Maya Hawke on being called a nepo baby: 'I'm comfortable with not deserving it and doing it anyway'

Stranger Things star Maya Hawke is embracing being called a "nepo baby."

The actress admitted to the Times of London how "lucky" she is to follow in the footsteps of her movie star parents Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman and how she's okay with people thinking she doesn't deserve the career she has.

"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," Maya said. "And I know that my not doing it wouldn't help anyone."

In addition to Stranger Things, Maya has starred in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Do Revenge, Maestro, and Asteroid City. She's also in the upcoming Pixar film Inside Out 2 as a new character called Anxiety.

When Maya was starting out, she said she saw two paths: changing her name, getting a nose job, and going to open casting roles or embracing her nepotism.

"It's okay to be made fun of when you're in rarefied air. 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," she said.

In 2023, Maya got to work with her dad Ethan on the biographical drama Wildcat.

"If someone wants to criticize us for working together, that's totally fair. You have to let people have their opinion. You just have to try to do a good job when you're onstage," Ethan said about working with his daughter in an interview that year with Variety.

Besides acting, Maya dabbles in music and has released albums Blush and Moss.