is, people who decide which researchers at universities get federal grant money) often transition to administrative roles at universities under the idea (true or not) that they will know how to game the system to get more federal grants.
It happens everywhere. People get jobs because of family all the time. Most of those insufferable “business” books stress building a network and they always stress that your first network is always your family. I can’t complain, my dad got me my internship with a huge tech company that led to them hiring me after college and I’ve now worked 22 years for them. I wasn’t the only intern that started that summer with a family connection but I was the only one hired after because I actually did a good job and impressed people. Nepotism can open doors but it usually takes more to succeed
The issue is when those open doors get downplayed.Dozens (or more) people were (likely) equally qualified as you. But didn’t even get a chance because there was no one else to open a door for them.
You mean, like, leveraging their professional experience and knowledge to get in the door and help others get in the door? What deviltry is this???
I guess it depends on whether you see getting a grant proposal funded as being primarily based on merit of the research being proposed or if it it is more using the right language, buzzwords and other “secret sauce” to get it through the system. While as someone who had successful grant proposals (and unsuccessful ones) I know it’s a mixture of the two, but the idea of hiring a funding agency insider is more based on the idea that the latter is more important.
It isn’t to create generational talentHeh. I wrote “a” generational talent. “The talent” are actors, musicians, and various personalities presenting the image of an entertainment production or event. The names you see on the ad for a movie are “the” talent. They’re trying to create “talent” that is multi-generational and comes with connections.
Sir, we’re going to have to ask you to stop making rational arguments. This is the AVClub.
NEVER!
Didn’t you just reinforce the point, though, that he was given opportunities that turned out to be crap and the industry pretty much called it a day with him? I think untalented nepo babies can continue leveraging their names into Z-list productions (or reality TV shows) where they’re cast in the hopes that at least a few people will watch because of their involvement. But Hollywood is a brutally competitive place and not too many producers are directors are going to continue casting stinker kids of influential people just for access. Because eventually it will tarnish their reputations as well.
Didn’t you just reinforce the point, though, that he was given opportunities that turned out to be crap and the industry pretty much called it a day with him?After being the biggest-selling screenwriter of his generation. The guy had a great career as a terrible writer. There are plenty of bad writers with worse careers that no one notices because they haven’t flooded the market with trash yet. Blake Snyder was just un/lucky enough to flare hot and fast and have everybody realize at the same time he kinda trash.And he was so successful that mediocre screenwriters just adopted everything he said for 20 years and continued to flood the market with his leavings.
More like “Save The Nepo Baby” am I right?
I dunno, I like Zosia Mamet. Couldn’t say whether I’ve seen the other two, but Mamet made the most of a limited role on Mad Men, and I really liked her work on The Flight Attendant. I’ve heard she was great on Girls but will admit I’ve never seen that show.
“Just because people keep getting jobs doesn’t mean they’re good at their jobs.”Sure but there are actors who don’t have famous parents who stink anyway and they also get roles.
And sometimes it takes them a few tries to find what they are good at. Sophia Coppola comes to mind.
Counterpoint – if Zak Snyder wasn’t married to a major c-suit, his career would have fallen below Netflix films years a while back.Granted thats a director but yes, people can keep failing upward even in acting
Dakota Johnson is a nepo baby, but she’s not untalented.
And not to be shallow, but like her mother and grandmother, extremely pretty as well, which helps.
I have heard others make this claim. I have not seen any evidence to support it. I have also not seen Suspiria which is the one they point to.
I would go back to Ben and Kate
I’ll check it out
Snyder is a fantastic visualist, it’s hard to deny that. Problem is he can’t write, has no idea how to direct actors, and barely understands what makes a story work in the first place. He should be a cinematographer, not a director.
Agreed but also I’d love to hear his thoughts on slow motion. I just can’t understand why he overuses it to such an extent.
Because it looks cool. It really doesn’t go any further than that, I think.
Agreed, the man knows what looks cool. He still hasn’t made his best film and won’t unless paired with a very strong guiding hand.I started thinking a couple years ago he’d make a good sports-ball film – masculinity, simple motivations and slow mo action.
