George Clooney Emma Roberts
Main Image: Emma Roberts (via Wikimedia Commons) and George Clooney (White House/Pete Souza via Wikimedia Commons)

Emma Roberts has some thoughts to share about her fellow nepo babies — specifically George Clooney, who like Emma Roberts, also has a famous aunt.

The American Horror Story actress recently discussed nepotism and fame on the Table for Two podcast. Roberts falls under the “nepo baby” category — an internet term that refers to famous people who also have famous relatives — because her father is actor Eric Roberts and her aunt is actress Julia Roberts.

But she argues that older male actors aren’t called out for being “nepo babies” as often as young actresses. Specifically, she referenced George Clooney, whose aunt, Rosemary Clooney, was a famous singer and actress in the 1950s. She famously starred in the 1954 classic White Christmas opposite Bing Crosby. In the music world, she’s known for songs like “Come On-a My House” and “Mambo Italiano.”

“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, there’s kind of an eye roll of like, ‘Well, your dad was this.’ And I always joke, I’m like, ‘Why is no one calling out George Clooney for being a nepo baby? Rosemary Clooney was an icon,’” Roberts said.

“But I feel like also the point is, young girls get it harder with the nepo baby thing. Like, I don’t really see people calling out sons of famous actors, not that they should be called out.”

George Clooney in O Brother Where Art Thou ©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy of Everett Collection

She continued: “I think there’s two sides of the coin… People like to say, you know, 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. Also, if people don’t have good experiences, maybe, with other people in your family, then you’ll never get a chance.”

Emma Roberts on George Clooney and Being Nepo Babies

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Roberts rose to fame in the early 2000s with roles in Nickelodeon’s Unfabulous as well as Nancy Drew and Valentine’s Day, which also starred her aunt Julia Roberts, and Aquamarine. She went on to do series like American Horror Story and Scream Queens as well as films like 2020’s Holidate, The Hunt, and 2024’s Madame Web.

George Clooney is known for movies like 1996’s From Dusk Til Dawn, 1997’s Batman & Robin, 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven, and 2000’s Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Perfect Storm, 2008’s Burn After Reading, 2009’s Up in the Air, and 2013’s Gravity. He also recently appeared alongside Emma Robert’s aunt Julia Roberts in 2022’s Ticket to Paradise.

Emma Roberts in Valentine’s Day, Warner Bros.

Looking back on her childhood, Roberts says witnessing her aunt’s fame was overwhelming.

“I saw very up close what that really looks like with my aunt Julia,” she said. “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…Fame has never been the goal, because fame at a certain level is kind of scary.”

“Even in my later teens, I was like, I never want my fame to outweigh my work,” she added. “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. 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, and so I never wanted that to happen to me.”

Main Image: Emma Roberts (via Wikimedia Commons) and George Clooney (White House/Pete Souza via Wikimedia Commons)