Maya Hawke has addressed the “nepo baby” phenomenon head on, saying the reason she was cast in a big film role was totally for “nepotistic reasons.”

Hawke, the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, was cast by Quentin Tarantino in his 2019 movie Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Hawke played Flower Child, one of Charles Manson’s followers, and at the time gave an interview saying she auditioned for the role.

Now she has told The Times of London she was mocked for saying that, and reflected: “I never meant to imply that I didn’t get the part for nepotistic reasons — I think I totally did.”

She added that Tarantino deliberately added her to the cast, which also included Margaret Qualley (Andie MacDowell’s daughter) and Rumer Willis (daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis), and that he was making an effort to “cast a lot of young Hollywood.” 

Asked whether she thought famous off-spring deserved these kinds of leg-up opportunities, 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. 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.

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

Hawke has recently worked with both of her parents on screen. She played opposite Thurman in The Kill Room, and starred in Wildcat, a biopic about writer Flannery O’Connor, directed by Ethan Hawke.