After years of this discussion my patience is wearing thin

A couple of years ago I wrote about the nepo baby discourse that had kicked off, arguing that focusing all of our energy on the very rich and famous was a distraction, when we should be talking about class and opportunities among the rest of us ugly losers. I still stand by this position. However, I am now being forced to expend a bit of the energy I have saved up. After years of discussion around this, my patience is wearing thin. No matter how measured and logical I attempt to be about the issue, it turns out I am still vulnerable to getting really pissed off by it.

Last week, Patrick Schwarzenegger turned out to be the straw (nepo baby) that broke the camel’s (my) back (made me so mad I’m writing this). Schwarzenegger is an actor who is currently starring in the new season of The White Lotus, one of the most coveted jobs in TV. He plays the arrogant and awful son of a very wealthy man, and he’s good! If you don’t know Patrick’s work, you might know his father, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or his mother, Maria Shriver, due to the fact they are extremely famous and powerful, both politically and in Hollywood.

I know there are people who’ll say I only got this role because of who my dad is. They’re not seeing that I’ve had 10 years of acting classes, put on school plays every week, worked on my characters for hours on end or the hundreds of rejected auditions I’ve been on. Of course, it’s frustrating and you can get boxed in and you think at that moment, I wish I didn’t have my last name. But that’s a small moment.

Maybe you get your foot in the door, but you still just have your foot in the door. There’s a lot of work that comes after that.

People have called me a ‘nepo baby.’ I’m inclined to agree. I am an immensely privileged person, was able to get representation pretty early on, and that’s more than half the battle.