Snyder’s movies have made money and he’s been reputed to be a great guy to work with. His movies don’t necessarily land with critics but he clearly has an audience. He “fails upwards” the same way Michael Bay does (and treats his actors much better at least).
Yeah, Jaden Smith immediately comes to mind of a sidelined nepokid, whereas Willow Smith for the most part has a lot of musical talent. Seems odd when they’re from the same family.And Ms. Hawke is actually quite a good actor. So much(to me) that when I first saw her in Stranger Things I just thought “Wow, I like this gal, she’s got chops.”I didn’t even know she was the daughter of Ethan and Uma until like a year later. Maybe that’s what makes a successful nepo baby; you don’t know about their heritage until a fair while after you’ve seen them perform.It also seems like some nepokids get a short end of the stick depending on their parents, ala North West as Simba in the stage production of the Lion King. I don’t know if her performance was good or not, nor even a slight description of the full production itself. I just saw everyone online screaming “North didn’t deserve that part!”, and not even being able to gauge it as a part of her performance, but only criticism of her getting the part because of who her parents are. And do we even know if her parents pulled strings for her? I kinda stopped reading stuff after all the bashing without any assessment of her acting.So there can be both upsides and downsides to being a nepokid.
Jaden’s music career isn’t to bad. He’s got a banger on the Spider-verse soundtrack. Both the Smith kids seem to be happy living life as fashion influencers these days and, honestly, that’s a good place for them. I get the feeling with Jaden that he realized acting wasn’t for him long before his Dad did.
LOL, Willow just dropped a novel too. Well “co-wrote”. Still, not many other nepo babies take advantage of their opportunities like she seems to,.
Man I feel so bad for North West. That name alone borders on abuse.
Many countries other than the US actually forbid parents from giving children weird names under the argument that it is literally a form of psychological abuse.
“And Ms. Hawke is actually quite a good actor.I’ve never seen her in anything so I couldn’t say, but I didn’t like seeing her say “I’m comfortable with not deserving it,” because I don’t like to see a woman told she doesn’t deserve what she has. It happens so much in so many contexts, so if she’s good at acting even if she got a leg up she shouldn’t feel like she doesn’t deserve a career.
No, you know North West as Simba was absolute trash, because you can see it in the videos and hear it in the song. It’s not hard to tell bad singing, and it’s not hard to tell when someone is literally being pushed around and guided on stage like a toddler to hit their marks. she 10000000000000000000000000000% got it through nepotism, but it could also have been that the show runners recognized the eyes doing some shit like this would bring to the show, so it could have been their idea for all I know. What I also know is that she’s not very talented, and she was put in the front of a Tony award winning show, one of the most famous musicals of our time.
John Fisher, the A’s owner?
I dunno, the greater issue to me seems to be less that, say, Chet Hanks eventually gets dumped on the Z-list after a few opportunities, and more that he easily gets those few opportunities in the first place despite a lack of talent when countless more talented people can barely even get a foot in the door.And even then, someone somewhere will still be willing to throw some money at him even if just for the meme value, while those countless more talented people are still struggling to get noticed.
The film industry is filled with people who are talented who simply couldn’t get in the room and get the break they needed. Having the famous parents skips you way ahead in the line. It is a very significant factor. Not to mention the fact that your parents have navigated the industry and can give you very real, practical advice about how to work it.
Being successful in this industry is never purely about talent. You need as much, if not more, luck as you do talent. The remarkable luck of being born to famous people cannot be overstated.
I’d bet most Hollywood nepo babies started out as shitty actors until their elite acting coaches whipped them into shape. It’s a skill that can be taught, just like other trades.
But breaks are huge hurtles for talented artists. Yes, after a several chances if you suck, you will only have the bottom of the barrel if you have any career at all, but you at least get those shots. I really like people who are honest about their business connections (and the almost as significant wealth connections) that enabled them to get a break.
uhhh tell that to Scott Eastwood. That dudes been shoved into shit for as long as I can remember, and is genuinely blah
Look, John Fisher is a garbage human. But he at least had to get through Princeton and Stanford grad school before taking the reins of GAP. Some of these acting nepo babies’ opportunities come via far less rigorous means.
