Kaia Gerber Criticized Over Hollywood Nepotism Comments

As the internet continues to obsess over the "nepo baby" debate, the 21-year-old model — who's the daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber — spoke to Elle about the benefits of having famous parents, which she admitted was helpful as a model, but not so much as an actress.

"I won't deny the privilege that I have," Gerber began, explaining that her mom's industry standing has given her a go-to source for "great advice," as well as the opportunity to meet important people.

"That alone I feel very fortunate for," she continued, before recalling that her mom "always joked, ‘If I could call and book a Chanel campaign, it would be for me and not you.'”

That said, what really rankled fans were Gerber's comments about her acting career, as she implied that her roles in big productions like Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story and the Oscar-nominated Babylon were byproducts of her own hard work.

“With acting, it’s so different. No artist is going to sacrifice their vision for someone’s kid. That just isn’t how art is made, and what I’m interested in is art," Gerber said before saying that while "nepotism is prevalent" in Hollywood, "if it actually was what people make it out to be, we’d see even more of it." And given Gerber's resume, her statement obviously raised more than a few eyebrows.

Model and actress Kaia Gerber on nepo babies in the film industry:

“With acting, it’s so different. No artist is going to sacrifice their vision for someone’s kid. That just isn’t how art is made.”

🔗:https://t.co/eAr3Nqc5Gj pic.twitter.com/B53tk2rcAr

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 25, 2023

"'Someone's kid' is a nice way to cleanse 'a rich and influential Hollywood power player's kid,'" as writer Art Tavana quipped, while another commenter accused Gerber of being a hypocrite by writing, "so ryan murphy really wanted the characters he wrote to have an unseasoned performance like hers, is that was she saying?"

"Someone's kid" is a nice way to cleanse "a rich and influential Hollywood power player's kid."

— art tavana (@arttavana) January 25, 2023

so ryan murphy really wanted the characters he wrote to have an unseasoned performance like hers, is that was she saying? pic.twitter.com/a87TRWPEew

— 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀 • (@escorpitch) January 25, 2023

Gerber, however, has yet to respond to the backlash.

Photo via Getty / Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic