Hollywood is almost psychotically convinced that this is true, even though 9/10 times a new star turns out to be someone’s kid. Even the old actors we love are mostly someone’s kid.
There is a known phenomena among the wealthy where they vastly over rate their classes accomplishments relative to others. So rich kid paints a picture and it should be in a gallery. Poor kid wins an art scholarship and it’s due to affirmative action.
True, and they don’t even understand how vital that art scholarship is. There was a recently noted phenomenon where all the big breakout British actors of the last two decades were pretty much all from wealth or from an acting dynasty (T Hidds and Benny C, not Benny W), because for the working and lower-middle class the cost of trying to get into the arts and failing is too damn high - what’re you going to live off for years while you try to get a role? The 80s and 90s seem like a golden age for non-silver-spoon actors by comparison, because of “affirmative action”.
For the slightest bit of defence: it makes sense. “Nepo baby” generally refers to some kid who doesn’t have the qualifications for their role but got it through their parents giving them an unfair chance.
But it makes perfect sense that if you grow up in a house with actors and writers for parents they can both teach you about the business, they’ll be happy to pay for that kind of education, and they’ll be super encouraging because unlike most families, to them becoming an actor or director is a perfectly reasonable goal.
It’s like a child of doctors growing up to become a doctor. On one hand their parents could have just pulled some strings, on the other hand, having parents excited to teach you organic chemistry and advanced math in middle school probably helps you a lot when it comes to qualifying for med school.
I don’t think all Hollywood nepo babies are like this. I’m just saying you would expect to see children of great actors become actors themselves.
Edit: so some of these responses confuse me. I say in the first paragraph that “nepo baby” generally refers to a subset of children who take on their parents job who are given unfair opportunities despite not being the most qualified for it. It might not be the strict definition but it’s my modern understanding of it and it’s the thing that people are actually angry about, including me. Acknowledging this at the top is meant to caveat what I’m saying for the rest of the post that I’m not talking about those people.
I agree that in a perfect world all people should get as much access as possible to any education and opportunities they want and I hope we get that.
But all of that training and extra support is exactly what that term is referring to. They wouldn’t have gotten that support unless they were born into it. The people aren’t as giving with their time to just any kid who wants to study their craft. Maybe some do. We need more of that.
It’s like a child of doctors growing up to become a doctor.
Except these aren’t remotely the same scenarios, because it simply doesn’t happen as often in any other industry. If anything, the 9/10 number is LOW for entertainment.
My point with that comparison is precisely that. That child of doctors is a result of a type of nepotism and they are much more likely to make it in the medical field than a child who may be intrinsically smarter than them but did not have the advantage of having parents who instilled that passion to become a doctor and educated them for the profession at an early age.
Even people like Tom Holland, his dad (Dominic) is fairly well known in the UK.
He’s not mega rich or influential, but once you’ve got a few million in the bank and can afford to send them to acting school, and for far away auditions, that’s a massive leg up on everyone else.
Just look at all the former members of the Footlights club. They’re not nepo babies exactly, and most are talented in their own right, but their parents still had the money to send them to Cambridge.
I can’t really blame them for it, because almost everyone wants their kid to do well in life. But it does rub your nose in it when anyone says “hard work will get you anywhere”, when 99.9% of hard workers are wage slaves.
Hollywood is almost psychotically convinced that this is true, even though 9/10 times a new star turns out to be someone’s kid. Even the old actors we love are mostly someone’s kid.
There is a known phenomena among the wealthy where they vastly over rate their classes accomplishments relative to others. So rich kid paints a picture and it should be in a gallery. Poor kid wins an art scholarship and it’s due to affirmative action.
True, and they don’t even understand how vital that art scholarship is. There was a recently noted phenomenon where all the big breakout British actors of the last two decades were pretty much all from wealth or from an acting dynasty (T Hidds and Benny C, not Benny W), because for the working and lower-middle class the cost of trying to get into the arts and failing is too damn high - what’re you going to live off for years while you try to get a role? The 80s and 90s seem like a golden age for non-silver-spoon actors by comparison, because of “affirmative action”.
For the slightest bit of defence: it makes sense. “Nepo baby” generally refers to some kid who doesn’t have the qualifications for their role but got it through their parents giving them an unfair chance.
But it makes perfect sense that if you grow up in a house with actors and writers for parents they can both teach you about the business, they’ll be happy to pay for that kind of education, and they’ll be super encouraging because unlike most families, to them becoming an actor or director is a perfectly reasonable goal.
It’s like a child of doctors growing up to become a doctor. On one hand their parents could have just pulled some strings, on the other hand, having parents excited to teach you organic chemistry and advanced math in middle school probably helps you a lot when it comes to qualifying for med school.
I don’t think all Hollywood nepo babies are like this. I’m just saying you would expect to see children of great actors become actors themselves.
Edit: so some of these responses confuse me. I say in the first paragraph that “nepo baby” generally refers to a subset of children who take on their parents job who are given unfair opportunities despite not being the most qualified for it. It might not be the strict definition but it’s my modern understanding of it and it’s the thing that people are actually angry about, including me. Acknowledging this at the top is meant to caveat what I’m saying for the rest of the post that I’m not talking about those people.
I agree that in a perfect world all people should get as much access as possible to any education and opportunities they want and I hope we get that.
I don’t think qualifications are relevant for nepotism to occur
Yes but the modern colloquialism of nepotism applies an undeserving attribute to the subject. At least, this is how I’ve noticed it used.
Edit: oops neoptism
But all of that training and extra support is exactly what that term is referring to. They wouldn’t have gotten that support unless they were born into it. The people aren’t as giving with their time to just any kid who wants to study their craft. Maybe some do. We need more of that.
Except these aren’t remotely the same scenarios, because it simply doesn’t happen as often in any other industry. If anything, the 9/10 number is LOW for entertainment.
It’s a terrible comparison.
Nobody’s going to give the child of a talented surgeon the chance to do surgery on themselves.
But they might give the child of a talented actor a role in a film, this is a situation of connections not nurture.
Example: After Earth (2013)
My point with that comparison is precisely that. That child of doctors is a result of a type of nepotism and they are much more likely to make it in the medical field than a child who may be intrinsically smarter than them but did not have the advantage of having parents who instilled that passion to become a doctor and educated them for the profession at an early age.
Even people like Tom Holland, his dad (Dominic) is fairly well known in the UK.
He’s not mega rich or influential, but once you’ve got a few million in the bank and can afford to send them to acting school, and for far away auditions, that’s a massive leg up on everyone else.
Just look at all the former members of the Footlights club. They’re not nepo babies exactly, and most are talented in their own right, but their parents still had the money to send them to Cambridge.
I can’t really blame them for it, because almost everyone wants their kid to do well in life. But it does rub your nose in it when anyone says “hard work will get you anywhere”, when 99.9% of hard workers are wage slaves.
Everything is like this in this shithole country
Good thing most western media is garbage, saves me wallet money. I’ll gladly stick with retro/anime content instead.
or they try to play it off as coming from a “humble or poor background”