New York Magazine dominated online entertainment discourse last December after running a story about “nepo babies,” AKA children of celebrities who went on to work in the entertainment industry. The piece provoked an array of reactions ranging from outrage to sympathy to pure apathy.
Count Jamie Lee Curtis in the latter category. Speaking to IndieWire on the Independent Spirit Awards blue carpet, Curtis (whose parents were Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh), explained why she’s ready for this conversation to be over.
“At this point, now I’m joking about it,” Curtis said. “Now it’s silly. There is no discourse. It was a slam article by a magazine, and it got a lot of traction. Which they’ll probably be very happy about.”
This isn’t the first time Curtis shared her thoughts on the Nepo Baby discourse (or, in her opinion, the lack thereof). In an Instagram post in December, she voiced similar sentiments about how people should be evaluated based on their own talents rather than their lineage.
“It’s curious how we immediately make assumptions and snide remarks that someone related to someone else who is famous in their field for their art, would somehow have no talent whatsoever. I have come to learn that is simply not true,” Curtis wrote. “I have suited up and shown up for all different kinds of work with thousands of thousands of people and every day I’ve tried to bring integrity and professionalism and love and community and art to my work. I am not alone. There are many of us. Dedicated to our craft. Proud of our lineage. Strong in our belief in our right to exist.”
She ended the post by asking fans to stop insinuating that she only has a career because her parents were famous.
“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,” she said. “For the record I have navigated 44 years with the advantages my associated and reflected fame brought me, I don’t pretend there aren’t any, that try to tell me that I have no value on my own.”
Watch IndieWire’s interview with Curtis below.
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