Zooey Deschanel Denies That “Nepotism” Helped Her In Hollywood: “No One’s Getting Jobs Because Their Dad’s A DP

To be fair most kids of people who are successful in Hollywood fail miserably, even if they have some advantage of getting their foot in the door, or even a couple of sports in a TV show or film. Success is a combination of talent, hard work, timing, luck and of course networking.

She seems mean

She is delusional. People know who DPs are. If she thinks her father being a DP in Hollywood had no advantages to her is just more evidence how clueless she is. Her father has been nominated for six Academy Awards. It's not like he was DP on Ronco commercials.

I think she is missing the point, that getting those opportunities are crucial to getting a shot. Talent or no talent you need a way in. That industry is restricted to insiders.

It's like she wants us to hate her. Like some weird kink

That is like Tori Spelling trying to sell the story that she got 90210 all on her own and not because her dad was the executive producer.

Former shopbottom speaking:

Management in the retail industry is also friends, family and hookups.

No outsiders.

R6, someone pointed out out Spelling missed her calling in pursuing a career in front of the camera instead of building on her dad's legacy as an incredibly successful producer.

jesus, bitch, just admit some doors were opened for you, in that whole "who you know" network. Stop squirming and scrounging and being a lying bitch about it. Just admit it does help getting your foot in the door through Daddy's connections.

[Quote]Her father is Caleb Deschanel, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer behind The Lion King, The Passion of the Christ, The Right Stuff, Never Look Away, and many others. He has also been credited on Titanic and The Godfather.

Yup, being nominated for an Oscar on high-profile films means absolutely nothing. 🙄 What a cunt.

She's a dumb bitch for not even realizing that being around the industry is already a huge leg up over most people, even if it was something as low as catering.

To have a DP dad with such high profile projects under his belt and a full on actress Mom and not think it's nepotism?!?

Can you imagine the thinking of the casting agents - the girl has no talent but we want Caleb for a new film so we'll do him this favor...

Jennifer Anniston just happened to land a role in a sitcom that aired on the same network her dad had been associated with for decades.

Having access is crucial.

Doesn't mean that you are guaranteed stardom or success.

Her mother is hardly a star so I'll give Zooey that one.

Spoiled brat.

Network/contacts and luck are the two primary factors in success.

Favorite nepo story? Goop. Who referred to Steven Spielberg as , "Uncle Morty".

Caleb has also directed feature films, TV shows, and music videos. Do the math!

Nepo babies love trying to rewrite their own history, where they’re totally self-made, despite having an six-time, Oscar-nominated parent who was a cinematographer or worked on production on some of the most successful films of the past 40 years.

Oh, and, coincidentally, her sister just happens to get a starring role on a successful TV show. And their father just happens to direct an episode.

These are all just happy coincidences.

Nothing to see here.

She meant to say no one's getting jobs because their dad got DPed. And to that, I say, BULLSHIT!

She's such a grotty cunt.

At least Jeff Bridges and Michael Douglas have the honesty and class to say that connections jump started their careers.

And people like them.

No one likes this one-trick bitch.

Nepo baby fragility after being confronted on nepo baby privilege. While the conversation has started, I don’t think we’ll see systemic, lasting change.

It seems like people are selective in slapping the nepo baby label on celebrities. I suppose talent and likability can compensate for a nepo baby status. For example, Rodent Boy had a mother, aunt, and uncle in the business and yet somehow he is immune from nepo baby stigma or criticism.

I liked her sister in Bones.

[quote] While the conversation has started, I don’t think we’ll see systemic, lasting change.

OMG, I hope not!

Let's see you get two headshots, One is Brenda Jones from the Bronx, the other is Zoey Deschanel, daughter of a six-time oscar nominated DP as well as Emmy-winning director and producer, Who are you going to call in for a reading?

Even the headshots aren't needed. These opportunities are reserved for insiders.

What a liar. As if her father wouldn't - at the very fucking least - know a great agent for Zooey (and her sister) to get a huge leg up.

Not saying she's not talented. But come on. Go sell that shit somewhere else, Zooey.

She's notoriously abusive and hateful. Can you trust anything she says?

[quote] Even the headshots aren't needed. These opportunities are reserved for insiders.

What’s a headshot?

Emily was the better sister.

[quote] Favorite nepo story? Goop. Who referred to Steven Spielberg as , "Uncle Morty".

The most obnoxious is Wyatt Russell, who tried and failed to be a hockey star, then decided he would just become a movie star instead. And mommy and daddy helped. Again.