I dunno about that. Emma Roberts is still getting roles. Same with Andie Mcdowell’s daughter. Likewise with say, Kate Hudson (who I will acknowledge debuted with that killer performance in Almost Famous that she has never come close to equalling). I mean, they’re not notably worse than other bland, interchangeable actresses, but it’s just sort of obnoxious seeing them get so many high-profile roles while being so uninteresting – it seems like obvious nepotism at play.Yes, if they were Pia Zadora level or something I’m sure they’d have been cast out. But it seems like mediocrity definitely will still keep you in roles if you have famous parents.Then again maybe they just share agents with whoever got Sam Worthington or Jai Courtney into all those huge roles for a while.
https://www.theonion.com/uma-thurman-ethan-hawke-to-sire-new-race-of-homo-celbr-1819586489
People say The Simpsons predicts the future, but The Onion does too. You gave a good example. Another is the one in which they predicted there was another celebrity to be had from Mary-Kate and Ashley’s family. https://www.theonion.com/lapd-discovers-hidden-deformed-olsen-triplet-1819567036
Oooooh, I hate those nepo babies so much!
No, no, no, say it like Yosemite Sam! “OOOOOOOH, I HATES THEM NEPO BABIES!!!”
CONFOUND THOSE NEPO BABIES! OH, HOW I HATE THEM! I HATE MAYA! I HATE ZOSIA! AND I HATE LILY-ROSE! THEY DRIVE ME TO DRINK!
Cheers!
I already punched through my boater hat, threw it to the ground and jumped on it in a fit of pure consternation!
While screaming Angrish profanities, I hope. THOSE RACKIN FRACKIN VARMINT NEPO BABY RABBITS!
Well I hate Anne Hathaway and her over-eager-theater-kid energy!
I’ll see your Anne Hathaway and raise you an Anna Kendrick.
Anne + Anna = Spider Fantasy…!…
The children of wealthy, influencial, famous people will always have a advantage, no matter what they choose to do. Hollywood doesn’t seem overwhelmed with the kids of A List celebs. I judge film actors differently than stage actors. Brilliantly scripted and produced movies can compensate for poor acting only so long.
Yikes, no. Somebody doesn’t know what the word “nepotism” means.
True, and kids getting into the family business isn’t just a Hollywood thing of course.
In rural areas most farms are multi-generational. There always seems to be at least one kid that wants to learn, live and eventually run the family business.
The AVERAGE farm household income post-expenses is 1.7 million dollars per year. In rural areas. And is heavily subsidized by the US government.This doesn’t really change the timbre of the discussion, since it’s still multigenerational wealth passed down through the family that creates a permanent aristocracy just like in the 1800’s.
This is like saying on average, you, me, and Bill Gates are all billionaires because if you add all our money and divide by three that’s what you get. There are enormous, highly profitable, factory farms in the US (which might still be considered “family farms” because one family still controls them) and there are lots of small, genuine, family farms (although getting fewer all the time as they go bust and are forced to sell out). Taking the average and assuming farmers are in general rich is asinine.
Yup, it’s a ridiculous assertion – average isn’t mean. Aussie rural reporter here – so, far closer to Franky than Bazzd is. The problem is visibility. I’m sure Bazzd is familiar with the big “farming” families that make the news and have visibility – Cargill comes to mind – but for every giant cockie a suburbanite is aware of, there’s dozens they ain’t. And I guarantee you most aren’t doing well. But no news crew is gonna film them, nor will the farmers have a lot of time for an interview (or us journos’ bullshit in general). And chances are they’re getting fucked over by one of the giants those suburbanites do know of. In an increasingly urbanised world, nuanced rural reporting is harder and harder to do.
This is true, though of course farms are just one example of family businesses. It’s everything from corner stores to corporations.
Only 3.9% of US farms have make over $1 million annually over the last ten years, though, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service. 81.4% make less than $100,000 per year. So if both our numbers are true, that average consists of a small number of US farms which make well over a million and enormous amount of farms which make substantially less (92% make less than $500,000/year).
