Over the years, many celebrities have shared their take on the “nepo baby” conversation. And while some celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jamie Lee Curtis have embraced the title, and recognized the privilege they had in the industry, other celebs, like Zooey Deschanel and Rashida Jones, have criticized the label, almost as if being called one was offensive or degrading.
So, of course, the world is eager to know how all the celebrities from famous families feel about the label, and why (or why not) they think it applies to them. Most recently, Loot star Maya Rudolph, who’s the daughter of songwriter and musician Richard Rudolph and the late singer-songwriter Minnie Riperton, shared her two cents.
“They were musicians,” she said in a recent Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard, per People. “They weren’t actors.” In other words, her parents didn’t help her get her name in the business because they’re from different sections of the entertainment industry.
In fact, Rudolph said her success relied on her taking chances and going after her passions. “My trajectory was, I wanted to go to New York, and I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live,” Rudolph said. As a reminder, the comedian starred in the live sketch comedy show from 2000 to 2007.
“I understand that drive to be somewhere else — forage in a new city and create my own path. But that’s a huge undertaking. I wasn’t like, ‘Oh my dad writes songs, that’s gonna make me a comedian,'” she continued. “There was no direct line. I knew I had to get there myself.”
For Rudolph, the label misrepresents her especially because of her mother’s passing when she was just a kid. Riperton died of breast cancer in 1979 at just 31 years old. “She was also insanely young when she died,” she said, noting that many of her friends growing up weren’t aware of her famous mom.
“So when I started doing SNL, people didn’t really know she was my mom, and they figured it out later,” she remembered.
Looks like Rudolph is pretty confident her success has nothing to do with her parents and their careers. Might she still get some slack for this online? Probably!
Before you go, click here to see more celebrities from famous families.
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