“The nepotism thing, I mean… I don’t really care,” Hudson said in the interview. “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.” Hudson further compared Hollywood to other industries like modeling and business, saying that nepotism is just as common in those fields, but people who benefit from it there face much less scrutiny. “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!’” Hudson said. “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.”

The current discussion of Hollywood nepotism was kickstarted on December 19, when New York Magazine published a series of essays and stories analyzing the rise of the term “Nepo Baby,” used online to refer to people in Hollywood with famous or influential parents. Hudson herself was mentioned in several of the stories. Since the publication of the New York Magazine issue, many people included in the stories have criticized it, including actor O’Shea Jackson Jr. and singer Lily Allen. On Thursday, Jamie Lee Curtis — daughter of Oscar nominated actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh — responded to the article via an Instagram post in which she said the Nepo Baby conversation “is designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt.”
Danny Strong, known for his acting roles in “Gilmore Girls” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and an Emmy-winner for his work as a writer and director on TV, also responded to the current conversation on Hollywood nepotism in a thread posted to Twitter on Monday. In it, Strong said “With a few exceptions, the children of celebrities that have acting careers do so because they are fantastic actors,” but acknowledged that they receive advantages in terms of mentorship and getting started in their careers.

— Danny Strong (@Dannystrong) December 26, 2022 Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.