Jamie Lee Curtis Comes Out in Defense Of Nepo Babies
Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of famous actors, defends nepo babies on social media as still having to work hard to be successful.
Ah, nepo babies, the pesky little phrase people with rich parents or family members are called to generally imply that they are not well suited or worked for their lot in life. Jamie Lee Curtis, known for her roles in dozens of films and TV shows ranging from Mean Girls (2004) to Escape from New York (1981) came out via Instagram in defense of nepotism and nepo babies. She self-admitted that she is in fact a nepo baby due to her parents, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh being famous for film, modeling, and writing.
Having your mom play in Pyscho (1960) as the main murder victim and your father play the main killer in The Boston Stranger (1968) would lead you to have certain advantages in future acting endeavors. This is exactly what Jamie Lee Curtis means when she says that’s a nepo baby. Jamie Lee Curtis first started acting when she was only 19 years old. Most of her starting roles were forgettable, but her first notable role was as Lieutenant Barbara Duran in the military sitcom Operation Petticoat (1977).
The show only ran for one season but the entire show was based on a 1959 movie her father, Tony Curtis, starred in under the same name. Now exactly if Jamie Lee Curtis’s casting in the TV series is strictly nepotism is up for debate. However, the effects of being a nepo baby are not lost on Jamie Lee.
First reported on by Variety, and posted on the original Instagram post Jamie Lee Curtis explained “I have been a professional actress since I was 19 years old so that makes me an OG Nepo Baby. 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.”
Jamie Lee Curtis on nepo babies: “I have been a professional actress since I was 19 years old so that makes me an OG Nepo Baby. 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.”
It’s no secret that the entertainment industry is ripe with all forms of nepo babies. Jayden and Willow Smith were able to cash in on Will Smith’s success with Jayden’s star role in The Karate Kid (2010) at only 12 years old and Willow working on I Am Legend (2008) alongside her dad at only eight years old. This is only one example but the fact that the Kardashians are famous at all is a rather telling sign of the effects of being a nepo baby.
The last line of this quote does raise interesting questions about the nature of Hollywood and the film/entertainment industry as a whole. To start Jamie Lee Curtis acknowledges the benefits of being a child of actors and how it made gaining a foothold in the entertainment industry easier. However, there are a lot of nepo babies that are not having the same moment of clarity. The interesting question is why do non-famous people or simply the general public only have a problem with nepotism when it relates to TV and Film?
Against Curtis’s point of using the term nepo baby as an insult, there are dozens of actors, models, musicians, and many other forms of entertainment that perhaps shouldn’t be working in that industry. At the same time, there are dozens of politicians, CEOs, banker bros, and small business owners that directly benefit from being a nepo baby. Yet society doesn’t throw insults at them in the same way. Inheriting a small business from a parent is celebrated across the U.S. but if it involves a movie script or record label it suddenly becomes a problem worthy of cyberbullying a stranger you will never meet.
