During a new appearance on the Table for Two podcast, ‘Madame Web’ actor Emma Roberts, who is Eric Roberts’ daughter and Julia Roberts’ niece, said having family in the industry means both advantages and the need to prove oneself more:
“There’s two sides of the coin. 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. Also, if people don’t have good experiences with other people in your family, then you’ll never get a chance.”
Roberts mentioned George Clooney as an example:
“Everybody loves the kind of overnight-success story. And so if you’re kind of not the girl from the middle of nowhere that broke into Hollywood, there’s kind of an eye roll of like, ‘Well, your dad was this.’ I always joke, ‘Why is no one calling out George Clooney for being a nepo baby? [His aunt] Rosemary Clooney was an icon.’ 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, not that they should be called out.”
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Words On Nepo Baby Debate
Another actor, Gwyneth Paltrow also joined the discussion about nepotism last year. In an interview with Bustle, Paltrow, who is the daughter of Blythe Danner and Bruce Paltrow, criticized the term ‘nepo baby,’ calling it an ‘ugly moniker.’ When talking about how her 19-year-old daughter, Apple, handles their family, she said:
“Now there’s this whole nepo baby culture, and judgment that exists around kids of famous people. She’s really just a student, and she’s been very… She just wants to be a kid and be at school and learn.”
She continued:
“But there’s nothing wrong with doing or wanting to do what your parents do. Nobody rips on a kid who’s like ‘I want to be a doctor like my dad and granddad.’ The truth is if you grow up in a house with a lot of artists and people making art and music, that’s what you know, the same way that if you grow up in a house with law, the discussions around the table are about the nuances of whatever particular law the parents practice.”
Roberts started acting at 9 in the movie ‘Blow,’ playing Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz’s daughter. At 13, she became well-known for her role as Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon show ‘Unfabulous.’
