Allison Williams responds to 'nepo babies' discourse: 'It doesn't feel like a loss to admit it'

Allison Williams knows you know her parents are famous, and she's fine with that.

The Girls and Get Out star acknowledges her status as a "nepotism baby," which rocketed into the public discourse following a splashy cover story in this month's New York magazine.

"It doesn't feel like a loss to admit it," Williams, 34, told Wired. "If you trust your own skill, I think it becomes very simple to acknowledge."

The New York magazine piece touched off a debate about privilege and access thanks to its focus on the actors, musicians, and celebrities with family ties to wealth and fame.

Williams, the daughter of former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, anchors the killer-AI flick M3GAN, out next month. She also serves as an executive producer on the film, telling Wired that this allowed her to dive into daily production meetings, casting, script passes, and even details about the toy brands her character's niece would play with. In addition, she recruited (mainly female) AI experts to consult on the film.

"It was nice to be allowed to be as invested as I naturally want to be in something — which is completely invested," she says.

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Williams isn't the only famous offspring who's weighed in on the "nepo babies." Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of actors Tony Curtis (Some Like It Hot) and Janet Leigh (Psycho), acknowledged her advantages while rejecting the "snide remarks" about the skills and abilities of people with famous relatives.

"I have been a professional actress since I was 19 years old, so that makes me an OG Nepo Baby," Curtis wrote on Instagram. "The current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt."

The Halloween Ends star pointed to her 44 years in the industry as a sign of her value.

"It's curious how we immediately make assumptions and snide remarks that someone related to someone else who is famous in their field for their art, would somehow have no talent whatsoever," Curtis wrote. "I have come to learn that is simply not true. I have suited up and shown up for all different kinds of work with thousands of thousands of people and every day I've tried to bring integrity and professionalism and love and community and art to my work. I am not alone. There are many of us. Dedicated to our craft. Proud of our lineage. Strong in our belief in our right to exist."

Another celebrity offspring who's weighed in on the conversation is O'Shea Jackson Jr., the son of Ice Cube, who tweeted that he auditioned for two years to play his father in the Oscar-nominated Straight Outta Compton.

"After that it was up to me, he couldn't hold my hand through my career," he wrote on Twitter. "I had to get my ass up and make it work."

Singer Lily Allen, the daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, tweeted, "The nepo babies y'all should be worrying about are the ones working for legal firms, the ones working for banks, and the ones working in politics, if we're talking about real-world consequences and robbing people of opportunity. BUT that's none of my business."

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