To those who assume being a “nepotism baby” makes it easier to sustain a Hollywood career, Emma Roberts would like to offer a counterargument.
In an interview with Flaunt magazine published last week, the “American Horror Story” star ― whose dad is actor Eric Roberts and whose aunt is actor Julia Roberts ― said that when it comes to landing roles, she’s had some difficulties because her family is so well-known.
“I’ve lost more jobs than I’ve gained from being in the business,” Roberts argued. “People have opinions and sometimes maybe they’re not good opinions of people in your family. I’ve never gotten a job because of it, I know I definitely have lost a couple of jobs because of it.”
The term “nepotism baby,” or “nepo baby,” refers to children of actors, singers and other public figures whose professional success, typically in the realm of show business, is perceived to be a byproduct of having famous and/or wealthy relatives.
In 2022, New York Magazine published a cover story on nepo babies that included “An All but Definitive Guide to the Hollywood Nepo-Verse.” Actors Dakota Johnson and Ben Platt were among those featured prominently in the article.
Notably absent, however, was Roberts herself.
Even so, she told Flaunt that the magazine’s cover image ― which featured the heads of celebrity kids superimposed onto the bodies of infant babies ― was a “cheap shot.”
“It’s like maybe the ‘Nepo Baby’ conversation would’ve been a more interesting article written intelligently in Vanity Fair with nuance,” she said, “but instead, it was kind of this viral hating-on-people thing.”
Gregg DeGuire via Getty Images
In a separate interview with Variety, Roberts was asked about “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” the controversial Max and Discovery+ docuseries that zooms in on troubling claims of a toxic work environment on children’s and young adult series that aired on Nickelodeon in the late 1990s to the early 2000s.
Roberts, who starred on Nickelodeon’s “Unfabulous” for three seasons, said she was left “completely horrified and shocked” by “Quiet on Set.” Still, she said the docuseries did not reflect her own experience.
“It made me really, really, really sad that that was happening to people that I literally saw often and had no idea,” she said. “For me, my show, ‘Unfabulous,’ the showrunner we had was this amazing woman named Sue Rose. And I didn’t realize at the time, but a female showrunner back then was not very common.”
She went on to note: “It makes me really sad, and I just feel like children need to be protected on sets, as do adults, and I feel like we’re working towards a better work environment in that sense.”
Roberts can currently be seen in “Space Cadet,” released last week on Amazon Prime Video. The comedy follows Rex Simpson (played by Roberts), a Floridian party girl turned aspiring astronaut, and co-stars Tom Hopper, Poppy Liu and Gabrielle Union.