Well, I know that’s not true for Franky, since I sincerely doubt the US government is subsidising Australian farmers, no matter how you AVERAGE it. I know a fair few farmers who are perpetually on the bones of their arses, and are intergenerational.
How come nobody talk about the nepo-baby farmers!!!
How come nobody talk about the nepo-baby farmers!!!…or butchers, electricians mechanics, garage owners, landscapers, etc. We used to call them family businesses, like a store getting passed down the generations.
To be totally fair, while farming, plumbing, grocering, electrical engineering etc. are all noble pursuits and necessary to a functioning society, they tend to come with less fame, recognition, monetary wealth, influence and cultural capital and more physically difficult labor, potentially dangers, creative unfulfillment, and / or just generally being a bit gross than the entertainment industries.
I remember reading that good Chinese food is getting harder to find because after (I forget how many) generations now the younger people in the family are becoming doctors, lawyers, etc and most don’t want to take over the family business. We used to have three really good places here in my town, and now we’re down to one good one and a few hole in the wall style places.
Our favorite Chinese food place closed down because the owners got to old to keep it up and none of the kids wanted to take it over.
That’s a shame, though in defense of the kids, the restaurant business is not for the faint of heart. The competition and the hours can take a toll, burnout for employers and employees is high, and with inflation rising prices make it difficult for people to eat out. A restaurant I liked in my town burned down (not intentionally), and the owners just cut their losses because they didn’t want to deal with the time and money it would have taken to reopen it. To be honest, I’d be more at peace with my kids not taking over my business than having them take a good business and run it into the ground if they’re not up for it.
I agree. The restaurant industry is super hard.
It isn’t even just that it is the family business. You get exposed to it regularly, you know it pretty well, and a good portion of people are going to decide that they like it. You also will have connections of course, because you might end up in a job interview or audition with someone who knew you from when you were born, but even without that you just have a leg up on the competition because you have been exposed to whatever job it is for so long that you are likely to be better at it and know more about it than someone without that experience.
Wait, you say farms are in rural areas?! Mind blown.
Well, I for one am refreshed.
I just had an awesome poo aswell….
Nothing beats a frosty Maya Hawke on a hot day for pure refreshment.
Nepo babies, dad makes your dreams come true.Nepo babies, and ask your mommy too.
– to the tune of Muppet Babies
– yeah, we got it.
Yay, let’s all show our age together! And yes, I know there was a new series in 2018, but let’s be honest: only parents of those kids are here.
I didn’t even know about the 2018 version!
I’ll admit I had to look it up, but I figured it was a safe bet that Disney wouldn’t let such sweet existing IP just pass them by without at least one reboot attempt.
Just say yep-otism to nepotism!
“Refreshing” is a good word for it. So few beneficiaries will admit this. We keep seeing interviews of these entertainers claiming, “We actually have to work even harder than everyone else…” and other nonsense. That’s the part that I’m tired of — the denials, the gaslighting, the woe-is-me attitude, as if we will be convinced by any of it.
Your life is not any better for what Maya Hawke said.
This is literally all anyone has ever asked. And I take it to reflect that Maya Hawke is confident enough as an actress and artist and comfortable enough in her career to know she’s going to be weighed favorably on her merits against her advantages and it doesn’t make her less if someone else got screwed over it. To be an actress, she would almost have to be a nepo baby by default.It’s not that nepo babies should never have jobs. It’s that everyone needs to stop gaslighting people over it, especially when they see the same terrible actors pop up in movies over and over again and then wonder why that person they love in that thing they love can’t get work or is stuck in indie films. If Maya Hawke is exceptional at her job, then people annoyed at nepo babies won’t be thinking about her.But ultimately, as long as we get fewer people who defend nepo babies as somehow better at their jobs on average due to Social Darwinism than, statistically (and almost by definition), worse at their jobs on average because of their fewer hurdles and obstacles and demands, then we’re on the right track.
Literally no one cares that you feel gaslit
Exactly. All we want is for people to acknowledge the very obvious phenomenon. We know it’ll continue to happen; just admit it, is all. Yes, Maya got into the business due to her parents. She’s still a good actress (and probably a good musician), but just admitting that she got her break from nepotism is satisfying.