Because that’s totally normal for someone. As opposed to, say, getting an education, gaining real-world skills and securing a career that doesn’t involve being famous.

I guess astronauts don’t get the chicks, or mommy and daddy would have bought him a spaceship.

She had talent, looks, and an "in". Why deny any of these factors?

We'd have got our book contracts no matter who our parents were! We always loved to make up storys and to right them down!!

I'll give Lewis Pullman a pass. He's a decent actor, and Bill doesn't seem the type to pull favours for his kids. Prior to his acting career taking off, Lewis was heavily involved with his brother and sister and their musical endeavours. His sister, Maesa, has a beautiful voice.

It certainly helps that he looks very much like his father, and has a recognisable surname, but I'm not going to lump Lewis in with the nepo crod just yet.

R36 = Lewis Pullman, trying to fan off the nepo baby stench.

Truly vile creature.

[quote] I'll give Lewis Pullman a pass.

Why? His dad was the lead male in two huge movies - “Independence Day” and “While You Were Sleeping” - not to mention lead or strong supporting roles in countless other successful films - “Casper” - been in acclaimed stage work and continues to steadily work today at 70.

I like how people think if your parents aren’t A-list, like Cruise or Pitt, how can you be a nepo baby?

These people make major connections with directors, producers, agents, etc. Plus, they have a recognizable name and look. And many of them are quietly involved in producing behind the scenes. How do you think Warren Beatty lives like royalty with his thin filmography and hardly any credits for the past 40 years?

How the hell does Kaia Gerber have an “acting” career when she looks like long division would smoke her brain and she certainly didn’t train at Julliard? Neither of her parents are movie stars.

But mommy was a supermodel and daddy is best friends with George Clooney.

Nepotism in Hollywood goes far beyond your parents starring in a Marvel movie.

I just thank anyone in “the industry” that her horrible “Siri order me tomato soup - Siri fix my ukulele string - Siri tell me how cute I am- Siri get me another commercial gig” stint is over.

[quote] I just thank anyone in “the industry” that her horrible “Siri order me tomato soup - Siri fix my ukulele string - Siri tell me how cute I am- Siri get me another commercial gig” stint is over.

Me too. She smells like gin and sweaty pantyhose.

Lewis Pullman would be selling overpriced securities management at Fidelity if it wasn’t for his father.

Why is there this inane fixation with "nepo babies" suddenly? Is it because Gen Z types think that if THEY had rich and connected parents, they too would be famous and acclaimed artists?

[quote] Why is there this inane fixation with "nepo babies" suddenly?

Because we’re being force fed personalities we’re supposed to patronize who have nothing greater to offer than belonging to the lucky sperm club.

Because there are countless talented, hardworking people who don’t have connected mommies and daddies who are serving up burrito bowls at Chipotle while brain-dead, talentless individuals are given prize opportunities on a silver platter based on nothing but their lineage.

Because ability and skill are trumped by who you know, not what you know.

Oldest story in the world.

Better question: why do you think this is acceptable?

[quote] Her mother is hardly a star so I'll give Zooey that one.

I sort of recall that on the IMDB boards or another message board that Mary Jo Deschanel's character on Twins Peaks was referred to as the "boring mom in the wheelchair" or something along those lines.

Why does she care? Getting a foot in due to nepotism - big deal. Happens in lots of industries. She got in the door, she was good enough to stay. She really doesn't need to be ashamed.

I don't fucking care, really. It's just the current fad to scream "Nepo baby!" as though some great scandal had been unearthed.

Plenty of people take advantage of their family's connections in choosing their.own academic and career paths.

A producer or director can bet on some degree if media interest if he were to cast the goodlooking grandson of Cary Grant (to chose an example that may be false/impossible), but that actor is not going to have a huge and long career based on no.more than that. It's the sort of thing you do in a horror film, or some cast of nobodies that you want to spice up purely for publicity. Or you cast the relative if a famous person because they are good for the part.

I don't think Zoey Deschenal's Oscar nominated cinematographer father somehow suggested she was q good actress and certainly not a bankable name. It might have been a small talking point at an audition, but who cares?

There are of course thoroughly talentless people who happen to have very famous parents and have nothing better to do than to try to cash in on the connection. They deserve any criticism that comes their way.

But Zoey Deschenal? FFS, she's no uncommonly brilliant talent but neither is the worst actress. Any DLer can probably rattle off a long list of worse actresses without much effort at all. I don't fault her for taking an interest in the industry in which her parents were involved, no more than I fault someone for studying law and working in her mother's law firm, or going into real estate development with her father, or working as a carpenter like her uncles.

