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Emma Roberts weighed in on the ongoing “nepo baby” debate, sharing her unique perspective as a member of a famous Hollywood family. Roberts, the daughter of actor Eric Roberts and niece of A-list actress Julia Roberts, has faced scrutiny since her early acting debut in Blow when she was just nine years old.
In a recent episode of the Table for Two podcast, the 33-year-old actress said she believes there are “two sides of the coin” to the nepo baby conversation.
“I always joke, ‘Why is no one calling out George Clooney for being a nepo baby? [His aunt] Rosemary Clooney was an icon,'” she remarked, highlighting a perceived gender disparity in the criticism of children of celebrities. “I feel like young girls get it harder with the nepo baby thing. Like, I don’t really see people calling out sons of famous actors.”
Despite the advantages her family’s fame may have afforded her, Emma emphasized the unique pressures that come with it. “People only see your wins, because they only see when you’re on the poster of a movie — they don’t see all the rejection along the way,” she said.
The Scream Queens star says that having Hollywood connections can harm you just as easily as they can help you. “People like to say, you know, you have a leg up because you have family in the industry. But then the other side to that is, you have to prove yourself more,” she explained. “Also, if people don’t have good experiences with other people in your family, then you’ll never get a chance.”
Emma acknowledged the help she received in breaking into the industry, but also shared the downsides of fame, citing her aunt Julia’s experience as a cautionary tale. “I saw very up close what that really looks like,” she said. “It’s obviously fun and it’s great, but there is a part of it that’s really scary.”
Rather than pursuing massive stardom, the American Horror Story star has focused on carving her own path in Hollywood. “Fame has never been the goal, because fame at a certain level is kind of scary,” she explained, noting that she never wanted her “fame to outweigh [her] work.”
“There’s nothing scarier to me than being so famous that you’re never left alone, but also you’re not getting good jobs,” she said.
Despite the challenges, Emma’s career has been successful and has sustained over the last two decades. “My career hasn’t been ‘linear’ or ‘easy,'” she admitted — but it has been fulfilling, much to her father’s delight.
In concluding her thoughts on the “nepo baby” debate, Emma said she doesn’t think “anyone should be called out for wanting to follow their dream.” The public, she noted, “loves an overnight success story,” but often overlooks the hard work and persistence required to achieve it.
The “nepo baby” conversation came to the social conscious forefront in 2022 after New York Magazine‘s nepotism cover sparked a fiery discourse in Hollywood and beyond. The magazine’s did a deep dive into the invisible network of family ties that makes up the media industry.
But while some took exception to the label (like Kate Moss‘ half-sister, Lottie Moss), others like Ice Cube‘s son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., embraced it.
“My dad told me in a perfect world, I would play him in [Straight Outta Compton],” the 33-year-old wrote in a series of messages on X. “I was already in college for screenwriting at USC. I accepted the challenge. And auditioned for two years before getting the role. After that it was up to me, he couldn’t hold my hand through my career. I had to get my a** up and make it work. … Once the door was opened it was up to me to walk through it and thrive.”
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