“There’s not a human being on the planet, after all, who likes being told they don’t deserve their accomplishments”Please tell progressives this so they can shut the fuck up about white privilege, white fragility, white psychodrama, etc. Unless of course you want the next president to be working from cellblock C.
Isn’t that what you want? How are you not a Trump supporter when you parrot all the same bullshit?
You are such a fucking pussy unable to cope with reality. Keep being an obsessed stalker of progressives though!
What exactly is people’s point about nepo babies? Do they think that children of famous people should be banished by law from participating in their parents industry? It’s a complete waste of time and energy to make a stink about it. People are going to have advantages. Deal with it.
People are going to have advantages. Deal with it. – The AV Club
It’s a complete waste of time and energy to make a stink about it.
– The AV Club
I think the actual catalyst for backlash was that some nepo babies were suggesting that being the child of famous people didn’t help them at all. Gwyneth Paltrow I think went that direction, for example. But I also think it was Gen Z actually realizing how many famous people are related to each other and being able to talk about it on Tik Tok that made it a whole “thing.” I mean Hollywood is full of nepo babies that I don’t think people were thinking about when coining the term (Julie Andrews, Jamie Lee Curtis, for example)
“ Do they think that children of famous people should be banished by law from participating in their parents industry?”No. That’s a lazy and dumb strawman.
This is one of the better Criterion Closet shorts on its own, and it’s also really illustrative of part of the family business side of nepo babies when it’s done right.In this case, one of the things you learn from it is that Ethan Hawke is a film nut who was trying over and over to make his kids watch War and Peace on vacation. Even though he apparently never succeeded with that gambit (and you wonder how much in the way of kids movies this she ever got to see in a normal version of childhood), Maya was apparently given the film school version of the old Remote Control game show growing up: she got sat down in front of a screen over and over by her utter film nut dad and just seems to have absorbed what he (and I’m sure her mom, although I don’t think she’s ever talked in detail about that relationship) knew about film making for what’s been pretty much her entire life.What the rest of this shows when she starts picking her own set of Blu-rays is that she took that and ran with it on her own and has her own insights on the acting and directing process that are the equivalent of someone vastly more experienced than her actual age. It’s good basis for why when she had her breakout role in Stranger Things a whole lot of people suddenly realized the girl could act.The contacts and wealth portion of the nepo baby entry into the business are where it’s unfair, and it’s good to see that she understands that. The other part, though, I can’t really begrudge at all.
Having parents who are artists and love art is historicaly a good source of people who grow up to love art and want to create it themselves.It’s the way we introduce money onto the equation that makes people get all buggy.
Right? How many would-be artists are discouraged by their parents to Not Go Into Art because there’s no money in it? Having parents who are not only artists but actively passing on that knowledge is certainly going to help someone be the best artist they’d be capable of being.
Minor criticism of this, Criterion collection clip? They should put the year the movie was released right beside it and reference the title with the year?There’s more than one Kicking and Screaming movie
I love the 1995 film so much. My friends and I still quote it all the time.“He’d already rather be Bowhunting.” “Oh, I’ve been to Prague.”
Absolute psycho Ethan Hawke taking Uma Thurman to see HUSBANDS on a first date.
That video makes me want to have a kid.
Roman Reigns is the best example of nepotism running wild like Hulkamania, I thought he was Vinces kid for awhile and not just some distant relative of Dwight Jackson.
There is nothing more exhausting then people acting like nepotism is something that only effects “elites”.Walk into any good trade shop, the apprentices are nephews and sons of friends and cousins twice removed. They have more than enough people asking for jobs to need to hire newbies off the street. Ask the dwindling few who’ve moved from middle to upper class through corporate America, someone who was their friend gave them a promotion or referral along the way that put them over the other candidates. It’s like when I was high school and there was all the talk about peer pressure like it just…vanished outside the bounds of public school. This problem (which is not always actually a problem, perhaps social phenomenon?) exists beyond something as relatively simple as the playgrounds of the rich&the famous. Maybe I’m being pedantic or reductive but it feels like finding an interesting path in the woods but staying at the first rock you find. The discussion never evolves beyond “successful people help kid get job!”And anyone just realizing hollywoods entire history is hiring family and friends is either very young or doesn’t actually know much film history.I don’t know, I never really believed in the myth of meritocracy so I’m never certain what people are trying to accomplish. LIFE will teach you that nepotism is often a gatekeeper to success, im uncertain we need to hyper focus on Hollywood gossip mills to communicate that dilemma.
