Michael Douglas says ‘nepo’ baby label ‘pisses me off’
Michael Douglas says ‘nepo’ baby label ‘pisses me off’
Marina WattsMon, October 5, 2026 at 4:24 PM UTC
0
Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in October 2011Credit: Michael Buckner/GettyKey Points -
Michael Douglas says that the term “nepo” baby “really pisses” him off.
The Oscar winner’s father is the late Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas.
One Helluva Ride hits bookstores on Tuesday, Oct. 6. It is available for preorder wherever books are sold.
Michael Douglas would prefer not to be called a “nepo” baby, thank you very much.
The Oscar winner and son of late Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, whose memoir One Helluva Ride comes out Oct. 6, declared his disdain for the term while reflecting on his life and career. When asked if he was grateful for the tough times that brought him to success, he say, “oh s--- yeah!”
“Well first of all, you know, Hollywood royalty. I mean... this ‘nepo’ thing really pisses me off,” he told Smartless podcast hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes.
“I don’t know a career where a father or mother don’t try to help their son or daughter get into their business and this and that, and why they picked on this because of the well-known aspect of it,” he said.
Michael Douglas at the SiriusXM Studios in New York in September 2026Credit: Gary Gershoff/Getty
Arnett compared nepo babies in Hollywood to that of family businesses outside showbiz. “We don’t chase down when we see a plumbing truck that says McGlinnen & Sons. We don’t go, ‘Hey, you nepo ass.’”
Bateman agreed. “It’s not exclusive to the entertainment industry. There are sons and daughters everywhere,” he said.
“But they make it like it’s, we’re the only ones, you know?” Douglas added.
Bateman then asked if there was any advice Douglas could offer future generations trying to navigate the nepo baby of it all. “Recognizing good material. I mean, not counting on it...getting something,” the Wall Street star said.
Advertisement
“The problem we all have is we don’t play an instrument, or we don’t paint, or we don’t write,” he said. “We’re standing there. But a good piece of material, man, a good piece of material helps things along well.”
He also spoke about the traits he inherited from his father, who died in 2020 at 103. “[He] had incredible stamina, tenacity, was a motherf---er, and was just really, really tough and could hang on there.”
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
“This is not a business [for you] if rejection is gonna bend you over. Rejection is the fuel. It makes you tougher and stronger, and I think you have to create your own identity you have to trust in rather than try to become an image of a reative.”
In his upcoming memoir, Douglas writes about the Lust for Life star. “Much of my story is about finding my way in the world as I carried the weight of my legendary father’s legacy,” Douglas writes. “How could it not be? After all, I am the son of Spartacus.”
He also reflected on the relationship between his father and grandfather: “The lack of attention that dad got from his father probably was a large part of his desire to be somebody and to show his father.”
Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas at the Children of Chernobyl’s Children at Heart gala in New York in November 2011Credit: Dave Kotinsky/Getty
One Helluva Ridehits bookstores on Tuesday, Oct. 6. It is available for preorder wherever books are sold. Watch the full podcast in the video below.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
