Emma Roberts has shared her thoughts about nepotism in the entertainment business.
The daughter of actor Eric Roberts and niece of Oscar-winner Julia Roberts was asked about debate over “nepo babies” in a recent conversation on the “Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi” podcast.
“People like to say, ‘Oh, you know, you have a leg up because you’re a family in the industry.’ But then the other side to that is, you know, you have to prove yourself more,” she said. “Also, if people don’t have good experience being to be with other people in your family, then you’ll never get a chance.”
Roberts added that if “you’re not the girl from the middle of nowhere that broke into Hollywood,” there’s “an eye roll of like, ‘Well, your dad was this.’”
“Young girls, I feel like, get it harder with the nepo baby thing. I don’t really see people calling out you know, sons of famous actors. Not that they should be called that. I don’t think anyone should be called out wanting to follow their dreams.”
She joked, “I’m like, ‘Why is no one calling out George Clooney for being a nepo baby?’ Rosemary Clooney [his aunt] was an icon.”
Roberts, whose more than 60 film and television credits include “We’re the Millers” and “American Horror Story, started acting as a child, but said her career path hasn’t been seamless.
“People kind of 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. “I think it’s important to talk about because otherwise people just think, ‘Oh, you know, everything’s been so great and linear and easy, and it’s like, no… not at all. But of course it looks like that to the outside perspective or to the naked eye.”