Sarah Paulson Shares Her Take on the Nepo Baby Debate

Hopper Penn and Dylan Penn

“I can see being really pissed that I got this role, as someone else,” Dylan told W after dad Sean Penn directed her in the 2021 drama Flag Day. At the same time, she added, as a working actress “I’ve been auditioning forever. I’ve been rejected forever.”

Regarding the kerfuffle over her brother starring in a Spielberg-daughter-directed short, Dylan stressed, “This is the business. It is about who you know. Always. Whether you’re the son of Sean Penn or not.”

Hopper, who made his movie debut in Sean’s film The Last Face, told E! News in February that the nepo baby conversation didn’t really affect him.

“I’m like, ‘If you like it, cool. If you don’t, great,'” he explained, having just made Devil’s Peak with mom Robin Wright. “And if you think that there’s nepotism going on, I really don’t care because I’m gonna do the work just as professional as everybody else, and I’m not gonna come there and do it half-ass because I’m working with my dad, I’m working with my mom.'”

Working with his father, Hopper noted, was the same “great nightmare” for him as it was for all the other actors who weren’t related to the director. 

And on any project, he added, “if I messed up on the film the first day, I’d be fired just like everyone else. Or, if I was terrible, I’ll be terrible. And I have been terrible.”