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Freddie deBoer's avatar

"In the piece you pandered way too hard to their editors in order to get published there"

This is expressed with perfect confidence, about something you can't possibly have any information on, and entirely wrong.

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Chasing Ennui's avatar

My critique of this framing is that "nepo baby" oversimplified compared to what is going on.

When I think of "nepotism" I think of a family member either giving you, or at least calling in a favor to get you a job. I'm sure that this is a factor in the success of some second- or third-generation actors, but it is hardly the only factor.

You touch on two other factors in your article - heritability and wealthy parents being able to support a kid pursuing a questionable career choice. However, there are other factors as well.

-Even if your actor parent doesn't get you a job, they have some experience on how best to get one as an actor and can advise you on what to do

-if your parent is an actor, you and your parent are both more likely to see acting as a reasonable career aspiration and less likely to decide that it's a pipe dream and you should really become an accountant or something

-if your parents are actors or in the entertainment industry, you are likely to live in LA or NY or somewhere else where there are a lot of acting opportunities and/or where you may organically make connections. It's easier to get a bit part in a movie in LA than rural Kansas.

These are all significant advantages (privileges if you will) that children of actors have over other people, that will help them break into acting if they want to. However, they are all distinct from the idea that your dad got you the job. Just saying that people got their job through nepotism ignores these factors, which is bad, especially since these factors give people a leg up in other professions as well and need to be accounted for when someone claims that they just want "equality of opportunity."

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