I would definitely agree with this.When I was in law school and the conversation turned to finding work or articling positions after grad, the ones who went silent were the ones who had positions lined up the day they said “I’m thinking about law school” out loud.
This would have been a good example of what im talking about, thank you
I said it above but Nepotism usually can open doors for you but then, for most people, they have to prove they should be there. If your “sponsor” is someone very powerful you may be able to coast in a swag job doing nothing forever but in most cases Nepotism gets you an internship or interview but then you need follow through.Thats my experience at least. My dad got me my internship that led to me being hired after college. For the first couple of years I worked in the same office and even commuted with my Dad to work. After he retired, I spent years distancing myself from him and not mentioning how I started at the company. Now, over twenty years into my career, I realize it’s how most of us got our start and I actively seek out my good employees kids for internships. The fact is if you are a good employee with a good work ethic, your kids usually fit that mold as well.
Nepo baby.
Sure, but there are usually many qualified people for those jobs and for every person who got a job through nepotism , there are ten (or a hundred) more just as qualified if not moreso, who did not get that job.
I dunno, most folks I knew with half a brain moved from lower middle class (at best) to middle or upper middle class just by getting a middling state university degree and moving out of Bumfuckburg to a decent size city. Meritocracy may be a myth when you’re talking about the upper echelons of society, but it seems to have worked for folks I know. I do better than that but the primary difference in my case is that I married someone in the same line of work as I am, and we didn’t have kids. But even the friends I have who did have kids are doing alright.Maybe my circle of friends just aren’t parents-basement dwellers, or maybe it’s because I’m 43.
There’s a huge difference between working at your parent’s store and getting your foot in the door in an industry where there are 1,000 qualified candidates for every job.There’s nothin more exhausting than having to explain this simple concept to people every time this conversation comes up.And anyone thinking people are just realizing Hollywood’s entire history is hiring family and friends is being ridiculous. The fact that something is coming up now doesn’t mean people are just realizing it. It just means people are talking about it more now.I don’t know, I never really believed in the myth of meritocracy, so I’m not certain what people like you are trying to accomplish by muddying the waters with this stuff. I’m certain no one is saying we need to hyper focus on Hollywood gossip mills to communicate about nepotism.Anyway, nepotism is a problem of the elite because people don’t care about getting into the circle of the non-elite. People aren’t sitting around saying “Man, if only I could get my big break by working in a hardware store”.
Good thing I didn’t mention “working at the family store” like it’s 1970 and Walmart/big-box retail hadn’t murdered small family owned retail decades ago.No, I specifically said “trade shop”, though “home construction” probably could have slotted right in.And, yes they are looking “for their big break”, starting with the rat race to attend a prestigious school. People are regularly hustling their ass off to get in the door at the one or two regional employers that represent steady pay and an upward path. It’s why the shipyard near where I grew up still has lines out the door on career days.Your right that the average walmart employee isnt, because they have the brain power to recognize how limited promotions actually are within the company, with fairly hard ceilings.
It’s called networking and everyone does it, or should do it if they can. Sheesh.
You really think nepotism and networking are the same thing? Wild take.
To be totally honest, the nepo babies the Internet is interested in are not the problem in Hollywood. Josh Brolin growing up on film sets and becoming a great actor to me isn’t that different from the kid of a butcher becoming a butcher. Yes he, Hawke, and other kids have had opportunities other kids don’t have, but they also have experience in the industry others can’t possibly dream of. Brolin specifically is a better actor than his dad ever was, and I’m sure growing up on movie sets is partly why.The problem is far more with nepo babies of non-famous but wealthy or privileged execs who decide with no education, training, or work ethic that they want to work in entertainment, and get competitive internships, assistantships, and sometimes higher level jobs as a result of parents’ connections that should be going to qualified people. That is a legitimate problem in Hollywood that takes away opportunities from others, and is generally overshadowed by the sillier Nepo Baby discourse around the kids of well-known actors.
