Kate Hudson isn’t getting herself worked up when it comes to “Nepo Baby” backlash. The term, short for nepotism baby, has dominated social media trends in recent weeks due to a New York Magazine cover story that analyzed the current boom of actors with famous parents. Hudson has long had to contend with the “nepo baby” title as the daughter of actors Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson.
“The nepotism thing, I mean… I don’t really care,” Hudson said in a recent interview with The Independent. “I look at my kids and we’re a storytelling family. It’s definitely in our blood. People can call it whatever they want, but it’s not going to change it.”
“I actually think there are other industries where it’s [more common],” Hudson continued. “Maybe modeling? I see it in business way more than I see it in Hollywood. Sometimes I’ve been in business meetings where I’m like, ‘wait, whose child is this? Like, this person knows nothing!’ I don’t care where you come from, or what your relationship to the business is – if you work hard and you kill it, it doesn’t matter.”
Hudson started her acting career in the mid 1990s with episodic roles on shows such as “Party of Five” and “EZ Streets.” Her film debut was in 1998’s “Desert Blue,” but her movie career really took off in 2000 when she earned acclaim for her role as Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous,” for which she earned an Oscar nomination for supporting actress.
New York Magazine’s “Nepo Baby” cover has earned strong retaliation from many actors over the last couple weeks. Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, posted on Instagram that the discourse around the topic is designed to hurt.
“I have been a professional actress since I was 19 years old so that makes me an OG Nepo Baby,” Curtis wrote. “I’ve never understood, nor will I, what qualities got me hired that day, but since my first two lines on Quincy as a contract player at Universal Studios to this last spectacular creative year some 44 years later, there’s not a day in my professional life that goes by without my being reminded that I am the daughter of movie stars. The current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt.”
Ice Cube’s son, the actor O’Shea Jackson Jr., also railed against the term on social media, writing on Twitter, “I had to get my ass up and make it work. From the roles I chose. The work ethic I put into them. My professionalism on sets and promo tours. Even leaving HIS agency and goin to find a team of my own. Once the door was opened it was up to me to walk through it and thrive.”