Nepotism is only a crime when it tries repeatedly to foist some clearly unqualified and untalented person to the front who proceeds to make a disaster of everything.

If you were a successful individual in the entertainment world, and your child wanted to get in the business, wouldn't you try some networking for them?

Who is this? I don't know her.

Nepo babies have become (even) more talentless and annoying since the rise of social media, hence the recent backlash. Especially the likes of the Beckham kids, Lily-Rose Depp, Kate Moss's daughter, Rafferty (son of Jude) Law, Eliot ("no gender label" child of Sting) Sumner, and various Gallagher Brothers offspring.

Of course she doesn’t know what it’s like to be one of the legions of outsiders trying to storm the castle. How could she? She’s always been an insider.

If she got Twilight-Zoned into the life of an outsider for just a week, she’d change her tune very fast.

OMG Kendal and Kylie's Novel. I remember an interview where when she was asked about the plot. Kylie could not even pronounce post-apocalyptic.

[quote] OMG Kendal and Kylie's Novel.

They must have gone through several crayons to finish that.

Knowing people and having connections exist in every industry. Why would entertainment be any different or held to a different standard. She and the other "nepo babies" don't owe anyone an explanation on how they get opportunities in whatever career field they choose. They should just stop adressing and responding to questions about it.

R54 = Maude Apatow.

[quote]Why would entertainment be any different or held to a different standard?

For one of several reasons (some previously stated), because people in other professional fields are generally not inflicted on the public. Your type of answer has long been the stock answer for many celebrity kids who followed in their parents' footsteps: in an interview he gave in the late 1980s, an extremely entitled and arrogant 24-year-old Charlie Sheen muttered something about having become "a dentist in Iowa," if that had been his father's occupation

Nepotism is particularly egregious in Hollywood but yes it is pervasive in every industry. In my corporate job, I can't tell you the number of hired people who turned out to be somebody's daughter or nephew or whatever. While the conversation has finally started, nepotism will unfortunately always be around in some form or another.

She got caught lying about this. Look at the caption on this photo.

“Just call my dad’s office number and my mother will drive me to the audition.”

People want in. But it turns out the industry is closed to outsiders.

Zooey has one of the cuntiest reps in Hollywood. I guess that's why she's barely worked since her sitcom ended

I tried. Watching that sitcom. Didn't hold my interest and I hate her music/singing voice.

[quote]Zooey has one of the cuntiest reps in Hollywood. I guess that's why she's barely worked since her sitcom ended

Sister Emily hasn't done much since Bones ended.

Emily was in Animal Kingdom for one season. Wasn’t that good.

Watched the New Girl pilot. Said, this is fun!

By the end of the second episode, I wanted to strangle her.

A little goes a long, long way.

I had the same reaction to Gilmore Girls. Hated those characters. Especially the mom.

Both my parents were teachers. I emerged from that knowing one thing beyond all doubt: I would NEVER be a teacher.

Listening to rich and gorgeous parents discuss movie making must be far more alluring than going to your room to escape endless discussions of class size and the likelihood that the levy will pass.

[quote]Sister Emily hasn't done much since Bones ended.

She certainly doesn't have to.

[quote]Mary Jo Deschanel, who starred in Twin Peaks

Bitch, please. Even I got more screen time than her

Emily was chunky for awhile after Bones ended.

For non-nepo babies, I hate to break it to you but your only way in is on the casting couch.

This practice of hiring friends, family and fuck buddies is done throughout society. It's why things don't get done correctly or on time.

People complain about the entertainment industry most because it is a high profile industry and very lucrative for the few insiders who have made it.

And because it has no professional standards.

This is true about any industry that only hires and promotes insiders

I wish people would stop comparing nepo baby entertainers to doctors, lawyers, etc. we’re talking about an industry where there is no education that has to be involved. So a bunch of untalented and/or unattractive people who are related to people in the industry just walk in while others have to jam a foot an in the door after years of trying even if they are really talented and/or attractive. The only thing it is comparable with is rich people pulling strings to get their undeserving kid in a fancy college.

Don't the accused say connections can get you the audition but the performance is up to?

Nepos always pretend they're not.

I think rich people should be permitted to pay a fortune to get their mouth breathing offspring into school

I can’t believe it was Dakota Johnson’s extraordinary talent that got her into three dirty movies right off the bat.

Of course, nepotism in any industry, vocation, or avocation is real. She ought to acknowledge and go on from there.

I remember about twenty-five years ago I was browsing in a bookstore and picked up Maria Shriver's "Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World." In it she wrote that being born a Kennedy got her fought in the door. After that, however, she had to rely on her own talent and merit to get anywhere.

