Michael Douglas, 82, says he doesn’t like it when people call his children “nepo babies.”
Douglas weighed in on the term in an interview with the Sunday Times about his memoir, One Helluva Ride, saying the term has a “snotty tone to it I really kind of resent.”
Douglas is the son of screen legend Kirk Douglas, who died in 2020. He said few so-called “nepos” have had a career like the one he and his father had.
He also argued that Hollywood is treated differently from other fields. “In every other business, every mother and father helps their kids,” he said. In other industries, he said, people are expected to keep the family success going, but in acting, “you’re criticised for being the same.”
His wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, shared his view a few weeks ago. She called the term “horrific.” “These kids didn’t ask to be born into this, they’re finding their own way in life,” she said. She added that the kids are good at acting, and that if they weren’t, she and Douglas would tell them to think about law school.
Their children are now starting acting careers. Dylan, 26, graduated from Brown University in 2022 and had a role last year in the thriller I Will Come to You. Carys, 23, made her stage debut in July in an off-Broadway production of “The Seagull.”
One Helluva Ride comes out October 6.
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