Hollywood keeps selling meritocracy, but so many roles are just family heirlooms. Sure, some nepo babies like Tracee Ellis Ross, Jamie Lee Curtis, Angelina Jolie, and Ben Stiller bring real talent. But for every one of them, ten more are coasting on connections.
Maybe just admit your dad made a call, instead of pretending it’s all hustle.
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You should check how much of an issue nepotism is in Bollywood. Worse than in Hollywood.
Yeah Bollywood’s nepotism problem is insane. The industry practically revolves around nepotism and keeping every new generation of a small number of families employed in movies. Nepo kids get full big budget movies created for them to star in, regardless of whether they have any prior acting experience or discernible talent.
And in Portugal!
The NBA is getting like this as well.
Sports is not as apt a comparison as all the money in the world cannot get the next generation to the league is the athleticism/drive is not there.
@@ayoa1173I hear you man but how do you explain Bonny being drafted by the Lakers despite being G League talent at best?
This is exactly why I moved to LA and moved back home 5 years later. I had a better Network where I lived than what I could achieve in La because of how many nepo babies are rampant and how people are very protective of their Network and do not share their network or contacts with others.
Sometimes you can’t tell they are nepo babies, cause they change their names. Lies everywhere.
Nicholas Cage.
@@qcriverrat Woah! I had no idea he was from the Coppola family.
I just found out that actress Isabela Ferrer (who plays young Lily Bloom) in It Ends With Us. Is the daughter of actor Miguel Ferrer and the granddaughter of actress/singer Rosemary Clooney, making her a cousin of actor/producer and director George Clooney. Isabella was introduced to the public like a complete unknown casted from an open casting call from obscurity. It really is about nepotism/access and who you know, to give you opportunities.
This is why I left acting. For me, I was mostly seeing upper-middle-class people my age being successful in tv and film because their parents paid for their apartments, agents, acting lessons, etc. It’s not just the obvious nepo babies booking jobs. It’s also just people whose family has a little money. I could name a whole big list of now famous people I knew who made it for this reason, but I’d sound petty. And it’s not like they weren’t talented at all, so you just bite your tongue.
Honestly that is something I also think of.
Coming from a non-famous, but well-off enough family that you don’t have to worry about situations actual struggling actors have to think of is such an advantage.
Unpaid internships can also be a hotspot for nepos, children of the wealthy and well off. Working in essence an unpaid full time job in prestigious institutions is easy when you have rent covered, bills paid, and an allowance from parents who also may give you leisure money so you don’t have to do a side job.
Unless you want to, for funsies.
But if you’re broke or don’t have those resources, you literally can’t afford to work for free. So you either have to work even MORE to supplement that, likely a second job, or pass it up.
This is applicable to almost all non-service/hospitality jobs, and even to those to a certain extent. This is what classism is. This is literally just what classism is.
@Tahoza This is true, but it’s not quite as bad in some other areas. I’m a tenured professor now. Yes, people buy their way into this profession, but I was able to earn full scholarships my whole way. I could get interviews and get published on my own merits. There was no way to really do that in acting.
@ That’s an interesting turn, as I was actually someone who was on track to be in your current position (I left my program ABD at the end of the semester after Covid hit in 2020. I had a 4.0, all my courses finished, and my prelims passed) in part for reasons not dissimilar to why you left the acting scene.
But to be fair, there were other reasons I decided to leave too. Research and higher ed in the US isn’t in a particularly healthy space at the moment, unfortunately, despite my love for both.
Same situation for music
On one hand, I think something “nepo baby” criticism overlooks is how common it is to go into the “family business” in other fields; medicine, teaching, civil servants, military, and, yes, entertainment. Sometimes, you’re just doing what you were raised tot. But, on the other hand, I think it’s hard to have such a leg up in life and adequately justify why you’re still going for roles that a starting or younger actor would be going for. Surely, having that head start should encourage you to take risks like more experimental roles, or shadowing producers, or even putting together your own project.
Pretty much my take on it. Going into the family business is common and way more harmful in other industries than entertainment. But that doesn’t mean nepo babies shouldn’t be aware enough what a leg up they have and use that opportunity to go into riskier projects. Like, take a page out of Nicolas Cages book and take some _wild_ swings because you’re related to the Coppolas and therefore will get second, third and fourth chances.
As a working actor who’s struggling to make rent, thank you for posting this 😅 it feels good to be seen. I deal with it by keeping my head down and focused. I couldn’t name or recognize most working actors my age, because if I pay any attention to them, I’ll start comparing myself to them and give up.
Keep your head up and move forward. You’ve got this! Never let anyone else stray you from your goal if it isn’t what you desire.
The reason why they are seeking more fame/money despite being born into that much wealth and privilege is because their reference group are other people born into similar amounts of privilege and now they are competing amongst themselves to see who can do “better” so they feel like they are actually accomplishing something.
Also, everybody around them will act as if they got it on merit. The whole point of nepotism is to make someone happy who is close to someone powerful.
