Ah yes, the nepo baby debate. It’s been a frequent topic of conversation around Hollywood over the past few years. Actors like Zoë Kravitz, Maya Hawke and Dakota Johnson and so many more sons and daughters of big stars have since shared takes on the discussion. Years after Lily-Rose Depp fired back on the topic, the actress set to star in this winter’s most exciting upcoming horror movies, Nosferatu, and the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis shared an honest perspective about people wanting to see her fail.
Lily-Rose Depp has been making a name for herself in the world of acting in a big way during the last few years, between starring on the controversial HBO drama The Idol as well as booking around of indie flicks. As Depp gets ready for the world to see her biggest movie to date with the aforementioned 2024 move release, she spoke to her personal struggles from the role:
Somebody asked me the other day what was the hardest part of the role, and I said, ‘Getting over the imposter syndrome of, like, ‘Why am I here and why do these people think that I can do this?’ Getting to a place where I felt confident enough within myself to be like, ‘I can do this and I am here for a reason,’ I definitely have struggled with that. Humility is incredibly important, especially in this business. In a way, I always want to feel like I’m just starting out and like I still have so much to learn—which is how I do feel.
While the rising actress has technically been acting in movies now for a decade, since her small role in 2014’s Tusk at the age of 15, she still feels like she’s “still starting out”. Nosferatu puts her at the center of a remake of 1922 classic film of the same name (which was based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula). By all accounts, it marks the actress' first true leading role on the big screen. While speaking to Vanity Fair about the public's perception of her, she acknowledged those who'd rather she not succeed professionally:
I feel like people have been ready to see me fail, in a way, since I was a kid. That has made me only want to work harder and prove people wrong. Not in a vindictive way at all, but just in a sense of, like, fuel to my fire. I do want to prove that I’m a hard worker and I’m not here for anything else but to work hard.
There’s a perception that because Lily-Rose Depp is the daughter of one of the most famous Hollywood stars, it’s been easier for her to nab roles. However, it was the 25-year-old’s intense audition with The Witch’s Robert Eggers that brought her to Nosferatu. Apparently, the Zoom audition brought the filmmaker to tears, and Depp decided to go all out by throwing things around her space to show she “wasn’t scared to go there.” As for how she feels about people wanting to see her fail, she said:
Yeah, but it just is what it is. It’s been my life. I come from a family of artists. Both of my parents are these incredible artists and I have grown up with that. Respecting them both so much and what they do, and trying to find my own identity in this world, has been interesting when everybody’s thinking that you’re here for the wrong reasons or that you don’t deserve to be here. You either can sit there and cry about it and be like, ‘This isn’t fair!’ or you can be like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to work really, really hard and do the best that I can.’ That’s all I can do at the end of the day, is do my absolute best, and do this job for the right reasons, which is that I love what I do. I love acting. If people still want to talk shit or see me in a certain way, then that’s not my problem. I’ve had to grow into that feeling as well.
In the film, the starlet co-stars with big names like Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgard, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin. During the interview, she also recalled feeling “so out of [her] depth” alongside them, but it sounds like she rose to the occasion. Based on the Nosferatu trailers, though, she seems to be holding her own.
Ahead of the Nosferatu's release, the remake has received positive reactions, with first audiences calling it Robert Eggers’ “magnum opus” and his “best film." Not only that, but people are also giving Lily-Rose Depp props for being “haunting” and “astounding.” Perhaps this will be the project that proves to people and to Depp herself that she deserves a place in Hollywood, and not only because of her name. You can see for yourself when the film opens on Christmas Day!
