Nepo babies are everywhere in Entertainment these days.
From Maude Apatow, to Dakota Johnson, to Nicholas Cage,
One of your favorite actors is probably related to the Hollywood elite.
A nepotism baby is the child of wealthy,
well-connected parents who are famous or highly successful in the
entertainment industry.
And the nepo baby experiences an
expeditious assent to fame, wealth, and success.
At least in part thanks to their family's connections and status.
“I kind of fell into acting,
it was never something that I, sort of set out to do.
And I was at this gig, this lady came up to me,
and she was like ‘I love your look’ She knew my mom.”
For some, the nepo baby is an opulent fantasy.
It's easy to imagine the delights of growing up as this figure
with all their advantages and iconic connections.
For others, discovering another nepo baby feels like a betrayal,
more proof that America’s meritocracy is broken.
“I don’t really agree with that obviously, because it takes away
opportunities for other very talented
actors that just don't have the, y’know the same influence in the industry.”
What do these stars really say about inequality and entertainment
and in America more broadly?
Here’s our take on why the nepo baby inspires such strong feelings,
and what they tell us about ourselves.
“His viral, ‘not viral’ videos being his big break, or we can take into account
his parents decade-long experience in the theater scene.”
Being born into a wealthy family comes with innumerable perks
like a robust safety net, a massive elite professional network,
and an effortlessly glamorous lifestyle.
But nepotism babies aren't a new phenomenon,
they've been around for longer than Hollywood itself.
The earliest moving images captured by the Lumiere brothers,
featured their own kids, the first literal nepo babies;
and the child actors of the
silent film era were often related to industry insiders.
Take the solax kid Magda Foy,
who was the daughter of two stock actors at the Solak studio.
Even some modern-day nepo babies can trace their roots back to
early Hollywood.
Drew Barrymore is the grandchild of silent film star John Barrymore,
and Zoe Kazan is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan,
a legendary director from the classical Hollywood era.
“He knew himself, that he was the person he answered to,
and I think all of that
is a really good example in terms of being an artist.”
So, the Nepo babies of today are part of a long tradition
of successful artists lifting up their relatives to create Hollywood dynasties.
People like Maude Apatow, Sam Levinson,
Billy Lourd, Kate Hudson, Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal;
these stars are all genuinely talented,
but it's impossible to separate their success from their family.
In addition, to all their connections,
nepo baby's names have a distinct commercial value.
“When my agent called up, when I hadn't done any work yet,
and they said to a casting director
‘I have a young actress here and she’s Kazan’s daughter.’,
I think they’re more willing to see me.”
Jamie Lee Curtis went through a long audition process for her
breakout hit Halloween
and gave an acclaimed iconic performance in it,
but she's very open about how her family helped her get the role.
“Given that John and Debra were such fans of psycho,
to have Janet lee's daughter as one of the two;
obviously it tipped it my way.”
Many of these stars make the counterpoint
that while their names may have got them in the door,
that didn't take them all the way,
and they still had to earn their ultimate success.
“So I definitely think it like,
cracked open the door a tiny bit but no more than that.
There's an opportunity for people who feel slighted in their own lives
to look at me and just say well that's nepotism.”
So perhaps one of the biggest benefits of being a nepo baby is the
informal education these kids get
from being raised by parents who are at the absolute top of their field.
Maude Apatow grew up on film sets and cut her teeth as an actress
in Hollywood movies directed by her dad.
That's a kind of learning environment most kids can only dream about.
“He knows how to talk to me and direct me well.”
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson's knowledge of
cinematography and storytelling is no doubt informed by the fact that
his father is the
academy award-winning director of Rain Man Barry Levinson.
Most film students have to pay an arm and a leg for top-notch training
in the craft and even when they do,
if they're not Sophia Coppola,
they'd never get access to the knowledge and insights of a Francis Ford Coppola.
“I was lucky to have such a great teacher
and he and he gave me a book as a teenager;
it was the encyclopedia of poetics,
and he always talked about film as being poetry.”
Jennifer Lopez's child is a naturally gifted singer,
and it's great that they get to share their
love of music with their mom
but for most kids, that means singing
together at a talent show and for Emmy Muniz,
that means singing on stage at the Super Bowl.
♬ Let's get loud! ♬
Zoe Kazan didn't just benefit from the Kazan name,
she learned about the craft of acting from her screenwriter parents.
“I was given plays to read and movies to watch,
they would talk to me about acting, above all, it's a family of artists.”
With all these privileges
it's no wonder TikTok is full of people fantasizing about being a nepo baby;
but others feel let down when they learn their idols came from
less than humble origins.
So many opportunities in life are about being at the right place
at the right time so it can be frustrating
to see nepotism babies who are born in the right place
and constantly provided with the right times,
especially when they refuse to admit they were
put on a path to success by their families.
“The nepotism thing is ridiculous it's like no one ever got a
television show,
because their mother was like, you know,
an alternative art figure in the 1980s and 90s.”
Some nepo babies are aware of, and acknowledge their leg up along with
the responsibilities that brings.
“I'm self-realized enough to understand someone would have thought
‘once the movie gets made and we have to go out and sell it,
having Janet Lee's daughter playing Lori Strode will help us’.”
But others try to sell a misleading image that
hustling and working hard alone got them to where they are today.
