Emma Roberts is opening up about the “nepo baby” label.
Roberts, the niece of actress Julia Roberts, opened up about the downfalls of being born into a famous family during an interview with Flaunt magazine earlier this week.
“I’ve lost more jobs than I’ve gained from being in the business,” Roberts says. “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.”
Roberts, 33, is also the daughter of two actors: her mother, Kelly Cunningham, and the “Scream Queens” actress’ father, Eric Roberts, who is the brother of Julia Roberts.
‘Space Cadet’ star Emma Roberts on her fear of flying and her next ‘thriller’ movie
What are ‘nepo babies’?
“Nepo babies,” short for nepotism or the practice of favoring friends and family for jobs, has gained traction among social media users. They’ve used the term with both fascination and repulsion after learning that up-and-coming stars might’ve had a helping hand in entering show business.
The term was popularized in a 2022 New York Magazine story, but Roberts was excluded from the piece.
“Should I be offended?” Roberts joked to Flaunt about the exclusion. “It was a cheap shot to put all the celebrity kids on the cover of a magazine on babies’ bodies.”
She continued: “It’s like maybe the ‘Nepo Baby’ conversation would’ve been a more interesting article written intelligently in Vanity Fairwith nuance, but instead, it was kind of this viral hating-on-people thing.”
Roberts stars in new movie
Speaking of her career, Roberts stars in the new Amazon movie “Space Cadet”, which was released Thursday. Roberts plays Tiffany “Rex” Simpson, an unlikely savior for a U.S. space mission gone awry. But Roberts told USA TODAY she’s afraid to fly.
The actress says that she’s claustrophobic and has a hard enough time with aircrafts that stay in the atmosphere.
“I do not like flying on planes, I’m not a good flier,” Roberts told USA TODAY. “I don’t like it if I start thinking about it too much. I start to freak out. Like my hands are itching (now) thinking about it.”
Contributing: Ralphie Aversa
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Emma Roberts says she’s lost jobs from ‘nepo baby’ label