Since a young age, Jack Quaid has been privy to the advantages of having famous parents.
In a recent interview with the Daily Beast, the 32-year-old actor opened up about how his parents, Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, have impacted his career in Hollywood and explained why being labeled a "nepo baby" is a term he can "agree" with.
"People have called me a ‘nepo baby,’" he said. "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. I knew the door was open for me in a lot of ways that it’s just not for a lot of actors, and I’ve just tried to work as hard as I possibly can to prove that I deserve to walk through that door."
In December, Ryan seemingly slammed the term in an interview with Glamour.
"Jack is really talented," she told the outlet. "He's more of a natural than I'll ever be."
"That nepo stuff is so dismissive of his work ethic, his gifts, and how sensitive he is to the idea of his privilege. I remember seeing him in a middle school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He was playing Bottom. I was newly divorced from his dad, and he was seated at the other side of the gym."
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Ryan described how, in that moment, she and "The Rookie" star realized her son was going places in the acting world, though she wasn’t exactly thrilled.
"I had my head in my hands and was like, ‘Oh, no. He's good. He's really good.' I leaned forward, and I see Dennis, and he's also leaning forward with his head in his hands. I just knew."
Defending his mom's comments, "The Boys" actor told the Daily Beast: "I don’t think she's trying to say that I’m not a nepo baby."
"I think she's just trying to say that, in her opinion, it undermines my talent," he added. "I don’t think it undermines my talent. I know that I work hard, and I know I’ve heard ‘no’ way more than I’ve heard ‘yes.’ But I also know that this industry is insanely hard to break into, and I had an easier time doing that than most."
"Both things can be true. So no, I don’t think she was trying to say that I’m not a privileged person. She knows. She must know. I think she was being a mom."
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During an interview on Kelly Clarkson’s daytime talk show in 2020, Dennis said Jack refused to accept his dad's offer in finding him representation.
"My agent wanted to represent him and he said ‘No. I want to do it on my own,'" he told the Grammy Award-winning artist.
He continued, "And then, of course, he gets an agent on his own and his first movie is 'Hunger Games.' Then he gets in [Martin] Scorsese’s 'Vinyl' on television, which was the hottest show there was. Now he’s doing 'The Boys', which is the hottest thing on streaming. It’s a great show."
The "nepo baby" label has been used on other famous people, including Emma Roberts (Julia Roberts' niece), actress Zoe Kravitz (Grammy Award winner Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet), actress Maya Hawke (daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman), and actress Margaret Qualley (daughter of Andie MacDowell),
Fox News Digital's Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
