Maya Hawke Says She’s Fine With Nepotism Launching Her Career

Maya Hawke says she’s fine with nepotism launching her acting career.

The Stranger Things star acknowledged to The London Times that she’s had an easier time in Hollywood because her parents are Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke.

When asked if she deserves her success and stardom, Hawke said, “‘Deserves’ is a complicated word… there are so many people who deserve to have this kind of life who don’t, but I think I’m comfortable with not deserving it and doing it anyway.”

She added: “And I know that my not doing it wouldn’t help anyone. I saw two paths when I was first starting, and one of them was: change your name, get a nose job and go to open casting roles.”

Hawke does, however, think it’s totally cool for people to tease nepo babies.

“It’s OK to be made fun of when you’re in rarefied air,” she explained. “It’s a lucky place to be. My relationships with my parents are really honest and positive, and that supersedes anything anyone can say about it.”

One of Hawke’s first major roles was in Quentin Tarantino‘s 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Since Tarantino had previously collaborated with Thurman on Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies, Hawke says it was silly for her to ever imply that she got her role by merit alone.

“I’ve been wildly made fun of for this clip when I said, on the red carpet, that I auditioned,” she said of the movie. “I never meant to imply that I didn’t get the part for nepotistic reasons — I think I totally did.”

Hawke said that she did have conversations with Thurman about working with Tarantino.

“I had a lot of different conversations around it with my mum and it was always wildly supported,” she said, adding that having the opportunity to work with someone who “had been such an influential part of my mum’s life was really meaningful to me.”

The actress also expressed gratitude for the type of role that her Stranger Things character Robin was, as it has become her biggest role to date.

“I feel so lucky that my, for lack of a better word, breakout role was this smart, funny, awkward and goofy person,” she explained. “I didn’t have to be a femme fatale — not that I have what it takes to be one.”

Hawke, who is also a musician, just released her third album titled Chaos Angel. She said it bums her out when she looks out at the audience during a gig and it’s all Stranger Things fans.

“I was almost depressed about it,” she admitted. “Like, I’m glad there are people here, but I guess they don’t care about the music.”