She was right. Zooey Deschanel had a foot in the door. But, now, she needs to rely on herself to get ahead.

Nepotism exists everywhere, not just in Hollywood. I bet a lot of you got a jobs throughout your life because someone you know had "put in a good word"

[quote] I remember about twenty-five years ago I was browsing in a bookstore and picked up Maria Shriver's "Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real World." In it she wrote that being born a Kennedy got her fought in the door. After that, however, she had to rely on her own talent and merit to get anywhere.

It certainly wasn’t her lovemaking skills.

That's not nepotism, R80--favoritism, maybe. Nepotism means "the practice of those in power or influence in favoring relatives or friends for jobs."

R82 Okay, it still happens in all career fields. Hollywood isn't special in that regard

A DP like her father works with a lot of directors and stars. No connections, though...

R80 Not really.

R80 But you obviously did.

There’s a difference between your father knowing the manager of the Piggly Wiggly and helping get you a part-time job as a bag boy and your father being a multiple Oscar nominee who helps you and your sister secure lucrative acting careers in film and television along with all the perks of fame and celebrity.

If you can’t tell the difference, you’re either obtuse or ignorant.

There's no reason to be ashamed of benefitting from family privilege-- just don't pretend it didn't help; then work hard and help others.

There's reason to be ashamed if you got a job over people who were more qualified.

Helping others isn't the in the game plan

My mother used her relationship with me to hire me as her cook on the days she didn't feel like it.

isn't in the game plan

The game plan is hire and promote my own

R87 Apart from one of those being a lot better paying job, no, there isn't

This whole narrative was started by a bunch of obese woke ytcunts and ugly, untalented POC who want to be famous and rich for serving lewks. Yasssss, Mother! Yasssss!

Nicolas Coppola had to do it on his own

I’m sure when the equitable, superior, all-mighty woke POC take power they will eliminate nepotism. They are far advanced beings.

I mea, we'll try, r97. Being so advanced can be exhausting.

R97, you sound retarded. Seriously. Grow the fuck up.

She played a retard in a Christmas movie.

there is no difference, r87. unless you are a wannabe actor sweeping up slop at the pig.

it's all relative. (ha!)

[quote] She played a retard in a Christmas movie.

And that was her career peak!

All Broadway jobs - stagehands, front of house staff, backstage technicians- you name it are based on family connections or who you know.

A retard who gets rescued by a rich man. A typical 90s-00s romcom solution to the world’s problems is …get rescued by a rich man. Then you won’t have to live off ramen noodles in a shoebox.

Come to think of it though, maybe all Christmas movies get rescued by rich men, Scrooge rescues the Crachit family…not Bob Crachit’s hard work, but Scrooge’s largesse, Miracle on 34th Street …little Natalie and her mom get rescued by the lawyer who is going to buy them a nice house in the suburbs so they won’t have to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from an apartment.

George Bailey gets rescued by Hee Haw Sam Wainwright.

Top female banker fired over secret relationship with employee who received promotions and bigger pay: Her 20-year career at RBC and $3M salary down the tubes

I don’t know I think nepos like Patrick Schwarzenegger and Scott Eastwood could’ve made it on their own.

I will never understand studio executives or casting directors’ obsession with second generation talent. Are celebrity offspring so dense that they cannot make it through four years of college learning something other than the arts, communication, film, or for the daring ones journalism?

Zooey and Emily had a HUGE advantage because of their parents. Most aspiring actors move to L.A. with nothing. No knowledge of the business, no agent, and if they have a crappy agent, no auditions from that agent. Someone without Zooey’s connections can go YEARS (maybe forever) without an audition for a major project. Now you still have to win the role and there’s a reason Liza had a better career than Lorna but Zooey is kidding herself if she thinks she had no advantage. I know the whole family. I haven’t had much contact with Zooey but Emily, the mom, the dad are wonderful people. Wonderful people. I can’t say that enough.

She's self made like me.

Also- directors, producers, etc knew Caleb had kids, They probably visited sets. People in the business knew who they were. No one knew who I was when I started my career.

Are you Rutanya Alda?

Just to give examples, I’m bipolar and Emily was there as a shoulder to cry on even though she was working 18 hour days and carrying a series. She was 100% there for me and I would’ve understood if she wasn’t. Also- she and her father drove three hours each way during their Christmas break to see me in an opera. As for the mom, she is the sweetest lady and I guarantee you would all love her. I never knew Zooey though. I’m a fan, esp from Almost Famous and Yes Man.