Lately, I've been thinking a bit about 'nepo babies’ - or more specifically, the idea of creative and artistic dynasties. It’s a phrase that I’d never heard until Lily-Rose Depp (daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis) mentioned it in an interview with Elle last year, but ever since, nepo babies are all I see.
Depp said: "It’s weird to me to reduce somebody to the idea that they’re only there because it’s a generational thing. It just doesn’t make any sense. If somebody’s mom or dad is a doctor, and then the kid becomes a doctor, you’re not going to be like, 'Well, you’re only a doctor because your parent is a doctor.' It’s like, 'No, I went to medical school and trained’."
It’s a clumsy analogy, for sure; medical school is clearly not the same as acting school (which Depp didn’t go to, either, incidentally.) But was she onto something when she railed against the concept of her famous parents providing her with a short-cut to success?
I’ve interviewed a few so-called ‘nepo babies’ over the last few months and some of them had interesting things to say. When Lola Lennox, daughter of Annie Lennox, was on the verge of releasing her debut EP a few months back, she made a very valid point when she said "It’s interesting; if you have a family of doctors, or lawyers, or butchers, it’s a very natural trajectory for the child to be exposed to that from a young age - and naturally, they follow that path. But in the entertainment industry, it’s easier for someone to criticise offspring for doing that."
Actors Calam Lynch and Brenda Meaney are amongst the youngest generation of Irish acting dynasties; Lynch is the son of actors Niamh Cusack and Finbar Lynch, and grandson of Cyril Cusack, while Meaney’s parents are Colm Meaney and the late Bairbre Dowling, and her grandfather was Vincent Dowling. Lynch spoke to me about how unremarkable it was for him to have parents who "would be off filming, or go out to work at 6pm rather than 9-5, or be around for three weeks in summer, all day, every day", normalising the realities of the industry and its fluctuating levels of work. "So much of it is your environment," he admitted, "but you can’t deny that there is something in our blood, I guess, that feels specific to acting."
Both he and Brenda Meaney made their impressive Irish stage debuts in recent months; Lynch in the excellent Ghosts at the Abbey, while Meaney was astonishing alongside her father in Enda Walsh’s Bedbound in Galway and Dublin. Nepo babies or not, they nailed it. (They also both nailed their Irish accents despite not being natives, but that’s another story.)
There is absolutely no denying that being the children of a parent or parents in the same industry can open doors that randomers would otherwise struggle to wedge a foot in; it is indubitably a huge privilege. Yet there’s also no guarantee that you’ll build a sustained career without the most important factor: talent. Would Jamie Lee Curtis - a ‘nepo baby’ if ever there was one - have worked as a successful actor for decades without being able to hold her own?
And look at musicians Rufus and Martha Wainwright (both of whom, incidentally, played stunning Irish gigs over the last month). As the children of folk luminaries Loudon Wainwright III and the late, great Kate McGarrigle, they’re musical nepo babies, if ever there was a pair. Yet they’ve both arguably eclipsed their parents’ level of success; not always a guarantee, as Harper Simon, Jakob Dylan, Julian Lennon et al can attest to.
It’s a tricky line to tread between privilege and entitlement, for sure, but nepo babies aren’t always a bad thing. And the best kind are the ones who recognise that they’ve been given a leg-up via their family connections, and make it their business - like any other young actor or musician - to let their work do the talking. It’s every parent’s wish, after all, to see their children outshine them in life - so nepo babies everywhere: the floor, as they say, is yours
