Emma Roberts says she “lost a few jobs” because of her famous family

Emma Roberts would like to offer a counterargument to those who think that it is easier to maintain a Hollywood career as a “child of nepotism”.

In an interview with Flaunt magazine published last week, the “American Horror Story” star – whose father is actor Eric Roberts and whose aunt is actress Julia Roberts – said she had some difficulty landing roles because of her family’s fame.

“I’ve lost more jobs than I’ve gained because of being in the industry,” Roberts argued. “People have opinions and sometimes they may not be good opinions about people in the family. I’ve never gotten a job because of it, but I know I’ve definitely lost a few jobs because of it.”

The term “nepotism baby” or “nepo baby” is used to describe children of actors, singers, and other public figures whose professional success – typically in the field of show business – is seen as a byproduct of having famous and/or wealthy relatives.

In 2022, New York Magazine published a cover story about Nepo babies, titled “A Far-But-Definitive Guide to the Hollywood Nepo Universe.” Among the actors prominently featured in the article were Dakota Johnson and Ben Platt.

What was striking, however, was the absence of Roberts himself.

Still, she told Flaunt that the magazine’s cover – which projects the heads of celebrity children onto the bodies of toddlers – was a “cheap trick.”

“Maybe the ‘Nepo Baby’ conversation would have made a more interesting and nuanced article in Vanity Fair,” she said, “but instead it was some kind of viral misanthropy.”

In a separate interview with Variety, Roberts was asked about “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” the controversial docuseries from Max and Discovery+ that addresses disturbing allegations of a toxic work environment on children’s and young adult series that aired on Nickelodeon in the late 1990s to early 2000s.

Roberts, who starred in Nickelodeon’s “Unfabulous” for three seasons, said she was “completely appalled and shocked” by “Quiet on Set.” Still, she said the docuseries did not reflect her own experiences.

“It made me really, really, really sad that this was happening to people that I literally saw a lot and had no idea about,” she said. “On my show, ‘Unfabulous,’ the showrunner that we had was this amazing woman named Sue Rose. And I didn’t know it at the time, but a female showrunner wasn’t very common back then.”

She continued, “It really makes me sad and I feel that children need to be protected on set just as much as adults and I think we are working towards a better working environment in that regard.”

Roberts can currently be seen in “Space Cadet,” which was released last week on Amazon Prime Video. The comedy follows Rex Simpson (played by Roberts), a Florida party girl who becomes an aspiring astronaut, and co-stars Tom Hopper, Poppy Liu and Gabrielle Union.

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