Maya Hawke is cool with being a nepo baby: ‘I’m comfortable with not deserving it and doing it anyway’

Maya Hawke has made peace with nepotism.

In an interview with The Times of London, the Stranger Things star acknowledged that she’s had an easier time in Hollywood because her parents are Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. When considering whether or not she deserves the success she’s enjoyed, Hawke said, “‘Deserves’ is a complicated word… 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.”

She continued: “And I know that my not doing it wouldn’t help anyone. 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.”

However, Hawke said she thinks it’s okay to tease people who benefit from nepotism.

“It’s OK to be made fun of when you’re in rarefied air,” she explained. “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.”

One of Hawke’s first major roles came in 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by Quentin Tarantino, who collaborated with her mother on Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies. The actress said that she regrets ever implying that she was cast in the film on skill alone.

“I’ve been wildly made fun of for this clip when I said, on the red carpet, that I auditioned,” she said of the movie. “I never meant to imply that I didn’t get the part for nepotistic reasons — I think I totally did.”

Hawke said she talked to Thurman about working with Tarantino.

“I had a lot of different conversations around it with my mum and it was always wildly supported,” she said, adding that collaborating with someone who “had been such an influential part of my mum’s life was really meaningful to me.”

The actress also expressed appreciation for the uniqueness of her biggest role to date, Robin in Stranger Things.

“I feel so lucky that my, for lack of a better word, breakout role was this smart, funny, awkward and goofy person,” she explained. “I didn’t have to be a femme fatale — not that I have what it takes to be one.”

However, Hawke — who just released her third album, Chaos Angel — said she’s somewhat dismayed when she performs gigs as a singer and the crowds are dominated by Stranger Things fans.

“I was almost depressed about it,” she admitted. “Like, I’m glad there are people here, but I guess they don’t care about the music.”