Some of these rich nepo performers do love their craft and show it. Just because they’re rich and had nepotism doesn’t mean as a human they can’t love a hobby or career.
Would you or many people turn down a nepo opportunity? I’m not saying there aren’t problems with nepotism, or that it’s right, or that we can’t fight nepotism, but imagine if we were in that situation and understand why it’s hard for most people to turn that away.
Idk if some nepo performers knew if they really earned certain roles or if it was nepotism.
Just because some performers were born rich doesn’t mean they can’t earn some roles.
Because many people do praise the talent of some performers who were born rich or who may have had some nepotism.
Also, there isn’t just nepotism from wealth but from people having interc0urse with bosses or producers to the top. That happens in any industry. That’s not fair either.
And capitalism pressures people to think they have to let themselves be violated and degraded like that when they don’t really want to to succeed.
Complete speculation on my part, but if I was born in a famous rich company, I assume I’d want to prove myself, so as to not have constant imposter syndrome. They still need goals in life, tremendous amount of wealth helps having more time to want other goals.
…but it’s not just that industry; it’s just more apparent in acting, but it happens throughout America. They gaslight you with the whole “merit” argument.
Merit does factor in a bit though. Those who are genuinely good at what they do have longterm success because of it, those who aren’t eventually fade into obscurity or move onto something else when they realize that they aren’t at their predecessor’s level. Jamie Lee Curtis, Drew Barrymore, Angelina Jolie, Ben Stiller, and Liza Minnelli have all been A-listers for decades because they’re talented entertainers, not because they were born into famous families. Connections just open doors, but they can’t guarantee any level of longterm success.
@@Andy-xx3tt 90% of making in Hollywood is connections. Notice how people and studios always work with the same people.
@@Andy-xx3ttmaybe people who are terrible at acting move on but there are wayyy too many mediocre actors coasting on nepotism when there are not well connected exceptional artists being overlooked.
And this is why Anthony Mackie said success is given. Because it is. Literally.
What did he say? I’m googling now.
@@LisaLove-m4l He was on Ryan Clark’s Pivot podcast talking about his experience in Hollywood when he said that. It’s goes right along with what Chelsea is saying.
I wonder if this extreme nepotism is what makes Hollywood so bad right now. with the exception of a few shows and movies, most of what they are doing is incredibly bad, like there are not even looking for talented nepo babies, just a nepo baby whose family connections will benefit the higher ups.
Another comment pointed out that hiring nepo babies is part of the risk aversion strategy big studios are so fond of for big productions. They’re a well-known name for a discount price. And risk aversion is, in my opinion, the reason most blockbusters today are lackluster. Most of the good movies coming out now have budgets below 30 million.
@@MariaRodriguez-dx6sm It’s absolutely a factor. With so much consolidation, it’s like any other industry. Connections and cronyism matter more than talent.
“We’re all being gaslit by intergenerational wealth all the time.” Miss Hunt says the quiet part out LOUD.
It’s even worse behind the camera. I met a working director at a party who didn’t come from a Hollywood dynasty and I had to ask how did he do it because it was so unreal in 2025 😅
The worst part is that he and his mom were on Shark Tank last year saying their brand of granola/protein bar could fight Alzheimer’s!
And they got money, too! Ridiculous!
@@guy8646 Imagine being so financially comfortable that you could spend your time developing another brand of granola, as if it’s 1990 and a new concept, without a care in the world if it ever makes money.
It seem to be part of the maturation of the Film Industry. It has been around long enough and the barrier to entry has been made high enough to build its own Aristocracy.
I made a video saying exactly this! The biggest reason for rise of nepo babies, I believe, is because studios and execs want to avoid risk. If they get the son of a famous celebrity, it makes people talk, but they don’t have to pay the celebrities’ price.
The answer is: we are losing it! I hate when people say ‘oh but this nepo baby is actually talented so it’s fine’ – it’s not fine! Most of out of work actors are really talented actors, who don’t get the opportunities nepo babies do. If we’re talking about redistributing wealth, we have to talk about redistributing opportunities. This is similarly as rampant in the UK, where you have to go to an expensive drama school to be given any sort of chance. I just found out a prominent stage actor I really looked up to has paid tuition out of pocket for 3 years at RADA – while I couldn’t even afford to go to drama school using the UK loan system. I’m trying to bypass this by writing and making my own stuff, but you just know if I ever sell my script about the working class in London, they’ll cast someone with generational wealth to play me in it.
I guess you are missing what is happening in nepotism: Everybody around them will gaslit the nepobaby that they made it on their own merit, that they were working hard and did an excellent job!
The people offering them opportunities and working with them want to be in the good graces of their parents, so they want the nepobaby to like them. So they exaggerate everything around them and pamper them. Nepobabies have to be exceptionally self aware to see what is going on.
I also feel bad for commercial actors being put out of work because it’s now become “okay” for “serious” actors to be in commercials. Like these people don’t already have enough money???