She could have stopped there but she didn’t. There was also this comparison she decided to make and which I present to you without further commentary: “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.’”
Look, I’m not jealous (I mean, I am a bit, but that’s not the point). Nepo babies can get on with reaping all the benefits of being the children of celebrities (no doubt there are also a lot of downsides to it although I can’t think of any right now). I don’t actually care that their surname opens doors, power to them, whatever. What really pisses people off is the lack of self-awareness when it comes to their privilege, as if their fame and wealth is nothing to do with their name and only the result of hard graft.
Italian model Vittoria Ceretti, who also models for Chanel, said it best. While she did not explicitly name Depp, Ceretti, who doesn’t have famous parents, took to her Instagram Stories not long after the interview in Elle came out to talk about the issue: “I get the whole ‘I’m here and I work hard for it,’ but I would really love to see if you would have lasted through the first five years of my career. Not only being rejected, because I know you have an experience with it and you can tell me your sad little story about it (even if at the end of the day you can still always go cry on your dad’s couch in your villa in Malibu)”.
“You have no f***ing idea how much you have to fight to make people respect you. It takes years. You just get it by free day one. I know it’s not your fault, but please, appreciate and know the place you came from,” she added.
Therein lies the essence of the nepo baby debacle - the lack of appreciation for where they come from and the opportunities that come from being the descendants of the rich and famous.
Speaking of nepo babies making news this week, Brooklyn Beckham thought he would wow everyone by showing off his, ahem, skills in the kitchen by making a gin and tonic. Brooklyn Joseph Peltz Beckham is peak nepo baby. There is no door that last name of his won’t open, regardless of whether he has any business walking through it. Before his latest reinvention as a self-appointed chef, Brooklyn launched a few other business ventures, including his very own photography book, hardback proof that, when your dad is a footballer and your mum is a former Spice Girl, there is truly nothing you can’t do, even if you have not a single ounce of talent to do it and cannot even photograph an elephant staring right at you.
Anyway, to end on a positive note, I leave you with the comments from a self-aware nepo baby, to prove that it can indeed be done. Ireland Baldwin, the daughter of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, took to TikTok (try saying that really fast) to comment on the whole Lily-Rose Depp thing and had this to say: “As someone who comes from a famous family, who pursued modelling, I would never have become a model if it weren’t for who my parents were,” she said in a video. “I was going to modelling agencies with my mum, who is a famous actress and model who came from nothing to become an academy award-winning actress and a model. They’re not there to see me. They’re there to see my mother, most of the time. They’re in awe of my mother’s presence.”
See? That wasn’t so hard. There is no shame in admitting you’ve had it easier than the average person. But if most nepo babies are anything to go by, it looks like the one thing money can’t buy might very well be self-awareness.
