Legendary actor Tom Hanks stood up for “nepo babies” in a recent interview, arguing that it wasn’t nepotism so much as the fact that the Hollywood film industry, like any other industry, had the potential to be a “family business” of sorts.
Hanks made the comments during an interview with The Sun while promoting his latest film, “A Man Called Otto,” which features his son Truman playing a younger version of Hanks’ titular character.
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The actor has four children — son Colin and daughter Elizabeth from his first marriage to actress Samantha Lewes, and sons Chet and Truman with current wife, actress Rita Wilson. All four, he says, are involved in creative arts in some way.
“Look this is a family business. This is what we’ve been doing forever. It’s what all of our kids grew up in,” he said. “If we were a plumbing supply business or if we ran the florist shop down the street, the whole family would be putting in time at some point, even if it was just inventory at the end of the year.”
The Oscar-winning actor went on to argue that, just as in any other business, it was the quality of the work that would ultimately determine success in the field.
“The thing that doesn’t change no matter what happens, no matter what your last name is, is whether it works or not. That’s the issue anytime any of us go off and try to tell a fresh story or create something that has a beginning and a middle and an end. Doesn’t matter what our last names are. We have to do the work in order to make that a true and authentic experience for the audience,” he said. “That’s a much bigger task than worrying about whether anybody’s going to try to scathe us or not.”
Hanks’ comments align fairly closely with actress Kate Hudson’s assessment on the topic. Hudson was raised by her mother, actress Goldie Hawn, and stepfather Kurt Russell — and she said there was definitely a creative streak that ran through her family.
“It’s definitely in our blood. People can call it whatever they want, but it’s not going to change it,” she said. And at the end of the day, she argued that it all came down to who was willing to put in the work. “I don’t care where you come from, or what your relationship to the business is … if you work hard and you kill it.