You mean like Uma Thurman, daughter of highly prominent Columbia professor and Harvard and Phillips Exeter Academy grad Robert Thurman?
Wow, her dad went to the boarding school that the one in the obnoxiously sappy A Separate Peace (which people have to read in high school, or at least did in the 1980s) was based on!
I’m thinking more like Nicola Peltz, daughter of billionaire producer Nelson Peltz and an indirect trigger for the whole Racebending movement due to what was apparently her father insisting that she be cast as Katara in The Last Airbender.
The one who married David & Victoria Beckham’s son?
The same.
“It’s OK to be made fun of when you’re in rarefied air. “Somebody tell that to Kim and Kanye’s kid after that disaster of a performance in the Lion King
The real shame of that isn’t that North got the role over someone more deserving…it’s that she got the role over literally anyone.
I like Maya Hawke & thought she was excellent on Stranger ThingsI do not like the term “nepo baby” or the discourse around the term
Do you not like the discourse? Or do you not like a strawman version of the discourse?What do see as the problem with pointing out when people have significant advantages?
I’ll echo the sentiments of others, that nepotism will only get you so far before you get sidelined. Did Maya Hawke have help getting her foot in the door? Absolutely. But she’s also done the work, and has the drive, and few would argue that doesn’t have incredible ability and camera presence. Compare to, say, Chet Haze or Cara Delevigne, who leveraged their connections but lacking ability or work ethic, their connections only carried them so far.I would also add that there is a special burden to benefitting from nepotism. The recipient will always carry the burden of wondering to what extent their success was because of who they were related to, and not because of their own gifts. They’ll always have that question, “Would I be where I am if I didn’t have famous parents?” That’s a hard burden.I know a little of this first hand. I was the son of a coach. Not just any coach, but a highly successful one. Record holding in terms of victories and championships won. When I mentioned my last name, people ask if I’m related to [Insert Coach]. There were a lot of expectations that I would follow in his footsteps. That I would be a great athlete like he was, and then succeed him as coach when he decided to retire. And I could have followed that path, very easily.But I just didn’t want that burden of all those expectations, and the suspicion that my success was due to my dad, and not my own merits. I wanted to do something different, and have my success or failure be entirely on my own. Masochist that I am, I chose to be a filmmaker. I’ve been one for 20 years. Do I often wish I had a family connection to get me into a great film festival, or a meeting with an agent or a distributor? Oh yeah. But then I remember the reasons why I chose not to be a coach like my dad, and I feel glad about the path I chose. It’s been hard, the failures many, the successes few, but they’ve all belonged to me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.So in the end, I have a respect for those who benefitted from nepotism. Because they carry great responsibility and expectations, and it takes a lot of strong character not to let all that break you down.
I get that.My father was a prominent lawyer in my state for many years and even today I still get the “is INSERT LAWYER your father?”.Aside from a total disinterest in practicing, I would have hated going into law because that would have been around my neck the whole time.I went into news journalism and writing instead and, while my father had nothing to do at all with my professional career at all (which I’ve been doing with success for nearly 20 years now), I copped a lot of the “you only got the job because your father is famous” shit in the early years.I’ve got no doubts about how I got my career or its success (and in any event, I haven’t seen or spoken to my father in a decade) but Christ I wish people back then had fucked off with what they thought they knew about me or my life.
“When I mentioned my last name, people ask if I’m related to [Insert Coach].”To be fair, there aren’t many people with the last name Krzyzewski.
I have sort of the opposite situation minus the famous parent. My brain took me on a path well outside of the “family business” (my father and all his 11 siblings are either engineers or married to one). I wasn’t an exceptional student and so I had really no idea how to get to where I wanted to go. It took a long time and I didn’t really start the career I wanted until I was 30. Had I been born into a family of people who were involved in my career area, I would have had an easier life.
I think we regular folk have no problem with nepobabies when they are GOOD. We love people Jamie Lee Curtis, Drew Barrymore, Maya Hawke. We do NOT like Felicity Huffman’s shit-for-brains daughter.