“I have the best advice for women in business:
Get your ass up and work,
it seems like nobody wants to work these days.”
This amplifies that feeling of being let down when a fan discovers
their role model has nepo baby origins.
When someone has been presenting
an image of themselves climbing up a pure meritocracy,
it can change your whole view of them to discover
they were actually born at the top.
“Just acknowledge it one time just say ‘yes my parent is famous and I'm
very grateful for the opportunities it has obviously afforded me’.”
People also feel betrayed by nepo babies if they don't consider those people
talented or hard-working enough to deserve their level of success.
“You have parents who are two A-listers you grew up in the industry
you go to like sets to visit your parents and you come out mediocre.”
It can also seem like nepo babies
get endless chances to try and fail before they find their groove.
Another thing that's great for them but exceedingly rare for everyone else.
On the other hand, the scrutiny around nepo babies can get a little harsh
for example when actors and creators who, despite their privileged starts,
have proven themselves on their own merits are headlined simply as nepo babies.
This can seem a tad vicious.
“In order to also hear the nepotism comments I had to be really confident
in like my own skills and abilities and that no I put in the time.”
The nepo baby may feel like they can't take risks and make mistakes
without being subject to hyper-intense criticism.
In fact, some genuinely talented
nepo babies have changed their names to distance themselves from their
famous relative and avoid the constant comparisons.
“I changed my name because I was doing a little movie called
Fast Times at Ridgemont High and I was still Nicholas Coppola
and people would not stop saying things like
‘I love the smell of Nicholas in the morning.’
because of Apocalypse Now.”
On social media, some people sort nepo babies into two
distinct categories, the deserving and the undeserving.
We want to know which stars truly earned their success.
But maybe we're asking the wrong question
because what does it even mean to deserve your success?
Can we truly judge that? And is that framing actually useful?
The deeper reason critics of the nepo baby feel betrayed
is because nepotism shatters the illusion of the American Dream.
America is supposed to be the land of opportunity,
where anyone can be anything if they work hard enough.
nepo babies are proof that isn't true.
“These systems should be meritocracies and nepotism babies are a problem
because they generationally keep the rich and privileged in power.”
But perhaps it was pretty naive that we ever expected it to be
true in the first place.
Even when they're not Hollywood nepo babies.
Lots of celebrated talents
in our culture today came from social and economic privilege.
Taylor Swift's father was a wealthy financial advisor at Merrill
and he invested 300000 in the label that Taylor was signed to at the
start of her career.
That's an investment that is impossible for most families.
My dad's the one who's like ‘I have this crazy idea.’
or you know he's the daydreamer.
Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga came from similarly affluent backgrounds.
their families didn't have a direct
tie to the music industry but gaga's family
sent her to a famous private school known for its well-connected alumni
and Ariana's parents could
afford to let her live in Los Angeles to pursue her dreams at the age of 14.
“We were in your house and we had a long conversation
and we said we're gonna work real hard and put this music down and
our goal was to get you the number one album in the country.”
Hollywood dynasties may be a particularly visible instance of inequity
but they're far from the only reason the entertainment
industries aren't meritocracies.
The American dream has never been real. Success in America has always been
tangled up in
race gender and generational wealth.
Interestingly when the American dream was first coined,
it didn't even refer to the idea that anyone could go from rags to riches.
The phrase came to prominence thanks to progressive-era reformers.
Their dream wasn't to build a country where everyone had an equal shot
of rising to the top of an unequal system,
but to build a better more equitable system.
So if nepo babies are the latest example shattering an outdated illusion
about equality in America,
maybe that means it's time to update our American Dream
to fixate less on taking down a few high-profile individuals
and focus more on evaluating the broader system around them
Does it really matter so much if a few particular nepo babies deserve
their success?
or does it matter what they do with it?
“To be a leader and a role model I just hope to make people feel like
they can be themselves.”
Favoritism and nepotism have always been a part of Hollywood
and pretty much all industries and they're not going anywhere.
But for as long as the nepo baby has existed there have been
privileged stars who have used their platform to advocate for the
real American dream, a more equitable and just society.
“I will continue to fight every day
to spread a message that's actually quite simple, be kind.”
Jane Fonda daughter of Henry Fonda leveraged her strong Hollywood connections
to take politically unpopular stands for social issues that
some of her peers could not take without risking their careers.
So although the bombs are falling on Vietnam,
it's an American tragedy. It's going to take the American people
many, many years to undo the damage.
She used her father's network to advance her career
but she lifted others up with her.
For example, she made the iconic feminist comedy 9-5 after learning about
working conditions for secretaries from a labor organizer.
“She would tell me stories that were just terrifying of how
these women were treated so my producing partner Bruce Gilbert
and I decided we wanted to make a movie about it.”
Another nepo baby Mia Faroes and Woody Allen's son Ronan Farrow
used his platform and connections to aid his journalistic investigation
of the abuses committed by celebrated Hollywood producer
Harvey Weinstein.
“I don't think most people are aware of the exotic and extreme tools
at the disposal of the most powerful and wealthy men in America.”
These nepo babies walked a short road to success their success is proof that
America isn't fair but they've used their privilege to fight for fairness
and that's an
American dream we can get behind.
“There was a petition for the Equality Act which basically just says we all
deserve equal rights under the law.”
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