Kaia Gerber, daughter of beauty icon Cindy Crawford, has shared her thoughts on the “nepo baby” conversation.
More than a month after New York Magazine name-dropped the model-actor and her roots in its controversial article “How a Nepo Baby Is Born,” Gerber told Elle in an interview published Tuesday that she knows she gets more than her good looks from her mama.
“I won’t deny the privilege that I have,” the 21-year-old said. “Even if it’s just the fact that I have a really great source of information and someone to give me great advice, that alone I feel very fortunate for.”
Kaia Gerber, whose father is businessman Rande Gerber, said she benefits from her mother’s connections and gets to collaborate with those “amazing people.” However, not all nepotism is the same, she said, especially when it comes to the entertainment industry.
“With acting, it’s so different. No artist is going to sacrifice their vision for someone’s kid,” she said. “That just isn’t how art is made, and what I’m interested in is art.”
Gerber also told Elle, “No one wants to work with someone who’s annoying, and not easy to work with, and not kind.”
Since New York Magazine’s December cover story, several actors whose parents are also celebrities have spoken out about the implication that “nepo babies” haven’t worked for their time in the spotlight.
“Straight Outta Compton” actor O’Shea Jackson Jr., son of rapper-actor Ice Cube, tweeted about his “work ethic,” “professionalism” and building a career without his father’s help. Recent Oscar nominee Jamie Lee Curtis declared in an Instagram post that she’s an “OG Nepo Baby.”
“There’s not a day in my professional life that goes by without my being reminded that I am the daughter of movie stars,” she wrote. “The current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt.”
Kate Hudson, daughter of actor Goldie Hawn and musician Bill Hudson, told the Independent that the nepotism conversation doesn’t bother her much.
“I mean… I don’t really care. I look at my kids and we’re a storytelling family. It’s definitely in our blood,” she said. “People can call it whatever they want, but it’s not going to change it.”
After noting that nepotism is common in the modeling industry and the business world, Hudson said a person’s pedigree (celebrity or not) shouldn’t carry any weight.
“If you work hard and you kill it, it doesn’t matter,” she said.
Gerber shared similar sentiments.
“Yes, nepotism is prevalent,” she told Elle, “but I think if it actually was what people make it out to be, we’d see even more of it.”