I want to see someone be refreshingly dishonest about being a nepo baby. “I got that role on my own merits! I defeated 78 other auditioners in single combat! I’ve been using Chalamet’s head as a hood ornament for six months and nobody’s noticed!”
Don’t know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but the lead single from her record is also fantastic.
Can we have an Ethan hawke film school? It wouldn’t involve a fake helicopter crash like the Tom Cruise one
Mrs Thurman and Mr Hawke were in the closet making nepo babies and I saw one of the nepo babies and the nepo baby got a job because of its parents and it looked at me.
People tend to have issues with nepo babies when there’s big money involved. Child of a famous actor? Nepo baby. Fourth generation owner of a plumbing company or seventh generation bourbon distillery owner? Reliable and reputable.Now, the field of work I do have an issue with nepo babies is politics.
“who it’s hard to deny have at least some leg up in the entertainment industry”Which is why I continue to wonder why this keeps being a controversy. Everyone knows they have a leg up. They know they have a leg up. Whether they want to admit it or not, we all know. Plus, it’s not a question of whether they “deserve” the career. If you have the talent for it, you deserve it, and if you don’t, you don’t, whether nepotism was involved or not. No one is saying (I think?) that just because nepotism was involved you don’t deserve to be able to act. Unless you are terrible at it.
I think it’s inescapable. I mean, the Coppola clan could change their names all they liked back in the day, but everyone still knew who they were auditioning and hiring.But with any well known anybody, that’s just a fact of life.I like Tom Hanks’ attitude about it, which was essentially, “I’ll give you one introduction, and that’s it.”
And it’s not even just well-known people. In literally every walk of life—if you already know someone doing something, you have a leg up over people who don’t. If I need a job and my uncle is a janitor, he can put in a good word for me with his boss and I have an advantage over other applicants. It’s a fact of life of living in a community. And what’s funny is it’s generally considered a good thing. It’s part of why parents work hard to “make something of themselves,” so they can make the way easier for their kids. This is normal. You make sure your kids get education and you make sure they learn the value of hard work–obviously I’m not talking about parents who raise lazy kids–but I don’t know why we’re all suddenly acting like it’s weird for parents to help their children be employed.
Yup.My uncle was a vet and he hired my two older brothers when they were in high school to do some odds and ends around the place.After some weeks, he wound up calling my mom to let her know he was going to let my older brother go. He was just lazy and wouldn’t work while letting my other brother do everything.
You might have a leg up, but that’s opportunity, not career (so to speak).
Indeed, and certainly there are exceptions and there are lazy bastards who stumble into careers or whose parents prop them up, but I think that’s probably not going to be the vast majority, and I don’t know why people are acting like it’s a crime for kids to have help from their parents’ names. I get that we need to recognize where privilege exists to expose the lie that is The American Dream, but beyond that, just let it go? We don’t need the “nepo” babies to admit an obvious truth or apologize for it or, what? Quit acting and being famous and making millions? lol
“No one is saying (I think?) that just because nepotism was involved you don’t deserve to be able to act.”You are correct that no one thinks this. That won’t stop most of the comment section attacking that strawman.
I don’t like to be down on Gen Z, but the nepo baby discourse that has widely come from that circle kind of feels like Gen Z just discovered the world isn’t a meritocracy. Maya Hawke is right – she doesn’t deserve her career, but neither do most people. I do think actors from families of actors probably need to be more honest in how that has helped them rather than playing into the narrative that they did it all themselves, but yeah, well connected people get more chances than non-well connected people.
Nepotism exists in all professions to one degree or another, in entertainment it is just more visible. Remember in the far past most people did the same jobs as their parents, including entertainers.
The Will/ Jada offspring aside, the only two nepos that I really consider terrible actors are Zoe Kazan (so miscast in She Said) and Maude Apatow.
If a plumber showed up to your house would anyone be like “Isn’t your dad a plumber? Get out nepo-baby!” Acting is a trade like any other and I think people are holding the tradesmen and women in too high esteem.
On a completely unrelated note, Greer Grammer has been cast in the role of Roz’s daughter on Frasier.