The actor, daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, revealed that nepotism “totally” helped her score one of her biggest Hollywood roles.
Maya Hawke is unfazed by the internet’s nepo baby discourse.
In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Hawke didn’t hold back from admitting that being the daughter of Hollywood stars Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke has played a role in her rise as an actor.
When asked whether she thinks she “deserved” her success, Maya Hawke said she’s “comfortable” with “not deserving it.”
“‘Deserves’ is a complicated word,” the “Stranger Things” actor said. “There are so many people who deserve to have this kind of life who don’t, but I think I’m comfortable with not deserving it and doing it anyway.”
“And I know that my not doing it wouldn’t help anyone,” she continued. “I saw two paths when I was first starting, and one of them was: change your name, get a nose job and go to open casting roles.”
Hawke’s comments come nearly two years after the term “nepo baby” became the internet’s favorite buzzword following a 2022 article from New York magazine that highlighted an extensive list of famous people’s children who had successfully launched their own careers in the industry.
Hawke was one of the many children named in the article.
The “Do Revenge” actor, who starred alongside her mother in 2023′s “The Kill Room” and was directed by her father in the drama “Wildcat” that same year, shared why she’s fine with the internet’s criticisms of nepo babies.
“It’s OK to be made fun of when you’re in rarefied air,” Hawke told The Sunday Times. “It’s a lucky place to be. My relationships with my parents are really honest and positive, and that supersedes anything anyone can say about it.”
Elsewhere in her interview, Hawke also addressed previous comments she made detailing her audition process for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” in a 2019 Hollywood Reporter story.
Tarantino famously worked with Hawke’s mom for the “Kill Bill” franchise and “Pulp Fiction.”
“I got an audition for the project through the normal channels through my agents,” Hawke told the outlet at the time. “I did an audition in my bedroom with my dad. We sent in the tape to Quentin and I got a callback.”
She told The Sunday Times that she was mocked for the remarks and clarified that nepotism gave her an advantage in the audition.
“I’ve been wildly made fun of for this clip when I said, on the red carpet, that I auditioned,” she said, adding, “I never meant to imply that I didn’t get the part for nepotistic reasons — I think I totally did.”
