Hollywood has always loved the children of famous people.
In 2022, the internet reduced them to two little words.
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Actress Maya Hawke was not only born to two famous parents but looked like them, too.
Half of Brooklyns indie artists had dads with IMDb pages.
Aghast, content creators got to work.
Maude Apatow (daughter of Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann) toldPortermagazine the term made her sad.
It filled Zoe Kravitz (daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet) with deep insecurity.
Scratching the itch could only make it worse.
The response was swift.
On TikTok,floating headsbegged Depp to shut up and stop being delusional.
Her fellow models castigated her on Instagram.
i was not born on a comfy sexy pillow with a view.
In truth, nepo babies have always been a fact of Hollywood.
Today, theyre not only abundant theyre thriving.
In an industry built on reboots, a famous last name can be valuable intellectual property.
And thats just the working actors.
Nepo baby: How could two little words cause so much conflict?
A baby is a bundle of joy; a nepo baby is physical proof that meritocracy is a lie.
We love them, we hate them, we disrespect them, were obsessed with them.
She spent three years there with no internet, cut off from pop culture.
There, she learned how to speak fluent internet, crafting tweets that would push peoples buttons.
As Derradji caught up with the conversation, a lot of things started to make sense.
She often passed time watching catwalk videos.
Its really bad, she says.
She walks like a normal person.
Like many zoomers, Derradji watchedEuphoriaand absorbed everything about it online.
The pot-stirrer in her couldnt help but be a little proud.
If you called out a nepo baby online, they might be forced to respond.
you’re able to trace the origins of the modern backlash to two pivotal events.
Hollywood is built on minute gradations of status, which the online conversation has a tendency to elide.
Better to imagine nepo babies on a spectrum.
The nepo babys pathto stardom begins when theyre a literal baby.
How can they begin to prove themselves?
Traditionally, Mom and Dad have helped out.
(They were just so wonderful.)
Such quotes often appear in the nepo babys traditional coming-out party: a profile in a glossy magazine.
(The Nivolas recently got one inThe New Yorker.)
Like Obama, a few brave nepo babies step outside their parents chosen field.
(The bravest dont attempt to become famous at all.
Bruce Springsteens son is a firefighter, while Willem Dafoes is a law clerk.)
Sometimes, capturing the internets attention for a moment is enough.
For those not ready to commit to one profession, the industry can provide a buffet of opportunities.
He next tried to become a professional photographer, releasing a coffee-table book full of out-of-focus pictures of elephants.
In this context, being a nepo baby is the Cadillac of privilege.
Nobodys got it better.
Those in a position to know often agree with Lebowitzs assessment.
Its not just about your clout.
Where is your resume?
Having been spared the seasoning of everyday hardship, a nepo baby can often seem guppyish, unformed.
Ive learned that once they start speaking, the public doesnt go along for the ride, they say.
The more they talk, the more unrelatable they become.
On Instagram, a lot of them are not necessarily showcasing their life as a socialite.
Within the industry, there is little use in being subtle about the familial strings.
The need to maintain relationships can ease a famous childs path through the door.
If the nepo baby is obviously untalented, it usually ends there.
I have learned to simply say, Not right for the role.
There are a number of veiled responses rather than saying, Are you guys kidding me?
The casting director puts it bluntly: A lot of the children of famous people are not good.
How often are they meeting with them?
God, there have been so many over the course of my life.
They once met with an aspiring actress who was the daughter of two movie stars.
There was something else that walked in the room with her, they say.
Like, My parents are famous, and Im here because somebody told me to meet you.
A lovely person but definitely a sense of entitlement.
She left, and I was like,That person doesnt excite me.
The struggle isnt there.
This is not always a deal-breaker.
Afterward, the daughter booked the role that made her a household name.
Despite suspicions, you dont always know someones background.
I had no idea who she was, says the casting director.
I dont know why I didnt get the memo.
From my vantage point, she won that job fair and square.
(The actresss performance was widely acclaimed, and she became a major star.)
The casting director laments changes in the industry that have perhaps enabled the nepo babies rise.
I dont think people know or understand what acting is anymore, they say.
With the advent of streaming and social media, the big screen no longer rules.
And its not good.
No one wants to read someones kids thing.
Others taking you seriously doesnt necessarily cure the anxiety.
The casting director can empathize: How do you know if somebody really likes you?
Some nepo babies take this vulnerability and use it the struggle is the spice that finally makes them interesting.
And others, its the thing that gets in their way.
Those who came after were often treated as tragic figures.
(He got kidnapped.)
Long before TikTok got ahold of these descendants, scholars had been studying our obsession with multigenerational stars.
you might see this keenly in the types of nepo babies the culture does not have a problem with.
Few today care that Michael Douglas, Laura Dern, or Tracee Ellis Ross had celebrity parents.
Paradoxically, the nepo babies we like best are often the ones who aremostprivileged.
He glimpsed flickers of her grandmother, the great Hitchcock blonde.
They walk in the room, and they have thisthing, says the casting director.
Youre drawn to that, and youre a little bit afraid of it.
Because its bigger than you.
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Photo-Illustration: Joe Darrow.
