In an interview with Wired discussing her career and meme-spawning new film, “M3GAN,” the former “Girls” star candidly discusses her approach to press duties and how she handles being the daughter of former news anchor Brian Williams. “It doesn’t feel like a loss to admit it,” she said of being a working actor with famous parents. “If you trust your own skill, I think it becomes very simple to acknowledge.” Williams’ career proves her point; elsewhere in the interview, she shared that her “M3GAN” contract negotiations to play the creator of the titular AI being — intended to take care of her newly orphaned niece before going on a  bloody rampage — came with the offer of an executive producer role, one that she threw herself into with enthusiasm.

“I think they assumed, ‘She doesn’t want to know what toy brands we’ve cleared,’ but they were sorely mistaken,” Williams said. And her time working on the initial marketing bore fruit when the trailer dropped, and the internet became obsessed with the dead-eyed dancing robot at the center of the film last October. Related Kate Hudson on Hollywood Nepotism Discourse: ‘If You Work Hard and You Kill It, It Doesn’t Matter’ ‘The Perfection’: Allison Williams and Logan Browning Sound Off on That Graphic Final Twist Related The Best Zombie Movies Ever Made The Best Film Sound of 2022
Williams is not the only celebrity with famous parents being asked about the current nepo baby conversation. After New York Magazine published an extensive series of articles exploring the concept that went viral on social media, everyone from O’Shea Jackson Jr. to Lily Allen weighed in. Calling herself “an OG Nepo Baby,” Jamie Lee Curtis (daughter of film stars Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh) posted a lengthy Instagram caption decrying the conversation as “designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt.” And “Glass Onion” star Kate Hudson told The Independent, “The nepotism thing, I mean… I don’t really care. 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 also pointed out that nepotism is far more rampant (with worse results) in other industries. “I’ve been in business meetings where I’m like, ‘Wait, whose child is this? Like, this person knows nothing!’” she 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.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.