Most stars, whether they are the children of actors or their parents, bristle at the term ‘nepo baby‘.
But not British actress Keira Knightley, who has revealed not only that she is a nepo baby but that she is not embarrassed about how she got her start in showbiz.
Knightley, 40, made the comments during a recent appearance on the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast when host Giovanna Fletcher asked about the ‘creative house’ she grew up in.
Keira Knightley says she is not annoyed by the “nepo baby” tag. (YouTube/ThisMorning)
Knightley is the daughter of actor Will Knightley, who co-founded London’s Half Moon Theatre Company, and Sharman Macdonald, an actor and playwright.
“So my dad is an actor, was an actor,” she said. “My mum is/was a writer.”
“They both predominantly worked in the theatre, and we’re obsessed by theatre and storytelling.
“So I very much grew up with discussing plays and books and all of that.”
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The British actress, pictured with her mother Sharman Macdonald, grew up in a creative household. (WireImage)
But while they were creative, Knightley said they often had to take on other jobs to make ends meet.
Knightley said she grew up thinking that being an actor or writer meant holding down a second or third job, which led Fletcher to ask if this made her annoyed by the whole ‘nepo baby thing’.
“I don’t know about annoyed. I mean, you know, I am a nepo baby,” Knightley said.
“My first proper agent was because she was my mum’s best mate, and she’s still my agent today.
“I think it’s true that there are connections that are made, and it’s true that within creative families, a lot of the actors I know, it is generation.
“I mean you grow up in a particular environment, and if you like the environment you grow up in, you will gravitate towards that environment.”
Knightley said while this was the same for other generational careers, such as builders, doctors and lawyers, it was only those in the entertainment industry who copped flak.
“You don’t see a doctor whose dad’s a doctor and go ‘No, no, no no’,” she said, adding that criticism of those in the entertainment industry was always “very loud”.
She also said that despite how you get your start, you need to be talented.
“Unless you bring the goods, you’re going to be chucked out very quickly.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Knightley said she first showed an interest in acting at three – earlier than previous reports – and started demanding her parents get her an agent around this time.
She told Fletcher this was probably because her parents both had agents who regularly phoned the house.
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Knightley has wanted to be an actress since she was three. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
At eight, she scored her first credited TV role in the series Screen One.
This was followed by roles in The Bill and TV shows, a mini-series and movies, before she appeared in one of her mother’s plays, After Juliet.
Her breakthrough came when she secured the role of Sabé, Padmé Amidala’s handmaiden and decoy in the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
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But it was her role in the 2002 hit film Bend it Like Beckham that put Knightley on the map.
The film was a surprise hit, grossing $120 million. Knightley was just 16 when she was thrust into stardom.
She appeared in two of the biggest films of all time the following year – Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and Love Actually. She filmed both while still a teen.
Knightley became a star thanks to the 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham. (Redbus Film Distribution)
But the unrelenting attention later saw her suffer a mental breakdown and she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder at 22.
Most recently, she starred in the Netflix mystery/thriller TV series Black Doves, where she played the posh wife of a politician who is also an undercover assassin who is trying to protect her children.
In real life, she is a mother of two girls, Edie, who was born in 2015, and Delilah, whom she welcomed in 2019.
She shares them with her musician husband James Righton, whom she married in 2013.
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