Emma Roberts slams sexism around Hollywood’s nepo baby backlash: ‘Why is no one calling out George Clooney?’

Actress Emma Roberts has certainly benefited from her family’s accumulated celebrity (her father is actor Eric Roberts and her aunt is Academy Award-winning actress Julia Roberts), but she’s questioning if men have it easier than women when it comes to the controversial Hollywood discussion surrounding “nepo babies.”

“People definitely have preconceived notions of you,” Roberts, 33, told Bruce Bozzi on his podcast “Table for Two” of being born into a famous family. 

“I think there’s two sides of the coin, you know. People like to say, ‘You have a leg up because you have family in the industry,’ but then the other side to that is, you know, you have to prove yourself more,” she explained. “Also, if people don’t have [a] good experience maybe with other people in your family, then you’ll never get the chance.”

EMMA ROBERTS ON AUNT JULIA ROBERTS, NOT FEELING PRESSURE TO MATCH HER CAREER: ‘I NEVER ASPIRED TO BE HER’

Roberts’ father, Eric, is Julia’s brother.

Roberts also suggested that having a unique story coming into Hollywood was arguably more appealing than a familial connection.

Julia Roberts is the paternal aunt of Emma Roberts. (Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

“I think there’s something to be said where everybody loves the kind of overnight success story. And so if you’re kind of not the girl from the middle of nowhere that broke into Hollywood, you know there’s kind of an eye roll of like, ‘Well, your dad was this,'” she said.

“I always joke, I’m like, ‘Why is no one calling out George Clooney for being a nepo baby? [His aunt] Rosemary Clooney was an icon,'” she said of the late singer and actress.

Clooney and Julia happen to be longtime friends.

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Singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, the paternal aunt of George Clooney, rose to fame in the 1950s. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

“I’m just kidding, but I feel like also, the point is that young girls, I feel like, get it harder with the … nepo baby thing. Like, I don’t really see people calling out, you know, sons of famous actors, not that they should be called out. I don’t think anyone should be called out for wanting to follow their dream,” Roberts said.

“I always joke, I’m like, ‘Why is no one calling out George Clooney for being a nepo baby? Rosemary Clooney was an icon.'”

— Emma Roberts

Examples of male actors with famous parents include, from left, Kiefer Sutherland, Ben Stiller and Michael Douglas. (Steve Granitz/FilmMagic | Dominique Charriau/WireImage | Jason Mendez/WireImage/Getty Images)

“People kind of only see your wins, because they only see when you’re on the poster of a movie. They don’t see all of the, like, rejection along the way,” she said. “I think it’s important to talk about, otherwise people just think, ‘Oh, you know, everything has been so great and linear and easy.’”

Emma Roberts says there are positives and negatives to being born into a famous family. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

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Although Roberts has fronted television series like “Unfabulous,” “Scream Queens” and “American Horror Story” and starred in a number of films, she is the first to recognize auditions don’t always go her way. But she says fame has never been her endgame.

“I saw very up close what that really looks like with my Aunt Julia. It’s obviously, you know, it’s fun, and it’s great, but there is a part of it that’s really scary. And so I’ve always wanted to kind of carve my own path,” she explained. “To me, fame has never been the goal, because fame at a certain level is kind of scary.”

Julia Roberts and George Clooney are longtime friends. (Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

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“In my later teens, I was like, I never want my fame to outweigh my work. Because there’s nothing scarier to me than being so famous that you’re never left alone, but also you’re not getting good jobs,” she admitted. “And that was kind of happening to a lot of people, I think, when I was in my teens and early 20s. And that really scared me. I never wanted that to happen to me. So, I was very conscious of, like, just not wanting to be in it for the fame.”

Roberts has previously said it has never been her aspiration to attain her aunt’s level of celebrity status.

“I never aspired to be her. I love her so much. I love her work, but I’m just doing my own thing,” she told Tatler magazine in 2022.