The 'Glass Onion' actress is the daughter of actors Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson.
Following the release of New York Magazine's end of year issue about Hollywood’s "nepo baby" boom, many within the industry have responded or added to the discourse surrounding the label applied to a new generation of stars who have famous parents. Among them is Kate Hudson, who spoke out about "the nepotism thing" in a recent interview with the Independent.
"I mean... I don’t really care," said Hudson, who is the daughter of performers Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson. "I look at my kids and we’re a storytelling family. It’s definitely in our blood. People can call it whatever they want, but it’s not going to change it."
The star went on to say, "I actually think there are other industries where it’s [more common]. Maybe modeling? I see it in business way more than I see it in Hollywood. Sometimes I’ve been in business meetings where I’m like, wait, 'Whose child is this? Like, this person knows nothing!'"
But when it comes down to it, Hudson said she's not worried about the label. "I don’t care where you come from, or what your relationship to the business is – if you work hard and you kill it, it doesn’t matter," she concluded.
Hudson, who is busy promoting her latest role in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, first broke out on screen in Cameron Crowe's 2000 film, Almost Famous, earning an Oscar nomination for the role.
While speaking to the Independent, she opened up about her early days in Hollywood, and the pressure to be that much more prepared because she was the daughter of two famous stars. "There was a lot more criticism," Hudson said. "I really felt like I had to know my s***, and be as prepared as I could be. It felt like I had to live up to something."
At the time, Hudson was competing against the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, another esteemed star whose parents, Blythe Danner and Bruce Paltrow, are both established names within the industry. "It was me, maybe Gwyneth... I just felt so lucky to get parts. I think a lot of directors and producers didn’t want to hire me because they didn’t want [my parents] to become what the movie was about," she continued.
One thing Hudson points out is that she didn't land Almost Famous because of her parents. "I remember Cameron Crowe saying that it wasn’t as if Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell showed up to his door with, like, trench coats on, holding a gun to his head and making him put me in the movie," she said. "That’s not how any of this works."
Hudson, meanwhile, is just one of many who have been asked to weigh in on the "nepo baby" conversation, with model Lottie Moss, actor O'Shea Jackson Jr and screen legend Jamie Lee Curtis all speaking out.
"I have been a professional actress since I was 19 years old so that makes me an OG Nepo Baby," Curtis wrote on Instagram, addressing the fact that she is the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. "I've never understood, nor will I, what qualities got me hired that day, but since my first two lines on Quincy as a contract player at Universal Studios to this last spectacular creative year some 44 years later, there's not a day in my professional life that goes by without my being reminded that I am the daughter of movie stars."
While acknowledging her privilege, the Halloween star noted that "the current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt."
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